Had the privelage to ride the Virginia Railway from Fredericksburg Va into Washington D.C.
the Amtrak system and NS all shared same track, the VR has the oppurtunity to run limited
hours into and out of D.C. well anyhow the Amtrak has a turntable between Quantico and DC
still operating
HELLO
THERE IS A TURNTABLE IN THE WEST END OF THE CP RAIL YARD IN BENSENVILLE JUST EAST OF B-17 TOWER.
BOB
East Broad Top Railroad, Orbisonia PA has a beautiful Roundhouse and manual turntable installed used over 100 years ago. Last narrow gauge steam east of the Mississippi
Norfold and Southern Conway yard, Conway PA has a turntable and roundhouse still in use.
Western Maryland Scenic Railroad (Steam excursion from Cumberland to Frostburg) has a turntable at Frostburg to turn 734 for the return trip to Cumberland.
Recent trip to Northwestern Montana. There was a turntable at the Montana Rail-Link yard, Missuola, MT.
in Villa Grove,IL, there is a abandoned roundhouse and tower
Turntable: Unknown
I know of 2 turntables both within the immediate vicinity of downtown Houston. The first is on Milby Street. This is due east of downtown and is directly across the street from a Maxwell House Coffee plant. The Roundhouse is long gone although you can still see where it used to be. There is currently an engine house that appears to work on UP engines. The turntable appears to still be in use. This one is very close to the street probably within 100 ft and there is no fence around it. Trespassing is another matter altogether though!
The second turntable that I know of in Houston is due north of downtown. This one is much harder to see. It is just due north of I-10 a few blocks on Hardy St. and dead center between I-45 and Highway 59. You can see it from the Elysian street bridge that crosses over the east end of the yard. Look west from on top of the bridge. It appears to be all but abandoned. Technically it is probably located on Burnett Street. Google Earth is a wonderful thing!
If anyone knows of any other turntables in Houston, let me know. I know where the one use to be in Spring (north of Houston) but it has been gone for 80 years. Only remnants of slab from the original roundhouse remain and even then you need to know what you are looking at.
The old Galveston Roundhouse and Turntable are long gone but if you know what you are looking at you can find the old location. It was at the southwest corner of present day Harborside Drive and 37th streets. This was only 6-8 blocks away from the passenger station (due west) which makes sense. It looked like a pretty large roundhouse back in the day and from satellite pictures you can still count how many stalls it had.
There is a turntable and wood roundhouse built by Maine Central RR still in use in Rockland Me. This is at the east end of the old Rockland Branch. The roundhouse and shop area is presently used by the Maine Eastern RR. The location is on US Route 1 as you enter Rockland from the south. Your drive right by the roundhouse and turntable so you are up close to them and can get a good view. If you stop for a look, be sure to stay on 'public property' unless you get an invite in. There have been a number of serious accidents on this line this year and MERR is touchy about people trespassing on RR property.
http://www.maineeasternrailroad.com/
There was a turntable and roundhouse in Belfast ME that was used by the Belfast & Moosehead Lake RR. The turntable was manual, hand pushed. I last was there a few years ago, and since them B&MLRR has ceased operations in Belfast. The city has taken over all the facilities and plans commercial development, so probably all the RR faclilties have a short lifespan if they have not been demolished already. This year, the railroad has been reborn thanks to a preservation society. They run between Unity, ME and Burnham Junction. They have a 1913 steam locomotive built in Sweden and a number of GE 70 tonners.
http://belfastrailroad.com/
Last November we visited the Strauaburg RR in PA, they had purchased 2 turntable bridges. The plan is to install them at both ends of their RR to turn engines for the return trip. They will also turn the wood passenger cars from time to time. The track run east-west so the cars get a lot of sun exposure on one side. Turning them peridocially will even out the weathering, and reduce how often they have to repaint them.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Mike is certainly right. The turntable and roundhouse here in Conway yard are in full swing. This ex- PRR yard was once the largest classification yard in the world operating two humps continuously.
I work there second shift where most days I operate NS (ex PRR) SW-1500 #2228 still in Conrail blue. From the cab on the turntable I can see the big PRR sign on the building referred to as the "Y" (it used to be a lodging facility with a cafeteria) and watch the cars as they are pushed over the hump and roll past the back side of the roundhouse. The house has 10 stalls and is over 100 years old and has been modified and updated many times over the years.
A busy shift on the inbound at east park will see as many as 20 locomotives come off the road for service with many being relayed back out. That is about as many as anyone would want to fuel, sand, and otherwise service in one shift.
Good units go to the outbound to fill orders for power sometimes with a spin to get them flying the right direction while shopped units come down to the table to be placed on an empty spur or in the appropriate stall. Our time is spent in shoving locos in and out sometimes moving the same unit several times for different repairs in different stalls. No running is allowed in the shop. We use battery power and a spotter circuit to move inside. Outside, if it is more convenient for us we drive the units but of course if they are dead we have to grab them with the shifter.
Sometimes I operate the turntable which can be a brutal job. Nearly eight hours of continuous walking, climbing up and down on engines, setting and releasing brakes, bending over and throwing de-rails. There are times we can't even take a breather.
Once a unit is "OK" off it goes to make some more money.
Mike CT wrote: East Broad Top Railroad, Orbisonia PA has a beautiful Roundhouse and manual turntable installed used over 100 years ago. Last narrow gauge steam east of the Mississippi
now hold on there when you said "last narrow gauge steam east of the mississippi" did you mean in 3 foot gauge or in general?? Because the are a number of Narrow gauge steam engines here in Maine.
There is a roundhouse in New Buffalo,Michigan, that is now a Gold's Gym. Also there used to be a turntable there,but it got removed in the 90's. If you go in the gym there are still wrench's, support beams, etc. Roundhouse located next to railroad museum on former Pere Marquette now CSX.
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A gentleman that goes by the name mwbridgwater on another forum had posted about the Houston turntables and referenced my post in this thread. Since that site requires a paid membership I only hope he sees this message here.
In Houston the only currently standing turntable is Milby Street. It is easy to find. The Maxwell House Coffee Plant is across the street. You can easily see it from any of a number of Houston freeways. It is just SE of downtown. On Google Earth you can easily see where the roundhouse used to be. It's right next to the street (Milby).
The old SP turntable on Hardy Street came out of the ground eariler this year. That is the one that was pictured in the thread on the other site with the blue buildings behind it. You can still see the hole in the ground on Google Earth. If you know where to look you can see remants of past turntables that Houston once had. The current Amtrak Station sits directly on top of an old turntable location that came out of the ground in the 60's. The old railyard tracks are still there. I-45 runs directly over it.
The south end of Englewood Yard also had one once. Again if you look at Google Earth you can figure out where it was and remnants of the slab from the roundhouse still remain. Semi trailers park on it now.
North in Spring, their roundhouse was removed around 1920 but their location was in the middle of the current day wye. The slab is still visible. It was only 3 stalls and not actually round though. It was more like a current engine house but the tracks curved into it. There was no turntable. It has always been a wye. There were 4 tracks that came down towards the engine house off of the north leg of the wye.
South in Galveston you can also see the remnants of their old turntable and roundhouse. This was a large complex. The entire yard was removed and all that is visible is the slab that reveals how many stalls it had. Look about 8 blocks W/NW of the current railway museum.
I am trying to gain as much info on past turntables in the Houston area as I can so if anyone knows any more than I do, please let me know.
In Fort Worth, they still have at least two turntables that I know of. One is SW of downtown a few miles. If you look directly across the freeway to the east of downtown, you can still see the slab from a once large roundhouse. The other turntable in use is north of dowtown several miles. It is the south end of the Grapevine train. It is a fairly new turntable built within the past few years. There is no roundhouse.
There is still a turntable in Grapevine NW of DFW airport. It is used by the Steam train excursion up there and is the north end of the trip. The Texas State Railroad also still has a turntable located in Maydelle. You can drive right up to this one and walk across it. There is no roundhouse. This one was moved for the excursion train and came from Paris, Texas. I don't know where it once was in Paris but that shouldn't be all that hard to figure out considering it's size.
San Antonio still has at least one turntable as well. It is directly NE of downtown east of the intersection of I-37 and I-35.
I Know of 3 Roundhouses and Turntables.
Evanston Wy. Ex-UP There is a HUGE almost a full 1/2 circle roundhouse with the turntable and power building intact. It is possible to get inside, talk about impressive.
Golden Co. Colorado RR Museum has a roundhouse and working turntable. If you are there, look across the highway from the roundhouse there is an old rotary stashed in the weeds.
Carson City NV. NV State RR museum has a roundhouse and a working turntable.
Dave
Greeting,
Several of my friends and I have also wondered many of the questions that are begin asked in this forum. Prior to running across this forum, we had started an inventory of current and past roundhouse sites that show some kind of evidence in a Google, MSN Live Search, and/or Terraserver image - we use imaging systems others too. We use this inventory as a starting point for the trips (business and pleasure) we take from time to time so we know where to visit in our free time. It is not an answer to all questions on locations of roundhouses - just some. If you would like to visit our site and use it for what it maybe worth to your needs, you are welcome. This is something that we do in our free time so it does not have a lot of glitz and it is not perfect. Please read how we have organized our database and the caveats we make.
http://www.geocities.com/rgcwork/trains/inventory.html
Thanks.
Bob (the clerk)
Pasco Washington, the ex-Northern Pacific still has a working roundhouse and turntable. The roundhouse is about half the size, but it still houses equipment and switch engines. The BNSF use the yards at Pasco. Busy main lines to Spokane and Portland, plus the Stampede route to Seattle/Tacoma all converge there.
At Hinkle OR, about 45 miles south, the UP put in a turntable a few years back to handle the locomotives from Canada, so they can be turned around and return to British Columbia.
add Roundhouse to Samoa, Humboldt County, CA please. The Timber Heritage group as just leased it. http://www.timberheritage.org/samoa.pdf is more info on it. Theire is no turntable, doesn't look like there was ever was one.
Also in Eureka, Humboldt County, CA is a Turntable.
No tracks to either one.
Interbay in North Seattle still has and uses a roundhouse for BNSF.
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