Towns and Nature: Boston, MA: Boston and Main (B&M) Roundhouse & Coaling Tower and MBTA Service Facility

Friday, May 6, 2022

Boston, MA: Boston and Main (B&M) Roundhouse & Coaling Tower and MBTA Service Facility

(see below for satellite information)

MBTA = Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

Tim Starr posted
I wish I knew about this roundhouse when I visited Boston in the early 1990s, but I wasn't really "into" roundhouses in my 20s! It was the largest "as-built" roundhouse in the country at 525 feet in diameter, with 50 indoor stalls, another 6 "outside" stalls, and 10 approach tracks around the massive turntable. It was so large that the Boston and Maine used it for servicing diesels after 1950, but it was finally torn down in 1995. Today it's the site of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. B&M Historical Society photo.
Bob Harbison: Not sure exactly where I would have expected the largest roundhouse to be, maybe Cheyenne or something? Boston definitely wouldn't have been high on my list of guesses.
Tim Starr: Bob Harbison Yes Cheyenne was the largest after being expanded in the 1930s.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Tim's post
And out of frame to the left and behind this location was another large roundhouse. Given that North Station was just across the Charles River I wonder if one roundhouse was for passenger service and another was for freight. There was also a couple of smaller roundhouses up by the wharf area. I presume they were for local freight engines.
1943 Boston North and 1944 Boston South Quadrangles @ 1:24,000
Tim Starr: In the early 1900s there were about 25 or 30 roundhouses in and around Boston.
Dennis DeBruler: Tim Starr 1900s makes sense. If it was like Chicago, that would be when the railroads had built their new roundhouses but had not yet torn down their old roundhouses.
Tim Starr: Dennis DeBruler Yes, Chicago has the record for most roundhouses - over 75 in 1920 if you count its suburbs.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Tim's post
Today's view, https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4...

So which of the three roundhouses was this one?

DigitalCommonwealth, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
"Strike-bound East Cambridge Yards of Boston & Maine railroad show hundreds of locomotives, coaches and coal cars idle. Yard roundhouse, at right, is filled with locomotives."