Wendover, UT: Lost/Western Pacific Roundhouse & Water Tower and US-40

Roundhouse: (Satellite, a guess based on several Google Earth images.)

Water Tower: (Satellite)

US-40 Overview

Tim Starr posted

When researching the Wendover roundhouse five years ago, I saw that the little town was used as an air force base during World War II, but didn't quite realize its importance until a few years later when watching an episode of Mysteries of the Abandoned (one of my favorite shows). It was actually used as a training facility for crews (including the Enola Gay) that dropped the nuclear bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan. 

The community of Wendover, bordering the great Bonneville Salt Flats, was nearly passed over as a stop on the Western Pacific as it was constructing tracks west out of Salt Lake City due to the extreme lack of water. Shafter, Nevada, about 40 miles west of Wendover, had a stable water supply and better living conditions for workers. However, railroad directors calculated that the additional distance from Salt Lake City would result in about $100,000 more in overtime expenses paid to workers compared to the cost of hauling water to Wendover. This made Wendover the practical choice, if not the most desirable choice. 

In 1905 a division yard and eight-stall roundhouse made of wood and timber framing was built on the southeast side of town. The photograph above shows the roundhouse a short time after it was built, highlighting the mostly treeless, arid environment. Water had to be piped in from 23 miles away at Pilot Springs to wash out and fill up the boilers. 

Dieselization began before World War II, as soon as officials realized that the new type of motive power could operate around the clock without stopping for water. Rather than purchase 4-8-8-4 engines during the war like the Union Pacific did, the WP opted to use Electro-Motive FT units instead. This not only eliminated the water issue but avoided the need to upgrade several turntables. The roundhouse had therefore outlived its usefulness after the last steam locomotive ended its run and was demolished in 1952, replaced by a one-stall diesel house. The only traces remaining of the roundhouse are the outlines of a few concrete stall foundations in an otherwise empty field. (Utah State Historical Society photo)

The town has no use for the roundhouse, but it does have a use for the water tower.

Street View, Aug 2024

You can tell this is a wilderness area because there are only 1:250,000 scale maps in the 50s and 60s.

I see the Air Force base was already closed in 1955. And this topo map taught me that US-40 went through this town.

1955/75 Elko Quad @ 250,000

This is the worst satellite exposure that I have seen. The oldest aerial photo I could find was 1953, and it also had a bad exposure.

Satellite

So I checked out Google Earth. On the right side of this image below the center, we see a semi-circle of trees. As I flipped through the Google Earth images, that was the only consistent semi-circle.

Google Earth, Apr 2023