Roundhouse Inspection Pit

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

Pennsy Roundhouse

I am getting ready to assemble my 9-stall HO roundhouse with attached repair shop and need some information about the inspection pit locations. I know the repair shop will have an inspection pit but what about the stalls in the roundhouse? Does each stall get one and if so where would they be placed (front, middle, back)?

Dimensions would also be helpful. No one knew the answers on the Pennsy site.

Thanks, Doc

2

The roundhouse is used for inspections and minor repairs to locomotives so the stalls have inspection pits under each track down the center. They are 4-5 ft deep. As far as the front, middle back question I assume you are asking how long they are, I have seen picutes where they are about 3/4 the length of the track starting at the far end of the stall (away from the turntable, to the full length of the stall.) You wnat the pit under the engine and engines are placed in the stall nose first, so there is the most room around the front of the engine where all the moving parts are.

Dave H.

3

I have seen large roundhouses where some of the tracks did not have inspection pits. The engine house I work in as a volunteer was designed around specific locomotives. We have full length inspection pits which comes in handy when we work on the tender brake equipment.

dd

4

The Roundhouse I worked (diesel) one could walk around the end of the pit(stall with the doors closed )and were the full lenght up to the walkway along the back wall of the shop. So that employes could get under the units from either end of the stall…john

5

This is a question that will need some qualifying. I don’t know the percentage of stalls that would have them but in the heyday of steam I would guess 50% at most. Big engine terminals with multi stall large roundhouses probably had dedicated locations for various types of work. I think that way because there would be special tools needed for certain jobs and none of them would be light so they would or could be moved around easily. To my way of thinking you would want the engines needing that type of service to be in one location. Finish the work and move the engine to the next work station. Class repairs where an engine was basically rebuilt might be a different story but engines coming off the road with need of minor repairs would go to a track for that repair to expedite their return to service.

6

We also have portable bridges that can be placed across the inspection pits at the ends of the locomotive for easy access at floor level.

dd

7

Thanks for all the help I will be using some of the suggestions. I will have the Walther’s Machine/Loco Maintenance shop attached to the roundhouse. This will definitely have an inspection pit.

The next question is what did the PRR do when they had a loco maintenance shop attached. I looked at Crestline Roundhouse on the web and it appears that the only pits were in the maintenance shop but it is hard to tell because of the deterioration of the building.

I guess to be positive I would have to find out from an ex-PRR employee unless I find more roundhouse pictures on the web. Even that might not follow the PRR rules since Pennsy athough they claimed to be the “Standard Railroad of the World,” did drift off the mark occasionlly.

I am leaning towards making the project simpler and quicker by leaving out the pits in the roundhouse. After all I am trying to complete this layout before the Lord finds another more permenant job for me.

Thanks, Doc

8

I’m pretty sure some of the Crestline stalls had pits. There is an entire website devoted to it as there was a group that was trying to save it. They were unsuccessful and it was torn down a couple of months ago. There was also one stall that was lengthened to handle the S1. When I was in it probably 20 years ago now the thing that struck me as unusual was an over head crane that went around the entire roundhouse. Don’t remember the stalls too much.