Why A Roundhouse?
The roundhouse is a most peculiar industrial building. Its obvious purpose was to store locomotives; it also offered a shelter where light repairs and normal servicing could be conveniently performed. In a day when engines were the pride and symbol of a great industry, the roundhouse was a place to clean and groom the iron horse—a machine resplendent in polished brass, steel, Russia iron, varnished wood, and elegant paint. Engines were cleaned not just as a matter of pride but also as part of the inspection process. Layers of grease and dirt hid defective parts. Grime mixed with oil cut into working surfaces, so spit and polish had a practical aspect as well. The cleansing ritual could not be properly done out of doors, and once done, the work had to bei protected from the weather.
Why a round building? Why not a conventional rectangular shape? Grouping the tracks in a semicircle places the engines closer together and occupies less land, but I suspect there! were other more important reasons for selecting a round! building. The trackwork for any long shedlike building would] be very complicated and involve a series of switches to get; the engines in and out of the stalls. Multiple switches are costly, maintenance-prone, and space-consuming. All this track can be eliminated by a turntable in front of the building. As a bonus, the direction of the engine can be reversed on the turntable.
Just who invented the roundhouse is uncertain. David Matthew of the Utica and Schenectady. Railroad claimed he produced the first one in 1836. The Midland Railway erected! one in 1839 that is still standing in Derby, England. Credit is j also given to James Murray, master of machinery for the| Baltimore and Ohio, who built a roundhouse in Baltimore in j about 1842. At any rate the roundhouse came to prevail as the I standard American enginehouse. Those that survive area largely relics. Most have been torn down; others are in partial use as diesel shops. A few have been preserved; they include magnificent stone enginehouses at Aurora, Illinois, and Rock- J hill Furnace, Pennsylvania. An early gothic pair at Martins-1 burg, West Virginia, awaits either a savior or the wrecker’s J ball. The one in Pittsfield has long been gone.
