I am compiling a list of turntables and/or roundhouses that presently exist, even if only as a vague outline on the ground. I am just looking at the aerial photos of the earth using Google Earth and following RR tracks to yards and zooming in where the photos have enough resolution to see if I can see anything of interest.
If you know of one (or more) please describe for me where it is. Please tell me what city and state/country and some description of WHERE in that city, such as direction from the center or from some easily recognizable landmark (dam, major road intersection, large sports complex, etc.) or, if you know the Latitude and Longitude that would be nice, [(Edit 05/23/2007 3:27 PM CDT) but you don’t need to provide them; once I find the place I can read them from the web photo/maps]. Any other info about the railroad it belonged/belongs to, or the name of the yard, or the date it was built or torn down would be nice to know, also.
The following is my list so far (my actual Excel list has one more column of “Comments” that offers some more description, but I left that off for this posting in the interest of readability):
EDIT 06/02/2007
State/Country City Lat Lon TurnTable Building
AL Birmingham 33° 31’ 45" N 86° 50’ 27" W Working No
AL Birming
I can add a few to your GA section. I believe that there are only two roundhouses left in GA. And I put all of the turntables that I know of (can think of right now). I also tried to add some detail to what you already have. Have you considered posting the KMZ file somewhere? It would make it a lot easier than trying to copy and paste the cordinates.
The C&EIL is still standing in Villa Grove, IL, atleast it was bout a month ago. TT been gone for years though. Don’t have the Lat/Lon, hope you can find them
HOW IN THE WORLD DID I MISS SOME OF THOSE!!![:O][:I][D)]
And apologies to the Savannah Roundhouse Railroad Museum for marking the use of the building as “Warehouse?”. From space it is a bit hard to tell what the actual use of a building is. I could tell it was in good repair, but the lack of tracks in the area had me a bit confused. The “Comment” in my list is “Nice, but no tracks anywhere.”
Without looking at the photos or coordinates, I suspect that the turntable shown at Stone Park, Illinois, is the one at UP’s Proviso Yard, and should more properly be identified as Melrose Park (Stone Park is a small enclave from which I moved just in time in the 1970s). It was at one time surrounded by a good-sized roundhouse. UP still uses the turntable.
RE: Villa Grove: Unfortunately, the Google Earth photos are much too low resolution to see anything worthwhile. I can tell the RR was a diagonal NE/SW line, but the image is just black/green/white squiggles. I will keep the name in my list, but I can’t add Lat & Lon until I can “see” it.
You may be right. The yard is an East/West yard and the TT is on the North side. I almost called this one “Berkeley” as that city name is closer to the yard, but the TT is on the Stone Park side. Melrose Park is farther (not much) away to the East. There is another, smaller North/South yard closer to Melrose Park on the North side between Melrose Park and Franklin Park, but I can find no TTs in that area.
There is a turntable still in use by the TPW railroad at the East peoria Yard. It is right down the hill from the big water park and sports complew in East peoria, IL. There is also one in Forest Illinios. There used to be a diamond just east of the town. The current train tracks are the TPW and the turntable is still in place but no trakcs lead to it. If I remeber correctly it was used by the old Penns. Like I said I could be wrong. If you look maybe 15 feet North of the tracks it will be in the general vacinity. By the way Hwy 24 runs parallel to the train tracks.
Another couple of places were the resolution is just too poor to see anything. In the Peoria, IL area, there is a dividing point in the photos where West Peoria is high res, but Peoria (and east) is low res. I can tell that there are probably at least 2 large railyards in East Peoria, but can’t see enough detail to state that as a fact, or see what the track structure is like or what buildings are there.
Try this: 50 23’ 16.71’’ N by 105 32’ 15.37’’ W Located in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. Still operational, roundhouse gone, turntable only. Located behind large train station in centre of town, on C.P.R. Mainline. have fun.
Also, remember that Microsoft is trying to compete with Goggle. The now have their Microsoft Live going, and the resolution is far better. Plus they give you four angles. Of course the downside is that they have only flown their aircraft over select areas, but they hope to have something like 80 percent of N. America and Europe done in the near future.
Yep–sounds like Proviso. Melrose Park virtually surrounds Stone Park. The yard has been my “home away from home” for 36-plus years, so I’m somewhat familiar with it. Confirm with the street address of 5050 W. Lake St., Melrose Park.
Portions of Proviso are within the limits of six area suburbs: Franklin Park, Northlake, Melrose Park, Bellwood, Berkeley, and Elmhurst.
Janesville, WI. The WSOR roundhouse and turntable. Try 203 S. Pearl St.
Horicon, WI. The enginehouse is called the roundhouse. Might have had a turntable in the past, not sure. Rectangular building with 3 tracks going inside.
Madison, WI. Former CNW roundhouse. Recently had a fire in the building. Used to be a caboose inside, not sure how well it survived the fire.
I recall there being a couple of turntables in Savanna, Illinois years ago. At least the Milwaukee one was in use when I was in high school, but that was 1982. Not sure their current status.
The old two-stall BCR&N roundhouse is still standing in Iowa City, although the turntable is long gone. Its obvious shape is easier to see up close, but here’s a sat link. Its the middle building standing askew. The engines entered from the northeast. Back in the 1980’s it was a Suds N Duds, but I have no idea what it might be today. Iowa City, IA, USA - Google Maps
I’ll bet there are a lot more roundhouse “footprints” out there. Seems I’m always finding them when I research abandoned lines.
Watertown, NY, NYC, 43 58’21.63"N, 75 35’50.30"W - buildings long gone. Just east of current county jail. You can still pick out the pit and most of the tracks.
Utica, NY, DL&W, 43 06’28.90"N 75 14’ 01.40W. Tracks are gone, believe the building is now a private concern. Pit may still be there, but has been filled in.
Rome, NY, NYO&W, 43 11’ 55.92"N 75 27’14.15"W. Tracks long, long gone, two or three stall roundhouse still stands, but satellite image looks like roof has collapsed.
I beleive the 2 yards you are refering to is the one one the west side is the large TZPR railroad Yard. The one in East peoria is the TPw yard where the turntable is.
Dough:
Yes, I started with a list on one of the Google forums, but it dissappeared on me, and then I lost the ability to access the forum altogether, so I gave up several weeks ago.
I tried your link and it works again. Go fig!
(I hate cornpewters! And I made my living programming them for 40 years!!! By which I have come up with the following adage: “Computers are neither smart, nor dumb… they are mean, just plain ol’ mean!”)
Anyway, I still can’t find the original list that was there but I am looking for some of the individual items that are listed in 49 threads with “Roundhouse” in a title on the “Transportation (unmoderated)” forum; I could not find any threads about Roundhouses on the “Transportation (moderated)” forum.
Dough:
The TT looks like it could work, but I “see” no tracks to it.
The only indication of tracks are what appear to be abandoned roadbeds to the north and the west.
CShaveRR:
I have heard about Proviso Yard many times but never knew just where it was. Thanks.
And yes, those are the names of all the “cities” that Giggle lists in the area.
WSOR 3801:
Janesville and Horicon are too low of resolution to see anything.
If the Madison RH is on the east side of the big lake then that is the one I have listed.
No Turntable and no tracks to it (faces away from the only track in the area).
If what you are thinking of is on the west side then the resolution is not good enough to see anything (the city is split right down the middle, high res on the east, low res on the west).
deepspire:
Savanna, IL… too low of resolution.
Iowa City… that one is really obscure since there are no RR Tracks near it. Thanks.
Tree68:
Watertown: A typo in your coordinates put me off about 15 miles east of Watertown, NY,
Yikes! Go to http://www.railpictures.net/. Do a search for turntable and then roundhouse. It comes up with a BUNCH of hits. Even if you only look at the ones in the US I already see some that aren’t on your list. I could help if you need it, as it would take quite a while to search that list.