Wabash
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| Richard Fiedler posted Wabash roundhouse Fort Wayne. Postcard shows excavation of some sort in the foreground. Turn of the century view. |
Page 16 of this 1920? platt maps volume shows Allen County and Page 36 shows Wayne County, but I could not find a page for Fort Wayne.
This aerial photo does indicate that this roundhouse footprint did serve the Wabash. But this roundhouse is smaller than the one in the historical photo. My theory is, that by 1951, Wabash decided that downtown parking was more valuable than roundhouse stalls and had torn down most of the roundhouse.
The building to the west of the roundhouse was built between the time of the historical photo and 1951. In fact, the excavation work that Richard highlighted was probably for this building. The buildings on the far left of this image where part of the GE campus along Broadway. I assume the building being constructed west of the roundhouse was another expansion of the GE complex. In fact, according to a satellite image, the more recent GE buildings still exist in the 21st Century. (I lived on the northeast side of Fort Wayne and never went down Broadway. I would see some of the other GE plants in town, but not the Broadway complex.)
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| Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted Wabash Roundhouse Fort Wayne Year? More info please? |
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| Dan Baker commented on Tommy's post It was located between Fairfield Ave and GE’s East Campus on Broadway. The floor of the roundhouse is still partially visible. Creager Smith Dan Baker has it I believe. The construction in the foreground may have been related to construction of the Wabash railroad elevation; if so the photo date would be circa 1912. With the direction of the photographer looking north across the future elevation. |
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| Dan Baker commented on Tommy's post Griswold’s birdseye view (ca. 1907) |
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| 1951 Aerial Image |
The building to the west of the roundhouse was built between the time of the historical photo and 1951. In fact, the excavation work that Richard highlighted was probably for this building. The buildings on the far left of this image where part of the GE campus along Broadway. I assume the building being constructed west of the roundhouse was another expansion of the GE complex. In fact, according to a satellite image, the more recent GE buildings still exist in the 21st Century. (I lived on the northeast side of Fort Wayne and never went down Broadway. I would see some of the other GE plants in town, but not the Broadway complex.)
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| John Jantz posted Taken around 1870. Believe it to be at the Wabash rail yard in Fort Wayne. The younger man is my maternal great-grandfather, Adam Joseph Bennett |
Pennsylvania
This locomotive service facility was just west of Pennsy's Piqua Yard.
This roundhouse may have been old enough to have been built by the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad. Pennsylvania assumed operational control of the PFW&C on January 1, 1918. But it stayed separate until it became part of Conrail on April 1, 1976. (I just noticed that Conrail was formed on April Fools day!) Since the Pennsy gained control of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad in 1895 and the GR&I used Pennsy's track through Fort Wayne, I assume their engines were also served by this roundhouse. The aerial image shows that the roundhouse was over 180-degrees. The yard also had a huge coaling tower.
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| EarthExplorer: Mar 27, 1951 @ 28,400, AR1PJ0000010069 |
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| Richard Miranda posted I thought this was an interesting photo which said: "The relic coal tower at Fort Wayne is soon to be out of service. A Lima-Hamilton LS 25m unit is being serviced. Sept 3, 1955, Ft. Wayne, Indiana." Pinterest Photo Tim Shanahan shared |
By Jun 7, 1973, part of the coaling tower and part of the roundhouse had been removed.
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| EarthExplorer: Jun 7, 1973 @ 9,200, AR1VDGH00010207 |
There is still a remnant of the roundhouse foundation with the service pits. (The curved track on the right is a rare addition to USA railroad infrastructure. It is the "Piqua Wye" [fwarailfan-map] and it helped connect NS's NKP mainline to its Triple Crown yard.)
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| Satellite |
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| Mark Llanuza posted Its Sept 1976 Conrail is only 7 months old . Steve Smedley and Chris Rummary and Gary Powell asked the crews to pull the classic Erie E-unit out of the Fort Wayne round house and pose it on the turntable something unheard of today railroading. This was a total thrill when they did this for us. Me being only 19 years old and Steve Smedley 18 years old at the time. Dennis DeBruler Is this the remnants of "the Fort Wayne round house" https://www.google.com/.../@41.0707124,-85.../data=!3m1!1e3 That is, a Pennsy roundhouse. [no answer] Mark Llanuza posted again [Since it was Conrail, it could have also been the NYC roundhouse. But looking at a 1951 aerial, the NYC roundhouse was already gone. (The turntable still existed.) The Pennsy roundhouse was a full 360 in 1951. But it was cut back to the type of arc we see above by 1961. The remnants in the above satellite reference do correspond to the remaining arc of the roundhouse.] |
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| CONRAIL in Indiana & Illinois posted Date unknown, here we see Penn Central F - 7 # 4360 near the former P.R.R. roundhouse at Fort Wayne, IN. Out of the John Fuller collection. Christopher Allen Howe Sweet! When I originally saw this shot I thought it looked like the old Winters Street roundhouse. |
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| Donald Brockhaus posted I believe someone asked about the Pennsylvania Railroad machine shop. I found this photo, which is supposedly circa 1930. [Notice all of the leather belts in the right background. I'm surprised that line shafts were still being used around 1930.] |
A search for PRR roundhouses this discussion needs more research, it may be listing three of them (visit)
Nickle Plate
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| 1951 Aerial Image |
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| Frank Olive posted
Nickel Plate Road - 1955 Eastern Yard, Fort Wayne
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| 1951 Aerial Image |
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| Satellite |
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| Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana posted [The comment claimed Pennsy. But other comments indicated it was the Penny Shops for Nickle Plate. ArchFW] Bill Drotar Jr. What year was this shop torn down? I know the post office sits on that site now. Anthony Ritchhart There is a sign at the post office, I think it says 1978. |
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| Richard Miranda posted Traffic World November 17, 1951: "The new Nickel Plate Terminal at Fort Wayne, Indiana, features facilities similar to the new Calumet terminal. In the picture, engine number 761 stands on 110-foot turntable in front of modern roundhouse." "The facility was built at a cost of over $2,000,000, includes engine facilities, additional yard tracks and car repair facilities." "Situated on a 50-acre site on the east side of the city where Nickel Plate previously had a 12-track yard, the new terminal was built to permit handling of both east and westbound trains in consolidated yard." Tim Shanahan shared |
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New York Central
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| 1951 Aerial Image |
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The building in the northwest corner of Clinton and 4th Street was the freight house.
(Facebooked 20151025.)
Have you consulted the Sanborn fire insurance maps? They are a fantastic resource as to what was where throughout the years. I'll see if I have any from Fort Wayne. Your third photo is where I thought the Wabash had their engine servicing facilities: next to the GE plant.
ReplyDeletehttp://wikimapia.org/32639290/Former-Wabash-Railroad-Roundhouse-foundation
ReplyDeletethe full circle roundhouse was the west wayne yard east wayne was a classification yard for the nickleplate I have read, if you go the historical areas and have a steady hand put down markers and then take the coornates and type into google maps and it will give you the location where the turntable was for the new york central yard where you said there was no decernable marking of a turntable, you right there is not but you can kind of go to the old property and look at the landscape and see about where it was if you have a good gps, I dont know how accurate mine is but I was planning on showing it, and funny you mention it the fort wayne railroad historical society is looking to put up the headwaters junction in that area I think, but it will be a few more years if all goes to plan and it has been set for one of the first priorities to be built in the river front, and even if that dont work out there is the secondary site of the old west wayne yard that is an empty park now, but this would not be optimal as we want a central location so people can get to it and its close to the rails so we can have a short line for trains to go to differant fort wayne spots, like sciance central and the zoo.
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