Eckman (not so) roundhouse

[NW Mailing List]

Jim,

Looking back through my email I can't see where anyone addressed your question about the roundhouse at Eckman.

The 1906 drawing that you cited shows a drop pit 62' 2" from the inner circle of the roundhouse, indicating a stall length of, say, 80', too short for the Mallet locos that the N&W began getting in 1910, particularly the Z1's in 1912, which were 100' 5" over couplers.  But, that same drawing shows that if the outer circle of the roundhouse were extended, as was done at Bluefield and other points to accommodate the longer Mallets, the roundhouse would overhang the creek.  So apparently the decision was made to extend just the four stalls at each end of the roundhouse because the N&W Annual Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1912, states, "A roundhouse with eight stalls, a machine shop 60 feet by 240 feet, and an office and storehouse 32 feet by 100 feet, were constructed at Eckman, W. Va."

Gordon Hamilton
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: NW Mailing List 
  Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 6:59 PM
  Subject: Eckman (not so) roundhouse


  The few photos I've seen of the facilities at Eckman show a turntable with two, four-stall portions of a roundhouse connected by a shop building.  I just saw the thumbnail of drawing NW-A07863 from the archieves dated 1905 showing a "full" semicircular roundhouse that appears to come within about twenty feet of the creek at its closest point.  Does anyone have any information as to whether Eckman started out with a half a roundhouse, and if so what caused the downsizing change?
  Thanks,
  Jim Cochran
  dcochran116 at roadrunner.com



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