Remnants of a roundhouse and turntable, West Jordan Utah.

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

Roaming around on bing maps, I found what looks like the remnants of a roundhouse and turntable. The location is next to Old Homestead Lane just North of 9000 South in West Jordan Utah along a branchline. The address (near as I can tell) is across the right of way from Copper Glen Ct on Old Homestead Lane. Does anyone know who owned it, when it was torn down, or any other details?

2

I fired up Google Earth and selected the Google Earth Community in the Layers panel. I know that the Google Earth forum has a discussion thread about all the remaining turntables and roundhouses left in the world. Apparently no one has identified this location. In fact, selecting all the layers didn’t turn up anything, not even in the Panoramio.

Here are the exact coordinates for anyone who’s interested…

40°35’34.10"N 111°59’39.19"W

Steve S

3

I’ll have to dig out my Utah Ghost Rails book when I get home. But I’m banking that it had to do with the line serving Kennecott Copper Mine, which was originally Bingham Mine, directly west of there.

4

Considering the loction is directly adjacent to the former location of the wye at Welby where the former D&RGW Bingham and Garfield branches split, and old maps show a yard and roundhouse on the Garfield branch just north of the wye, I’d say that has to be a D&RGW relic.