Roundhouse: (Satellite)
Backshop: (Satellite)Depot: (Satellite, it is now the museums visitor center.)
(Update: it appears these Spencer Shops became obsolete when they built Spencer Yard in Linwood, NC.)
I added "Etc." to the title because they have also preserved some backshops and a sand tower. I knew about the roundhouse because they had a show of first generation diesel locomotives a few years ago that had examples from all over the country as well as their own.
I added "Etc." to the title because they have also preserved some backshops and a sand tower. I knew about the roundhouse because they had a show of first generation diesel locomotives a few years ago that had examples from all over the country as well as their own.
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| NCTM, Sep 2017 |
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| Roger Durfee posted One of the more well known preserved roundhouses is the one at Spencer, NC. Here is a view taken from a Cessna 172 during the NS Heritage gathering in July of 2012. |
N.C. Transportation Museum posted six photos with the comment:
Spencer Shops had two roundhouses constructed between 1896 and 1924. The curved design allowed the maximum use of limited space, though the ever-increasing size of steam locomotives required more room.The first 15-stall roundhouse was built in 1896 along with a 65-foot turntable. Each stall was 60 feet in length, common for locomotives of that period. This building, like others at the shops, had a steel frame, with bricks and large windows for the sides. There were several outdoor tracks for storage or locomotives awaiting their turn for maintenance.Withing 10 years of operation, it was determined the roundhouse and turntable were severely undersized, resulting in major issues for that building. An additional 90-foot turntable with outdoor tracks was constructed in 1912 in an open area near Salisbury Avenue. This second table was used to turn larger locomotives and perform some maintenance that could be done in the open. The shops continue to use this turntable into the 1950s and the transition to diesel locomotives.The original roundhouse was torn down and replaced by an all new 37-stall roundhouse and 100-foot turntable during February 1924 and opened on December 2, 1924. Each stall was 106 feet in length, with shallow pits to work under the locomotives. Certain stalls had special pits to drop wheelsets, either locomotive drive wheels or lead or trailing guide wheels.With the change from steam to diesel locomotives, the roundhouse was transformed to accommodate the different maintenance needs. The first half was kept in the original shape, but the second half had raised platforms to meet the doors on the locomotives and deepened pits below to create a walking area. Part of the rear of the roundhouse was removed as well to allow longer tracks to be constructed for the car repair shed. The building remained in this condition throughout the 1970s.The North Carolina Transportation Museum, through federal and matching grants restored the roundhouse during 1994 – 1996, replacing the back wall and creating railroad display tracks, an aviation exhibit, restoration shop and interpretive classroom spaces for the public. Today it is the largest original remaining roundhouse in North America, still helping to preserve and maintain locomotives for over 100 years.
Johnnie Linton: Also had a car shop back in the day.
Randall Hampton shared with the comment: "Didn't know about the earlier roundhouse."
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This post was my motivation.
The sand tower is in the background of this photo.
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| Randall Hampton posted Old sand tower at Spencer, NC Dennis DeBruler I presume that this was a sand drying tower and that it supplied other yards as well. https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4... |
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| NCTM, Nov 2016 |
A view along the lead to the roundhouse.
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| Brian C Greene posted, cropped Historic Spencer Shops - NC Transportation museum - Spencer NC |
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| Danny Pattrerson posted I have posted this photo before of old Spencer. I ran across the original photo today and scanned it at 600dpi. Hope this helps you zoom in and see clearer. [full resolution:] Danny Patterson http://www.rowancounty.info/OldSpencerHR.jpg Kevin Elwood So there were two turntables there? Cool! David George BTW You're catching a little flak about something most only half-way understand. Facebook reduces all images to 72dpi. DPI has absolutely nothing to do with your on screen resolution. DPI pertains strictly to printing. The standard DPI for printing is 300dpi. What you're concerned with on Facebook is the dimensions of the image. In the case of Facebook the maximum dimension of an image is limited to 2048px (roughly six inches.) Many of the images on Facebook don't make full use of the largest allowable size. Another problem people have is Facebook displays at two separate sizes. By clicking "View Full Size" one can view the largest available size. The picture as it's displayed in your feed or as part of the post is displayed as a smaller size. If you upload an image that is more than six inches you will loose some resolution. If you download a photo from Facebook and don't manually change the DPI from 72dpi to 300dpi it will print poorly. If you do change the DPI to 300dpi but attempt to print larger than six inches your print resolution will also suffer. One work around is to upload images to the Files section as a PDF. Group members will not see an image or preview on Facebook but can download and view it as a larger image. I hope this helps and thanks again for sharing. Jim Kelling shared George Bailey I believe Spencer was the halfway point between Atlanta and DC. |
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| Timothy Carroll posted Historic Soencer Shops of the Southern Railway Larry Kent Neal Jr: Taken before Linwood was finished in 1979, but after the NCTM (Spencer Shops) had started. Notice all the equipment stored on the north end? Steven L. Rivers: Is all of that still there? Randall Hampton shared Spencer, when it was still fully active. Dan Gurley: Diesel era but pre-Linwood. I wonder what year this would've been? Early to mid 70s? |
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| Dennis DeBruler replied to Steven's question Many of the tracks on the right are gone, but it looks like the buildings and water tower still stand. https://goo.gl/maps/RppzKoafZGD8PBFB9 |
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| Noah Kirchner added Spencer, North Carolina back in 2012. Roger Riblett shared |
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| Don Liotta posted Norfolk Southern Heritage units at the Spencer NC roundhouse in 2012. Dan Shearer: Thanks to Jim Wrinn. |
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| Don Liotta posted Streamliner special at Spencer, NC in 2014. My photo. |
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| Robert Daniels posted William L. Vanderburg It's late 30s early 40s as there is an automobile from that period in the upper left corner at the gas station. And unless the kiosk at the museum has been changed, it dates the photo incorrectly. On that kiosk you can clearly see the car at the gas station. |
Some of the backshops have been converted to exhibit halls.
They seem to have all forms of transportation.
Even an IH Farmall "M" tractor.
Of course, cars are an important part of transportation history in the USA.
Part of a backshop has been preserved in working order so that they can do their own preservation work.
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| NCTM, Sep 2017 |
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| NCTM, Sep 2017 |
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| NCTM, Jun 2016 |
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| NCTM, Oct 2018 |
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| NCTM, Jan 2018 |
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| Brian C Greene posted, cropped NC Transportation museum / Car Shop - former Southern Railway. Spencer NC |
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| Mike Lowry posted These are on display in a old steam maintenance roundhouse at the North Carolina transportation museum in Spencer. Worth a stop if you are in Charlotte area. |
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| Virginia Museum of Transportation posted Spend your Sunday with some place special! Randall Hampton shared |
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| Randall Hampton posted I feel fortunate to live so close to Spencer, home of the largest surviving roundhouse in America, and former maintenance facility at the midpoint of Southern's Washington to Atlanta run. The museum has saved me a ton of gas and hotel money over the years by bringing so many things to me. I took this shot from a helicopter in May of 2014. |
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| Randall Hampton posted Another angle on the 611 that day. You can't tell from this pic, but she couldn't have pulled anything at the time. Her side rods had been disconnected for the long tow, because the cylinders needed work before they moved again. Also, a good bit of boiler work would be done before another fire was lit. I'll surely never again in my life get this many E's and F's in a shot that is not a posed lineup. You have to zoom in to pick out all these, from left to right: Union Pacific E9 Southern FP-7 C&NW F7 EMD FTB unidentified - maybe Wabash E8 Lackawanna F3 A-B set Erie E8 Pan Am F7 New Haven FL-9 Wabash F7 Southern E8 Burlington E5 Pennsylvania E8 C of GA / Iowa Pac. E8 ACL E3 Additional power in the shot: Amtrak P42 N&W 611 4-8-4 NC-DOT F-59PHI Amtrak F40 I also see a rounded nose off in the distance just to the left of the water tower (I'm guessing B&O or C&O), for a total of 21 units. There were several others inside the roundhouse and elsewhere on the property. |
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| Scott McDonald commented on a post that is shared by Randall Hampton |
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| N.C. Transportation Museum posted Today [Aug 20, 2022] we were making tracks, literally, inside the Bob Julian Roundhouse. Thanks to our maintenance of way crew led by Chris Lainis for this great progress today. This track is inside our restoration shop, where rail cars and locomotives are maintained. The previous track’s wooden railroad ties had rotted out over the years, so new steel ties were installed today for longer life. This track will be surrounded in concrete soon. |
Steve Eliott posted three photos with the comment: "North Carolina Transportation,
[These photos are for this museum. The Southeastern Railway Museum is in Duluth, GA.]
William L. Vanderburg: Myself and a couple other people built that model of Spencer Shops in N Scale. It was started as a volunteer project. Eventually, the volunteers faded and me and Larry Kent Neal Jr were paid to finish it. We actually worked on it on the clock with the buildings being constructed in a spare office and then carried to the platform. It had to be finished for the Roundhouse grand opening in 1996. It’s almost 30 years old. I can tell it’s been messed with. One building isn’t in the correct place. There should be a “fire up” shed on the north end of the back shop. That structure somehow wound up at the coal loading tower.
Steve Eliott: William L. Vanderburg it was amazing display and REALLY give you a scale and feeling of just how large this facility was in the Southern Rail system. Unfortunately the day I was there in early May it was raining and I didn’t really see much but what I did was AMAZING.
THANK YOU for all the time, effort and details you put into it!
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| N.C. Transportation Museum posted As we celebrate the centennial of the Bob Julian Roundhouse we will post a photo each month in 2024 commemorating the majestic structure. This photo was taken in the mid-1940’s and shows the soot-covered Roundhouse with both steam and diesel locomotives. With 37 bays, the Roundhouse was the operational heart of the railway shop for steam locomotives needing regular servicing, oiling or minor repairs. It was a scene of constant activity 24 hours a day. Diesel locomotives began arriving at Spencer in 1941. From 1948 to 1950, Southern Railway worked to convert portions of the Roundhouse to maintain diesels. By June 1953, Southern Railway was completely dieselized, and the stalls of the Spencer Roundhouse that had not been converted to service diesel locomotives were becoming outdated. Eventually, a more modern diesel servicing facility was built at the new yard at Linwood in 1978. One hundred years after its completion, the Bob Julian Roundhouse is still the heart of the museum, servicing and restoring its locomotives and rail cars for future generations to enjoy! Daniel C Carroll Jr. shared |
(14:51 video, new window)
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| 3:48 video @ 1:32 |
Southern Depot
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| Platform View, Apr 2018 |
Brian Cazel posted two photos with the comment: ""The Queen of Steam". The Norfolk & Western #611 a Northern type J Class 4-8-4. Is pulling into the grounds of the N.C. Transportation Museum, through Barber Junction past the Witches Hat Depot. During a Fire Up The 611 Event held there along with Trains Magazine as a sponsor. This was a favorite, almost looks just right 4/16."
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