S.P. Locomotive Support

Engine House

Indio Engine House

1. The Mojave and Indio engine houses basically had the same design but there were differences. The west wall of the Indio engine house had only wood louvers. The lower portion of the east wall of the Indio engine house was open.
   

Reference

1. Photos that show the Indio engine house in steam days can be found on pgs.50-51 of Dill's "Southern Pacific's Sunset Route" and pg. 115 of Signor's "Beaumont Hill." By the way, the bottom photo on pg. 115 of the latter book was actually taken at Mojave, not Indio.
   

2. John Sweetser
   

Drawings

1. There is a plan supposedly in the Shasta Division Archives labeled "MWD 1411 Not dated Engine and boiler house at Indio."
   

Mojave Engine House

1. The Mojave and Indio engine houses basically had the same design but there were differences. The east wall of the Mojave engine house had both glass windows and wood louvers. Also, the lower portion of the east wall of the Mojave engine house was brick for about 5 1/2 feet high.
   

2. 
   

3. Be aware that Mojave wasn't built exactly as the plans in "Southern Pacific Lines Common Standard Plans, Vol. 2" indicate. Mojave never had a row of glass windows starting about 19 feet above the ground; wood louvers were used instead for that row.
   

4. 
   

5. A 1960s photo showing the corresponding west wall of Mojave can be found on pg. 98 of Dill's "Southern Pacific's San Joaquin Valley Line" (the machine shop wall originally had glass windows for its full length, not partly filled in with wood like later).
   

6. John Sweetser
   

Reference

1. The bottom photo in Dill's "Southern Pacific's Sunset Route" pg. 115, was actually taken at Mojave, not Indio.
   

2. 
   

Roundhouse

1. There were several different types of roundhouses. Dunsmuir, San Jose. There were three or four boilermakers. They mostly did light repairs on locomotives.
   

1. An important point to make is that by 1919, according to the roundhouse data tables on pg. 30-31 of "Southern Pacific Lines Common Standard Plans, Vol. 5," there were only three wooden roundhouses on the Pacific lines that had stall lengths close to or at 72 feet - those at Port Costa, Hornbrook and Colton. In other words, no similar roundhouses existed in Oregon, at least not in 1919 and after.
   

2. John Sweetser
   

3. 
   

4. Though shorter than the Port Costa, Hornbrook and Colton roundhouses, the majority of the wooden roundhouses the SP erected in the 1870s had similar architectural features to them - mainly, the four tall, narrow windows each three panes wide on the end walls and one similar window at the back of each stall. Siding was either board and batten or rustic (horizontal boards that interlocked).
   

5. John Sweetser
   

Details

Smokestacks

1. Several pictures of the Taylor house and the old Colton house show a pyramid shaped triangular cross-section structure where smoke jacks would normally be mounted. These were on a number of roundhouses across the system, instead of individual smoke jacks on each stall.
   

1. The smoke outlets did vary from place to place (possibly era to era), so that might be left to the modeler, and the presence or absence of doors also varied, doubtless with climate.
   

2. Tony Thompson
   

Oil Delivery to the Roundhouse

1. SP got C oil to the large oil storage tanks at the roundhouse from tank cars, or a pipe line from an oil refinery. There were cases with pipeline delivery (Taylor) and with tank car delivery (Dunsmuir, San Luis Obispo). No doubt there are lots of other examples of each.
   

2. Tony Thompson
   

3. 
   

4. Look at Trainline #85:                                 http://www.sphtsstore.org/servlet/the-65/Trainline-Issue-085--dsh-/Detail
   

5. 
   

6. The article titled "The Great Transformation: Coal to Oil on the Southern Pacific" includes information on how SP distributed oil through the system.
   

7. Arved
   

8. 
   

9. In an old "Railroad Magazines" from the early 1940's there is an article about Espee oil burners and how they are supplied. Of interest was a photo showing cars on the "sump track" having heating coils lowered into the domes to help liquify the oil. It was emptied out the bottom into a trough between the rails and then pumped into storage tanks.
   

10. Dave Yingst
    

11. 
    

12. That was also covered in the SP Bulletin during WW II. Such photos are in my book about SP tank cars, Vol. 5 of SP Freight Cars. Usually the bottom outlet of the car was connected to an unloading hose, but the sump method was used in a few places.
    

13. Tony Thompson
    

14. 
    

15. The Calif. State RR Museum Library has plans for fuel oil plants at Gerber plus many locations on the Coast Division. The plans are mostly just one sheet each so they would not be detailed construction plans. In addition, there are plans identified as:
    

16. 
    

17.     1913 Trough for fuel oil unloading
    

18.     1919 Auxiliary oil heating and fuel oil plant
    

19.     1908 Fuel oil unloader
    

20. John Sweetser
    

Roof Vents

1. Some roundhouses had triangular-shaped vents that were used on numerous SP roundhouses. Photos show that the triangular-shaped vents on the Gerber engine house were just like the ones on the Bakersfield, Brooklyn, Colton, Sacramento, Taylor and Tucson roundhouses (and probably numerous other ones on the SP). It's highly unlikely any of these vents were made from old engine house doors.
   

2. 
   

3. It's evident in numerous photos that the front panels of the vents were comprised of a light-colored corrugated material. The sides of the vents appear to be of the same light-colored material. Because of the angles most photos were shot at, it's been difficult to determine if the sides were also corrugated but I was able to find two photographs showing corrugated side panels:
   

4. 
   

5.     - Bottom photo on pg. 113 of "Chasing the SP in California, 1953-1956" showing such a vent on the metal-clad extension on    
   

6.       the back of the Alhambra Ave. roundhouse in Los Angeles.
   

7.     - 1949 photo of the Gerber engine house on pg. 72 of the 1981 History West book, "Shasta Route" (a magnifying glass helps a    
   

8.        lot for this photo).
   

9.     - Trainline #21
   

10. John Sweetser
    

Paint

Roundhouses and shop buildings

1. Woodwork is "mineral," not Light Brown.
   

1. Photos indicate that buildings that were painted mineral red with black trim usually had white window sashes, not black.
   

1. There are a lot more color photos in publications that show shop buildings painted mineral red with black trim than of shop buildings painted black with mineral red trim. In contrast, shop buildings with a body color of mineral red were widely found on the SP, including the locations of Colton, Mojave, Bakersfield, Fresno, Tracy, West Oakland, San Jose, Port Costa, Roseburg and Eugene (Roseburg had a roundhouse with corrugated steel walls painted mineral red). The preceding discussion pertains to roundhouses and shop buildings that had walls of wood or corrugated steel.
   

2. John Sweetser
   

Roof

1. Typical green roof of SP Buildings.
   

Alhambra Ave. Roundhouse

1. The Alhambra Ave. roundhouse had the same basic design as the roundhouses at San Jose, Tracy and Bakersfield. There were some differences such as the top fronts of the some of the stalls and the tops of the end walls (for photo showing the latter, see pg.126 of Dill's "Southern Pacific's San Joaquin Valley Line." 
   

2. 
   

3. A photo on pg. 80 of "The Southern Pacific in L.A." shows the back of the roundhouse. The back wall is higher than the back walls on the similar San Jose, Tracy and Bakersfield roundhouses. Also, the tops of the two end walls not only are different from the other roundhouses mentioned, but are higher also (a high end wall can be seen in the photo on the bottom of pg. 11 of Dill's "Southern Pacific's Sunset Route").
   

4. 
   

5. Note the panels on the roof of the roundhouse above the back of each stall in the photo on pg. 80. The panels can also be seen in the aerial photo on pg. 69 of "The Southern Pacific in L.A.."
   

6. 
   

7. The stalls in the Alhambra Ave. roundhouse were 78 feet long.
   

8. John Sweetser
   

1. A portion of the blacksmith shop can be seen on the right side of the top photo on pg. 77 of "The Southern Pacific in Los Angeles." A photo showing the machine shop before the erecting shop was added to it in 1923 is on the bottom of that page.
   

References

1. Useful photos of the roundhouse are on pg. 126 of The Coast Line book.
   

2. Photographs of San Jose, Tracy and Bakersfield roundhouses (for example, two Tracy photos on p. 131 of Signor's Western Division book) would be helpful in modeling Alhambra Ave.
   

3. .
   

4. The following B&W movies from the early 1930's, each contain a number of live-action exterior and interior scenes at/around the Alhambra Shops (both are available in VHS and DVD formats).
   

5. 
   

6. (1) "The Phantom Express"
   

7. (2) "The Steel Highway"
   

8. Eric Berman
   

Bakersfield Roundhouse

1. Its east end was open. It was actually opened sometime between 1937 and 1944 when a second lead was added through what had been stall 8, joining an existing lead through stall 9. This left the roundhouse in two non-connected sections. The second lead was added due to wartime demands (for a 1937 aerial view of the Bakersfield roundhouse showing its original fully-enclosed configuration with just one lead running through the back wall, see pg. 24 of SP Trainline No. 20 or pg. 16 of SP Trainline No. 102).
   

2. 
   

3. The seven stalls that were cut off with construction of the second lead weren't later "victims of the 1952 Tehachapi earthquake" as was claimed in the article about Bakersfield in Trainline 102 since photos taken up to at least 1954 show the stalls intact. The roundhouse structure for those stalls was eventually removed, however, leaving just their tracks in place (this probably happened between 1954 and 1956). The seven stall tracks lasted until late 1956 or early 1957, replaced by leads going to a new diesel servicing facility.
   

4. John Sweetser
   

Bayshore Roundhouse

1. Bayshore Roundhouse was brick. The 2 easternmost bays of the roundhouse were an enclosed shop- for painting. The door of bay 2 slides over the front of bay 1. Bay 1 had the original doors attached, with a window cut into each one. In the mid '90s, only the sliding door was intact. There might have been a man-door cut into the right hand door with a small window.
   

2. J.R. Boye
   

                                                http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Southern_Pacific_Railroad_Bayshore_Roundhouse.jpg

                                                http://www.railroadforums.com/photos/data/505/Close-up_of_SP_Bayshore_Roundhouse_Sized.jpg

Brooklyn Roundhouse  (Portland, OR)

                                                http://www.davehonan.com/2006/05/brooklyn-roundhouse-portland-or-05-21-06-l.jpg

Colton Roundhouse

1. This was a 5-stall version of the Colton roundhouse. The stall length was 72 feet. At Colton, the windows on the north and south end walls were originally like those of Port Costa and Hornbrook. Photos indicate that these roundhouses had the basic design featuring four tall, narrow windows each three panes wide on the roundhouse end walls and one similar window at the back of each of the stalls. At some point, the Colton roundhouse was reduced in size from six to five stalls, the windows on the north wall were shortened as seen in photos in the article about the Colton roundhouse in the Summer 2003 SP Trainline.
   

2. John Sweetser
   

3. 
   

4. The roundhouse had triangular-shaped vents that were used on numerous SP roundhouses. Good views of similar vents on the can be found in the article about that roundhouse in the Summer 2003 SP Trainline (issue No. 76). A photo of the Colton roundhouse in Southern Pacific's Sunset Route, pg. 34 gives an idea of the length of these vents compared to their height.
   

5. John Sweetser
   

References

                                                                            SP Trainline, Summer 2003 (issue No. 76)

                                                                            Southern Pacific's Sunset Route

Drawings

1. One or more of the following Colton station plans in the collection of the Calif. State RR Museum Library will show the footprint dimensions of the Colton roundhouse. Copies can be ordered (it is often advisable to get as many different station plans for a location as possible. Sometimes one station plan might inexplicably leave out information that another station plan includes):
   

1. Southern Pacific. 60005 Valuation Section: V 3 / S 14 c. Mar. 2, 1955 Station map, Colton : lands, tracks and structures, from station 4159 to station 4214. Scale 1:100. Blue line on white paper. Filing location:Box 50 + D ID 21001
   

2. 
   

3. Southern Pacific. Not numbered May 1932 / Feb. 1943. Station plan of Colton. Scale 1:100. Ink on linen; black line on white paper. Filing location:Box 669 (XX) + D ID 20784
   

4. 
   

5. Southern Pacific. Not numbered (sheet 1) Apr. 1966 / May 22, 1972. Station plan of Colton. Scale 1:100. Blue line on white paper. Filing location:Box 50 + D ID 57324
   

6. 
   

7. Southern Pacific. Not numbered (sheet 2) Mar. 1966 / May 22, 1972. Station plan of Colton. Scale 1:100. Blue line on white paper. Filing location:Box 50 + D ID 20984
   

Reference

1. See the three-page article about the Colton roundhouse in the Summer 2003 SP Trainline. A photo showing the original configuration of the north windows can be found on the bottom of pg. 30 of "Beaumont Hill".
   

2. John Sweetser
   

Hornbrook Roundhouse

1. The Hornbrook roundhouse was completed in late 1887 or early 1888 (the Nov. 25, 1887 Ashland Tidings reported that erection of a roundhouse at Hornbrook was to commence shortly). The stall length of the Hornbrook roundhouse was 72'. Photos indicate that these roundhouses had the basic design featuring four tall, narrow windows each three panes wide on the roundhouse end walls and one similar window at the back of each of the stalls.
   

2. John Sweetser
   

Reference

1. A photo that shows the Hornbrook roundhouse can be found on pg. 21 of Signor's "Rails in the Shadow of Mt. Shasta;" a partial view can be found on pg. 76 of "Southern Pacific's Shasta Division".
   

Indio Roundhouse

1. Two short ladders that went from the machine shop roof to the main roof. Similar ladders that were on the roof of the Mojave engine house.
   

Roof Vents

1. The roof vents of the Indio roundhouse appear to be similar to one seen in the right side of the photo on pg. 80 of Signor's Donner Pass book showing the roof of roundhouse #1 at Roseville. If so, each vent at Indio would have had two straight sides and two half-round ends. The main difference between the Indio vents and the Roseville vent is that the latter is taller.
   

1. The Indio vents also appear to be similar to ones that were on the Bakersfield roundhouse. Page 14 of the Winter 2010 SP Trainline has a photo that shows how the Bakersfield vents were fastened to the roundhouse roof. Each vent base appears to have had small, triangular-shaped metal braces sloping about 45 degrees, three braces on each of the flat sides and one brace at each of the half-round ends.
   

2. 
   

3. The next photo over from that one shows how the caps over the vents were attached. Indio appears a bit different though with the supports for the caps apparently flaring out.
   

4. 
   

5. The roof vents on the Mojave engine house were 42 inches long, 26 inches wide and 4 feet high. The ones on the Indio engine house were probably similar. There were no small triangular braces at the base of the vents like Bakersfield had but rather collars at the bases. The collars were but no more than 6 inches high.
   

6. John Sweetser
   

Reference

1. Photos in John R. Signor's book "Beaumont Hill: Southern Pacific's Southern California Gateway"
   

Modeling SP Roundhouse (Indio)

1. Clyde King Scratchbuild
   

Port Costa Roundhouse

1. There was a roundhouse at Port Costa as least as early as 1887 (mentioned in the Aug. 6, 1887 Stockton Daily Independent). The roundhouse data in the Common Standard Plans book indicates that the Port Costa and Colton roundhouses were built in 1901 and 1904 respectively. The stall length of the Port Costa roundhouse was 71' 7". Photos indicate that these roundhouses had the basic design featuring four tall, narrow windows each three panes wide on the roundhouse end walls and one similar window at the back of each of the stalls. The Port Costa roundhouse had a clerestory while the others didn't, a later addition. A photo on pg. 23 of "Southern Pacific's Colorful Shasta Route" plus a number of  other photos clearly show that there were four windows.
   

2. John Sweetser
   

Modeling SP Roundhouse (Port Costa)

Banta Modelworks

1. Banta Port Costa Roundhouse Kit is a standard SP design (i.e. similar structures built at other locations). The Banta Modelworks' model of the Port Costa roundhouse on its website has just three windows on the right end wall.
   

2. John Sweetser
   

3. 
   

Roseville Roundhouse

1. Roseville had TWO roundhouses and they didn't have similar designs.
   

Roseville Roundhouse #1

1. It was built in 1906 or 1907.
   

Roseville Roundhouse #2

1. The one was built in 1914 had a stall length of 121 feet, nine stalls and accommodated cab-aheads. It had an extension on the back. The extension can be seen above the cab-ahead's tender in the middle photo on pg. 36 of Dill's "Southern Pacific's Colorful Shasta Route" and on the far left of the top photo on pg. 45 of his "Southern Pacific's Historic Overland Route" book. Both photos show the end wall in the southwest quadrant of the roundhouse. Note in the photo on pg. 45 of the Overland Route book that the front of the extension is higher than the roof line at the back of the regular part of the roundhouse. If one looks carefully at the aerial photo of the two Roseville roundhouses on pg. 143 of Church's "Cab-Foward," this ridge can be seen on the roof of roundhouse No. 2.
   

2. John Sweetser
   

1. In the aerial photo on pg. 143 of "Cab-Foward," the back of nine stalls of  roundhouse No. 2 at Roseville apparently had the triangular-shaped vents that were used on numerous SP roundhouses, including Bakersfield and Taylor Yard. A photo showing such a vent on the Bakersfield roundhouse can be found about three-quarters way through Don Ball, Jr's. book, "Rails". The photo with the vent is a closer view than usually seen).
   

2. John Sweetser
   

1. Regarding the clerestory on the roundhouse roof, the arrangement of such in the northeast quadrant of the roundhouse was rather unusual. See bottom photo on pg. 44 of "Southern Pacific's Historic Overland Route" and the aerial photo in "Cab-Foward."
   

2. (when I mention the "southwest quadrant" and the "northeast quadrant" of the roundhouse, for orientation, refer to the map of Roseville yard on pgs. 74-75 of Signor's Donner Pass book).
   

3. John Sweetser
   

Reference

1. Roundhouse data table:                                Southern Pacific Lines Common Standard Plans, Vol. 5, pgs. 30-31
   

Drawings

1. Here are pertinent plans at the Calif. State RR Museum Library:
   

2. 
   

3. Southern Pacific. MWD 31 / 1 Jun. 1906 / Jul. 22, 1907. Roseville: 85 foot standard roundhouse, ground and roof plan and details. 24 x 36 White line on blue paper; blue line on white paper (4 copies) Fragile / torn. Filing location:+ D ID 10016
   

4. 
   

5. Southern Pacific. MWD 31 / 2 Jul. 1906 Roseville: 85 foot standard roundhouse, part elevation and part framing of end wall, section and details of windows. 24 x 36 White line on blue paper (2 copies) Fragile / Torn. Filing location:+ D ID 10017
   

6. 
   

7. Southern Pacific. MWD 31 / 3 Jul. 1906 / Jul. 22, 1907. Roseville: 85-foot standard roundhouse, plan, elevation and framing of rear wall of one stall and elevation and section of firewall; elevation and section through front door. 24 x 36 White line on blue paper; blue line on white paper. Filing
   

8. location:+ D ID 10018
   

9. 
   

10. Southern Pacific. MWD 31 / 4 Not dated / Jul. 22, 1907. Roseville: 85-foot standard roundhouse, ground plan and foundation details. 24 x 36 White line on blue paper (4 copies) Fragile / Torn. Filing location:+ D ID 10019
    

11. 
    

12. Southern Pacific. Not numbered Sep. 18, 1906 Roseville: brick roundhouse, partial foundation plan. 20 x 33 White line on blue paper Fragile / torn. ID 10014
    

13. 
    

14. Southern Pacific. Not numbered Jan. 13, 1914 Roseville: second roundhouse, sketch showing method of framing at backwall of existing 85-foot roundhouse; [2 copies plus one of unidentified beam structure]. 13 x 17 White line on blue paper. Filing location:Filed with SP MWD 31 ID 10012
    

15. 
    

16. Southern Pacific. Sac Z 140 U Aug. 1914 Roseville: proposed wall, second roundhouse. 22 x 30 White line on blue paper Fragile / torn. Filing location:Filed with SP MWD 31 + D ID 10015
    

17. 
    

18. Southern Pacific. Sacramento Division [not numbered] / 10001 A Dec. 1935 Roseville: replace wood floor with concrete in roundhouse No. 2. 9 x 13 White line on blue paper. Filing location:Box 73 ID 28804
    

San Jose Roundhouse (Lenzen)

1. The interior framing of the San Jose roundhouse was wood.
   

2. 
   

3. There are numerous photographs on the 'net of the similar San Jose roundhouse. One of the better photos that shows an end wall is at:                                               http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=181957&nseq=7
   

                                                         http://www.calcoastrails.com/cgi/photo_show.php?id=1152

                                                         http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/pictures%5C66438%5CSan%20Jose%20June1988-0003.jpg

Paint

Interior Paint

1. Some think SP’s San Jose roundhouse was painted green on the inside. There is no discernible green paint on the walls in the 1982 photo of the interior of the San Jose roundhouse found on pg. 50 of the August 1982 Railroad Model Craftsman. The walls look more like the bricks have been left unpainted. If the walls were in fact green, they would have been heavily weathered in the RMC photo. The portion of the walls under the windows in the RMC photo has been painted white and there is a black stripe at the top of the white band. This was a common painting practice for brick SP roundhouses. The white band on the interior of roundhouses was maybe 4' 8" to maybe 5' 6" wide - it all depends on where the bottom of the windows were. For some roundhouses, such as Bakersfield, both the inside and the outside of the buildings were painted this way. Several interior photos differ from each other. You will need specific info for a particular roundhouse.
   

Reference

1. A photo showing the back wall of the San Jose roundhouse can be found on pg. 70 of the Feb./March 1997 issue of Finescale Railroader. For a photocopy of the page, check with the Calif. State RR Museum Library of the NMRA's Kalmbach Memorial Library.
   

Drawings

1. Plans of the San Jose roundhouse have been made by the Calif. Trolley & Railroad Corporation, the group that dismantled that roundhouse in hopes of rebuilding it someday for a railroad display. They have a website.
   

Modeling SP Roundhouse (Bayshore, San Jose, ...)

Korber

1. SP roundhouses do not look anything like the O scale Korber.
   

2. 
   

SLO Roundhouse

1. Roundhouse, turntable and other facilities completed in 1894. The roundhouse was included on air navigation maps in the early years of aviation.
   

2. 
   

3. The brick for the roundhouse came from San Jose. A wooden end wall was on the left. The San Luis Obispo roundhouse had three windows on the other brick end wall and one window at the back of each stall. These arched window tops were on the back wall. However, it appears that the front of the stalls of the SLO roundhouse had taller openings than Fresno. SLO had a clerestory. It had a metal SP medallion on top center of wall. SLO did not have doors. To accommodate larger power such as GSs, the brickwork at the front of five stalls at SLO was knocked open.
   

4. 
   

5. The stalls were numbered 1 through 10. The light smaller power engines were positioned on the right, larger on the left.  (In this instance, a 2-10-2 is in stall 10.) Stall 11 & 12 was used for the machine shop. Often a stall or two had machine-shop equipment if there was no local shop (true at SLO). The roundhouse was to get more stalls. At SLO, about half the tracks had the long pits, and a few short pits.
   

6. 
   

7. The roundhouse also had garden tracks. 2-10-2 were positioned on the garden tracks. The locker room building by roundhouse was in the back left.
   

1. The roundhouse, turntable and coal arrangements were 4 to 5 feet lower than the rest of the yard. Cars would pitch down quite a steep grade to reach the turntable and coaling outfit. 
   

2. 
   

3. The roundhouse was dismantled by Bert Metal Company in 1959.
   

SLO Roundhouse Foreman’s Office

1. The Roundhouse foreman’s office and crew caller’s office was a squarish building right north of the turntable. It was in no records, no AFE, no blueprints. It was like a lot of things on the railroad, you go out and liberate some materials, do a little work, first thing you know you have a building. Kermit Morgan was the roundhouse foreman in the 50’s.
   

2. Mac Gaddis
   

SLO Locker Room

1. There was a locker room there, just north of the roundhouse, where the roundhouse foreman’s office was.
   

2. 
   

Santa Barbara Roundhouse

1927

1. The Santa Barbara roundhouse was built as a replacement for an earlier one destroyed by the June 29, 1925 earthquake. Completed in 1927, it serviced SP past the end of steam in 1956 to about 1960 or so.
   

2. Bruce Morden
   

1948

1. During the 1948 date, most of the businesses on 1930 Sanborn maps were all getting rail traffic. The engine facility including the roundhouse was in active service and the yard's 8 or 9 tracks were in use. The Santa Barbara Roundhouse turntable in the latter years turned TOFC flats on it.
   

    Jim Baker

1960

1. The turntable was removed in 1960 or 1961.
   

2. Bruce Morden
   

1972

1. The 1972 aerial photo image shows the roundhouse lead was still there (with the turntable gone Scroll L and R through adjacent images traces can be seen of former shippers. http://www.californiacoastline.org/cgibin/image.cgi?image=7232040&mode=big&lastmode=sequential&flags=0&year=1972
   

2. 
   

3. They had filled in the pit and ran a single track into the building for a while). Interestingly the structure seems to have had more facade detail then.
   

1979

1. The roundhouse was at Cabrillo and Calle Puerto Vallarta. The roundhouse was replaced by Fess Parker's hotel (Red Lion or Double Tree, depending on date). The round portico is on the roundhouse site. See the 1979 aerial photo showing the roundhouse and an SP diesel on a track behind and parallel to the main.
   

http://www.californiacoastline.org/cgibin/image.cgi?image=7945025&mode=big&lastmode=timecompare&flags=0&year=1979

1982

1. The roundhouse building was demolished in September 1982.
   

2. Bruce Morden
   

2010

1. Compare that to this September 2010 photo of the same location <http://www.californiacoastline.org/cgibin/timecompare.cgi?image=201000731&latdeg=34.410358&longdeg=119.675218&flags=0&year=current&hidden=0&oneimage=1979/7945025-current/201000731-
   

2. 
   

3. The turntable was used as a lumber yard for at least 10 years. You can see some piles of lumber in the 1979 photo above but clearly no turntable.
   

4. Bruce Morden
   

5. 
   

Taylor Yard Roundhouse

1. There was a 7-stall version of the Taylor Yard Roundhouse, based on plans and B&W photos. It appears to be of poured concrete construction.
   

2. Bob Poole
   

1. Taylor Yard apparently had the triangular-shaped vents that were used on numerous SP roundhouses Two photos showing such vents on the Taylor Yard roundhouse can be found on pg. 124 of Dill's "Southern Pacific's San Joaquin Valley Line."
   

2. John Sweetser
   

Reference

Drawing

1. See:                                                                    Common Standard Plans Volume 5.
   

Paint

1. The exterior of the walls were unpainted, just the natural concrete color.
   

2. See photos on pg. 124 of Dill's "Southern Pacific's San Joaquin Line."
   

3. 
   

4. Notice in the photos how much dirtier the wall on the right was in steam days.
   

5. John Sweetser
   

Interior Paint

1. Interior walls were probably unpainted also but no doubt heavily coated with soot during the steam era.
   

2. 
   

3. Interior posts were painted white to 5 or 6 feet above the ground, at least in some photos.
   

4. John Sweetser
   

5. 
   

Roundhouse Boiler House

1. The boiler house was to supply steam all over the roundhouse area. There almost certainly was a boiler house, needed to heat the oil. Even helper stations had boiler houses, such as seen at Saugus in the following photo (the boiler house may have also served as a pump house for the water facilities at Saugus):
   

2.                                                                     http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/ap1924a.htm
   

3.                                                                     http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/ap1924.htm
   

4. John Sweetser
   

Paint

1. The normal color for corrugated iron or wooden buildings used in conjunction with engine servicing was mineral red (not the same shade as used on SP freight cars as some peoples here would have you believe). Corrugated iron or wood shingle roofs on such buildings would have been painted green.
   

2. John Sweetser
   

Reference

1. The Shasta Division Archives supposedly has the following plan according to the Calif. State RR Museum Library (on the SP, a boiler house and a power house are the same thing):
   

2. 
   

3. Southern Pacific. MWD 165 Not dated Power house, Roseville. Filing location:Information about this drawing is from a SP drawing index (Architectural Department, Southern Pacific Company, MWD) in the collection of SP Shasta Division Archives, Dunsmuir). CSRM does not have a copy of this drawing. ID 22363. Contact people for the Shasta Div. Archives would be John Signor or Bruce Petty (Petty can be contacted thru his Los Angeles River Railroads website).
   

4. John Sweetser
   

5. 
   

6. The SP Common Standards Plan book, vol. 2, has MWD 8407 drawings and picture. Along with a 15 HP oil engine and supplying steam to the roundhouse, it had a large Fuel Oil steam pump.
   

7. Bruce Petty
   

Modeling Roundhouse Boiler House

AL&W Lines

1. AL&W Lines has an excellent HO scale kit based on these plans. This is a laser cut kit with both wood and styrene components. The walls are corrugated with scribe lines marking the individual panels.
   

2. Scroll to the very bottom of the pictures at:     alwlines.com
   

3. Larry Castle
   

4. 
   

SLO Boiler House

1. The SLO facility had a round house power station. The boiler was a on the side of the roundhouse.
   

Drawings

1. The Calif. State RR Museum Library has a 1918 San Luis Obispo plan titled "Enlarge boiler house" and the Shasta Division Archives in Dunsmuir has two San Luis Obispo plans, MWD 1532 and MWD 1779, that are titled "Boiler house"
   

2. (View via the Calif. State RR Museum Library's website).
   

3. John Sweetser
   

4. 
   

5. Contact person for the Shasta Division Archives is Bruce Petty, who can be reached via his Los Angeles River Railroads website.
   

Surf Boiler House

1. The map of Surf on pg. 129 of the Coast Line book shows an "oil pump house" separate from the power house/boiler house.
   

Paint

1. The boiler house at Surf was apparently painted Colonial Yellow but in yards, the normal color for corrugated iron or wooden buildings used in conjunction with engine servicing was mineral red.
   

2. John Sweetser
   

Turntables

Locations of Turntables

1. 
   

2. Location                                Year    Length    Notes
   

3. Roseburg                        100’
   

4. Ashland                        100’
   

5. Siskiyou                        100’
   

6. Tracy                  1942       110’    3-point
   

7. Dunsmuir                           1939       126’    replacement, 3-point
   

8. 
   

9. Yuma                                                  100’
   

10. El Paso                  1939        126’    3-point
    

11. Tucson                  1946        126’    3-point
    

12. 
    

13. Roseville Roundhouse #1    1943        100’
    

14. Roseville Roundhouse #21928        120’    3-point, deck plate girder table
    

15. Mission Bay                                         100’
    

16. Bayshore                                              110’    had garden tracks to accommodate Cab-Forwards (*see MR 10/95, pg. 26)
    

17. Oakland                   1926         70’    1 stall track went right through roundhouse and out back wall used for long locos
    

18. Santa Barbara                                                      removed in 1960 or 1961
    

19. San Luis Obispo1923         105’    replaced with steel turntable bridge, removed 1988, (*see MM 3/93, pg. 31)
    

20. Taylor Yard, L.A.                (*see MR 10/95, pg. 26)
    

21. Alhambra, L.A.                126’    replacement, 3-point
    

22. Hearne Junction                                                  still at work as of September 1996
    

23. Colton                                 1905          80‘         steel deck
    

24. 
    

Pony Truss Type Turntables

1. They were a Southern Pacific Common Standard. The SP turntables were at San Luis Obispo, Klamath Falls, Siskiyou summit, Ashland OR and one of the two at Bay shore was a pony truss. 
   

Reference for Pony Truss Turntables

1. 100 foot Pony Truss turntable                               Mainline Modeler March 1993, page 31 History + Plans  
   

2. 
   

3. Southern Pacific Lines Common Standard Plans Volume 1 -
   

4. 100 foot Pony Truss turntable - page 38 truss detail,
   

5. 100 foot Pony Truss turntable - page 39 floor beams, stringer and wheel detail
   

6. 100 foot Pony Truss turntable - page 40 center casting detail,
   

7. 100 foot Pony Truss turntable - page 41 turntable pit detail.
   

8. 
   

Lamps on Turntables

1. In a number of steam ear shots of both the San Luis Obispo and Bay Shore turntables show what looks like switch stand lamps or even caboose markers on the ends of the turntable truss work.
   

2.                                                                         (See Signor and Thompson's Coast Line Pictorial pgs: 28, 162, 163 & 164).
   

Power Cables to Turntables

1. Power was supplied to a turntable directly via overhead wires to the “power arch”. Power wires to the power arch appear to have a similar arrangement for most turntables. Maybe 10 feet beyond the center of the arch, the three wires (which presumably are the power wires), are either bundled or connected into one wire or cable. There are photos that indicate the existence of stabilizing cables to the top of the arch on the other side of  the power arch that are opposite the above mentioned three wires.
   

2. Richard Brennan
   

3. 
   

Alhambra Ave. Turntable

1. The roundhouse had a 126-foot turntable of the same design as the existing turntable at Dunsmuir.
   

Bayshore Turntable

1. The turntable pit show a wooden walkway around the perimeter only where tracks were located. A circular emblem was on the side of the turntable shed, one of SP's safety slogans.
   

Paint

1. The turntable was painted silver and it became dark from decades of dirt and grime. The turntable control booth was painted white, but later on it was painted either a SP orange, or a red color.
   

Reference

1. Color photos of the entire Bayshore Roundhouse area in 1976 exist, You can find Pete Hall’s collection of about 40 photos on Richard Percy's website.
   

2. 
   

Colton Turntable

1. The CSRM library has the following detail plans for the 80-foot turntable:
   

1. Southern Pacific. MW 34002 / 2 Apr. 1905 Common standard 80 foot steel deck turntable: details of transverse girder and wheel strut: turntable 509, Colton. Blue line on white paper. ID 53997
   

2. 
   

3. Southern Pacific. MW 34003 / 3 Apr. 1905 Common standard 80 foot steel deck turntable: detail of center bearing, turntable 509, Colton. Blue line on white paper. ID 54000
   

Reference

1. See the three-page article about the Colton roundhouse & turntable in the Summer 2003 SP Trainline.
   

2. John Sweetser
   

Houston Turntable

Reference

1. Photos were taken in the early to mid-90's.
   

2.                                                                     http://www.flickr.com//photos/mop3115/sets/72157631837576684/show/
   

3.                                                                     http://www.flickr.com/photos/mop3115/sets/72157631837576684/detail/
   

4. Randy Keller
   

Roseville Turntable

1. At Roseville, power cables come to the turntable from a power pole at the edge. A photo on the bottom of pg. 44 of Dill's "Southern Pacific's Historic Overland Route," shows three wires to the power arch of the Roseville turntable that most likely came from the wooden utility pole seen on the right.
   

2. 
   

3. At Roseville, note the turnbuckle-like device on this wire. This turnbuckle-like device is in addition to the two seen in the photo on pg. 109 of "Shasta Route").
   

4. John Sweetser
   

5. 
   

6. The best photo of this is the Fred Stindt photo of an SD45 on the turntable on pg. 109 of the History West book "Shasta Route."
   

Taylor Turntable

1. Another helpful photo is the one of the Taylor roundhouse turntable on pg. 92 of "Those Daylight 4-8-4's." The Taylor turntable was 120 feet in length, just like at Roseville, and the
   

2. 
   

3. Unlike Roseville, the Taylor roundhouse photo shows the entire pole that the three wires run from.
   

Reference

1.     Turntable SLO  & Sander                Trainline                                 (T-22/10)
   

2.     Turntable - 100ft                         NMRA Bulletin          Aug 1970
   

3.     Turntable - Gallows                Railroad Model Craftsman        Nov 1958
   

4. 
   

5. 
   

6.