Economics in real estate and usefulness was the downfall of roundhouses. Steam locos were high maintenance animals that spent much of their life being worked on instead of making money for their owners. Diesels can go many more miles before needing service and turn around time in servicing is key to the railroads. More modern facilities for diesel servicing was needed to keep them out on the road. It is faster and more economical to service a consist of diesels instead of breaking them down and parking them one to a stall. If there were several locos needing the same maintenance then keeping them in line and just going down the line was faster than moving men and machinery to each loco. The N&W pioneered what they called Lubritoriums instead of round houses toward the end of steam. They could service a locomotive and have it back on the road in minutes with no need for a round house. In freezing temperatures steamers would need to be housed or kept steaming. Diesels need no shelter to keep from freezing. If a loco is on dead line than the cooling system is drained while waiting its turn in the shop.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Just as rough numbers, the steam engine spends about 40% of its time under repair, getting lubrication, coaling, watering, sanding and other maintenance. The diesel spends about 2% of its time doing the same maintenance. That cuts the needed repair facilities, time and personnel by a factor of 20 (again roughtly). Here in the Twin Cities we had 25 roundhouses and now we have only 2. That is what killed off the roundhouse. In addition, as mentioned above you can pull a consist into a pass-through engine house and service all of them at the same time.
Most roundhouses had no (or a limited) heating system as the locomotives kept them warm. Our roundhouse had a few wall radiators but would never keep warm with just diesels. We had to add overhead natural gas radiant heaters (we call them hockey rink heaters here) to our roundhouse to keep it almost comfortable.
Roundhouses also have limited access at the inner end of each track. Plus, the roundhouses were sized for longer and longer locomotives. The replacement GP's and SD's are shorter and don't need those long stalls for storage.
In the case of the Twin Cities, the BN built a new classification yard in the northern suburbs and left the small inner city yards unnecessary.
Not knowing the layout of Sou's Salisbury layout but it now has a turntable and a run through shed type for major repairs.
Most steam-era turntables were only able to hold two diesels, like an A-B set of F units. Early diesels were often used in A-B-B-A sets, so by using a diesel enginehouse you could keep them together.
Also, steam engines worked well with roundhouses because most of the work needing to be done would be on the engine, and often on the front part of the engine (like the cylinders, siderods etc.) so by putting the engine in the stall pilot-first you had a lot of room in the front to work with, since the roundhouse stalls were essentially pie-slice shaped.
Plus diesel shops often had platforms since most of the work was done from the walkways of the engine up, with steam it was lower down and in fact often steam shop stalls had areas where workers could go under the engine to check on it.
We should also remember that roundhouses were dirty and dimly lit, especially at night. Working conditions were grim and only really condusive to realitive crude repairs on a fairly simple machine. Diesels require much cleaner environments as they have many small precision parts and appliances and a well lit workspace makes for better productivity all around. Grime, soot, cinders and oily floors are the essence of a roundhouse. Diesels need more civilized surroundings.
some roundhouses still house diesels the big ex-GN one at interbay/balmer yard still has about half its stalls in use for locomotive repair, and the old one in guadalajara, jalisco, was torn down about 10 years ago and replaced by a new, bigger one complete with new german turnable. simpson timber at shelton WA still uses its compact little 6-stall roundhouse & turntable. the reason for all 3 apparently is that there's no room to build a wye or loop anywhere nearby; every so often diesel units need to be turned around. -big duke
Remember, too, that turntables are just another piece of machinery that can break. If the turntable isn't working, all of the locomotives in the roundhouse are out-of-service until it's back up again.
A locomotive in the pit has the same effect.
A simple switch can be repaired/replaced in a matter of hours (or less), and odds are there aren't as many locomotives stranded by it's failure.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Sawtooth500Very interesting article in the latest issue about roundhouses - so what the article didn't answer is if roundhouses were so useful for steam engines, why not keep them around to service modern diesels? What is their disadvantage for modern diesels?
The roundhouse was a good design for steam locomotive maintenance - which mostly occurs at the front end (smokebox, cylinders, rodding.) The smaller clearance at the rear of the tender isn't an issue, since tenders seldom required maintenance more significant than oiling the journal boxes.
Diesels (and juice motors) need good access for their full lengths, since the items that require maintenance are spread throughout the length of the locomotive.
Another factor was that the FT came with drawbar connections that resulted in a really LONG locomotive - one that wouldn't fit on any existing turntable, but could be turned easily on a wye. If it couldn't fit the turntable, it couldn't get into the roundhouse.
Still another factor was that EMD provided plans for a standard rectangular shop building specifically designed for maintenance of their locomotives.
Bottom line - the roundhouse was a poor fit for diesel maintenance.
Chuck
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.