Hi everyone!
Once again it is time to move the Diner! The suggested theme for this month was roundhouses. I’m sure there are plenty of pics and stories of roundhouses, but to keep things interesting, let’s expand the offering to include locomotive shops and servicing facilities.
Jim,
Thank you for moving the Diner!
Cheers!!
Dave
Nice to have the Diner moved with such finesse and flawlessness! Thank you Jim!
So we’re in the roundhouse? I’ll just sit in the corner, um, when I can find it [:-^]
Here’s the old remains of the first roundhouse I called my ‘childhood home’ for quite a few years. This is the New York Central Roundhouse and turntable in their major Collinwood Yard on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio:
Collinwood_roundhouse by Edmund, on Flickr
Well, this is the way I remember it, anyway. It had been torn down a few years prior and I don’t have any recollection of it standing.
In better days:
Collinwood_roundhouse_crop (2016_08_17 08_08_12 UTC) by Edmund, on Flickr
I used to stand on that bridge with my dad and observe all the activities. Even getting invited to ride along with a switcher crew every now and then [:)]
Cheers, Ed
Gidday Chloe, I’ll stump up for the beverages to commemorate “International Labour Day.”
Thanks for the move, Jim.
As far as I know the New Zealand Railways only had the two roundhouses, one at Invercargill, and the other at Elmer Lane, Greymouth, and I have no recollection of either!
Did come across this, though, celebrating the “Romance of Steam.” Note the “Armstrong” turntable.
J 1212 at Elmer Lane, Greymouth by Michael Kemp, on Flickr
Thoughts and Best Wishes to All that need them. Kia Kaha.
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
Good Morning Diners. Flo, coffee please.
Going to be a looong week at work. Corporate audit this week and they will be digging heavily into a bunch of stuff I am reponsible for (among other things). Stressful. The HR manager has already set up an unwinding session for a few of us key players in this audit at a local brewery for the end of the week. It will be needed.
Got most of the way done with the stairs I’m redoing in the house. I still have to install the landing and fix some of the wall where the knotty pine was cut around steps that originally stuck out past the wall. That will take some work, but with a bit of care and some fancy trim work, it will turn out just fine. Here’s the project as it stood yesterday evening.
Stairs 1 by Michael, on Flickr
Stairs 2 by Michael, on Flickr
Otis the dog appears unimpressed with the amount of work I’ve put into them. Oh well. Can’t win them all! [(-D]
Cheers guys!
Mike, the stairs look great.
-Kevin
Here’s the Philadelphia Roundhouse:
I don’t have any roundhouses my me, Wisconsin has a few round barns!
Nice work on the stairs Mike. Looking good!
I had to search for that Philadelphia Roundhouse, from what I found, there are efferts underway to save it, from what, I don’t know. I suppose some big developers have a grand idea about something else that should be there.
Horray horray! 1st of May…you know the rest. [swg]
Later,
Mike.
Stairway to heaven, or the layout. Same thing.[(-D]
Good afternoon everyone. It’s a little early, but I’m ready to start happy hour.
Not a good day. I had to cut the grass for the first time this spring. I honestly hate cutting grass almost as much as I would hate paying someone else to cut it.
My cold just won’t quit. Coughing and hacking all day and parts of the night. I had a meeting last night, and several others there said they have the same thing. The only good thing is if I understand viruses, I won’t get this exact same strain again. Of course, I’m running out of years to catch these things anyway.
I grew up in a town that had Union Pacific shops with a roundhouse. It was right off the highway east of town, and when you drove that highway, you passed right by that large curved building.
My Little League baseball coach was a UP shop worker. He would show up for our afternoon practices in his overalls that at one time were blue, but were actually black from all the grease and grime. He was a nice old guy and a good, encouraging coach.
The roundhouse was taken down when I was a kid, and the UP yards there are not nearly as big as they used to be. Right now, the yards are a big connection point for Union Pacific and the Nebraska Central Railroad, which took over quite a few UP tracks to small towns.
Not a good picture of the roundhouse, but I can’t really find many photos of it. I wish I had taken some when I was a kid.
Happy Birthday, Amtrak!
Fifty two years and I’ve witnessed all of them for better or worse.
An Amtrak turntable:
PRR_turntable_GG1 by Edmund, on Flickr
GG1s in a roundhouse? It happened in Wilmington[:-^] A trademark of the PRR was to put the operator’s cab in the middle of the bridge. I wonder if a hostler working alone had to make a few attempts before aligning the rails? I see two fellows standing on the right end of the bridge.
Here’s close to the same view today. Note the two rectangular buildings still standing:
Wilmington Turntable by Edmund, on Flickr
39° F (the high!) here in NE Ohio. Nice day to plant flowers?
Cheers, Ed
At the home of US railroading, Baltimore, the B&O roundhouse wasn’t built to modern code. In 2003 a big snowstorm brought down the roof of some vintage railroad stock. The roof was rebuilt, I’m not sure the restored all the damage stock.
Ulrich sent me this video of the latest addition to Miniature Wonderland in Hamburg, Germany. Unfortunately there are no subtitles but the creative technology is very interesting:
Dave
Here is the John Street roundhouse in Toronto, Ontario. It was restored in 1997 and now hosts a railway museum, a furniture store, a theater and a brewery:
Cheers!!
Dave
Gordon Lightfoot passed away this evening in a Toronto hospital at 7:30 p.m.[:(]
I went to the ReCon wargaming convention over the weekend to sell off my late friend’s collection for charity.
-All Photographs by Kevin Parson
As always at these things, some truly stunning modelling skill was on display.
And, as usual, I saw a model painted so well that I figured I should just put all my brushes into a blender, liquify them, and flush them down the toilet.
Why do I even try?
We sold enough of the collection to make a $1,419.00 donation to Avow Hospice of Collier County. We sold only about 20% of what we brought. We will need to go back to HurriCon in September.
Our table was between two great dealers and we had a very enjoyable time talking with them.
I really am glad I was sandwiched in the middle of The Bad Goblin and The Happy Troll.
Liz from The Bad Goblin was a wonderful personality. She and my wife had an enjoyable time together.
And… there were even a few trains.
-Kevin
Good Morning Diners. Janie, coffee and wheat toast please.
Day 1 of the audit went well. Hoping that continues. The auditor I have looking over my stuff, while currently living in Texas, is originally from Michigan so we have a lot to talk about. He and I even graduated from the same small university 3 years apart. Small world sometimes.
I hope it eases soon for you. My wife’s has been going for 3 weeks.
That looks great! I love to see buildings repurposed like that. I wonder how much sanding they had to do on the underside of the roof and all the supporting timbers to get them to look so nice and bright.
I’m sure you would have liked to sell more than that, but it still sounds like you had a pretty good haul.
Here is all that is left of the roundhouse in Ludington. I’ve seen one photo of it standing before, but can’t locate it this morning. Will keep looking.
My story about my house guest got lost in the Forbidden 403 zone.
She talked non-stop and talked over us when we had a response or started a new conversation. She tried to put a buttered bagel in the toaster. When my wife wouldn’t let her, she licked the butter off and tried again.
I found this site. It links to google maps, so there aren’t really good up close photos https://www.steamlocomotive.com/roundhouse/
Here is an pic at Scranton Steamtown.
It is not a jpeg so you have to click on the link.
Good morning, everyone. Bacon and eggs please.
I’m going to sit all day and take medicine. Tired of this.
Mike, the stairs look great. I hope the audit continues to go well.
Ed, I don’t know about Ohio, but my wife planted flowers last week and had to cover them – we got down to 26°F one night. I think they’re safe from now on.
Dave, I’ll second Mike’s comment. I wonder how they got all that wood to look so good after the years of smoke, grease, and grime that must have covered on the roundhouse ceiling.
Kevin, it sounds like you did well at the sale. That’s a great idea, and it has to be a comfort to the widow that you are spending so much time and effort in memory of your friend.
Brent, too bad about Lightfoot’s passing. While I’m not a music fan, I do know some of his songs.
In Nebraska, there are two surviving roundhouses with turntables (that I know of). This one is in Chadron in the northwestern corner of the state, and it is still used by Nebraska Northwestern Railroad.
I believe the building was covered with the metal siding, but the original brick is still inside. From what I’ve read, it’s one of very few roundhouses and turntables that are still used in the western part of the U.S.
This photo was taken years ago. I believe the building has been cleaned up since this photo and is now used by the railroad:
Jay Anderson Photo
Have a great day, everyone.
Now I’m curious. What a guest! Maybe you can fill us in on what was lost in the 403 information!
