Joliet, IL: Chicago & Alton's Roundhouses and Freight House

The turntable location on the south side: (Satellite)

Chicago & Alton had a freight house further north before the tracks were elevated.

Bill Molony posted
Chicago & Alton Railroad locomotives #42, #61 and #160 at the roundhouse in Joliet, Illinois - circa 1883.This roundhouse was on the east side of Chicago Street between Washington Street and Lafayette Street. [This location was before the tracks were elevated. Today the Rock Island route goes over the land that was occupied by this roundhouse. See the Sanborn Map below for the 1883 road configuration.] The 42 and the 61 were 4-4-0 road engines, while the 160 was an 0-4-0 switch engine that was probably built at the C&A's Bloomington Shops.

 Note the board sticking out of the end of the turntable. The term "armstrong" is normally used for control towers where big levers operate pipelines that operate the signals, derails and turnouts. But pushing this turntable around would be another appropriate application of the "armstrong" adjective.

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

This 1883 roundhouse was long gone by 1939. (Update: the long north/south building on the left side of their yard was the Joliet Warehouse and Transfer Co. building. Some of the pictures in that posting catch the GM&O freight house that is to the east of the warehouse.)

Their roundhouse at the end of the steam era was south of Joliet (see historic aerial photo below). The remains, including a turntable, are now covered by trees. A Flickr photo of the turntable. (That link is a search parameter, I don't know how to get a specific Flickr URL for that photo. I hope the search results don't change.)

1939 Aerial Map from ILHAP

Update:

Patrick McNamara commented on the third photo of Marty Bernard's share
Circa 1960, my file

Jeremy Plant caught a w/b E8A from the Joliet UD Tower with the GM&O freight house in the background. (source)

Kevin Piper posted
GM&O F3 880B rests in the South Joliet roundhouse in 10-77.

DigitalDurf posted
A warm September morning sun illuminates an old passenger train veteran at Joliet, Illinois in 1976. Power for the 5 day a week "Plug", it's sitting out the weekend in the old GM&O roundhouse. The whole place reeked of days gone by, a place where, after a point in time, the clock stood still. The quiet stillness was enhanced by the shut down engine, and no one around. If a clock was ticking, I would have heard it...

Jerry Jackson posted five photos with the comment:

South Joliet. The old Chicago and Alton Yard. CC&P power with old MILW units and what looks like a black IC unit too. These engine facilities were cool, too bad I didn't take more shots. The foundation of the roundhouse was behind me, but nothing was left of it. This is around 1988-89.

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Jerry commented on a post
A closer satellite image shows the Joliet Electric Motors water tower and the archaeological view of that turntable. The ash pit and steam era facilities will show in the next image.

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John Smith posted a Sanborn Map of the location of the original roundhouse when the tracks were still at grade level.

John Smith commented on Bill's posting
And LoC, 1898

Bill Molony posted
Rock Island class P33 4-6-2 Pacific-type #942, about to depart from Joliet Union Station with a two-car suburban train - undated.
[Note the "Alton Freight House" sign to the left of the locomotive.]