MC Roundhouse: (Satellite)
Tom Carter posted four images with the comment:
Here's a 1949 close-up aerial photo of the Pennsylvania Railroad (ex-Grand Rapids and Indiana) roundhouse between Hall and Franklin Streets in Grand Rapids at the left with the Michigan Central Railroad roundhouse to the right. The Pennsylvania roundhouse was built by the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad deep into the 1880's, but has undergone major revisions over the years. The Grand Rapids and Indiana actually became a part of the Pennsylvania in 1918, but is often still affectionately referred to as the GR&I to this day, over a century later.The Michigan Central roundhouse to the right was built in 1923, replacing an earlier one that also dated back to the 1800's. It sat just west of Buchanan Avenue a little north of Albany Street, which used to continue west from Buchanan.The second photo is the same as the first but not cropped as closely so you can better see where we are. That's Hall Street along the bottom and the Franklin Street viaduct along the top. The big building toward the bottom left is still there just north of Hall Street with Century Avenue just to its right, and today the US-131 Freeway is just to the right of Century Avenue and runs right through where the left side of where the yard was. A little to the right of the Michigan Central roundhouse is Buchanan Avenue which parallels the C&O line coming into Grand Rapids from Detroit.I took the third photo in 1978 when the 1923 eight-stall Michigan Central roundhouse still stood. Note how it perfectly it matches the roundhouse (to the right) in the first photo. The inset map shows it after it was built in 1923 at the top left, with the footprint of the earlier smaller five-stall roundhouse at the bottom right. It's hard to imagine that we let such a historic landmark and perhaps the last remaining roundhouse in West Michigan get destroyed that recently. I'm sure glad I took that picture when I did.Let's go back now to the GR&I/Pennsylvania roundhouse at the left in the first photo. This last picture is from 1885 and shows how the roundhouse looked from when it was built to at least 1895. It's the left arc on the map at the right and stood alone to this time, with the larger section at the right on the map added somewhere between 1895 and 1912. The old section to the left (pictured here) was apparently removed by around 1913. It's this then-new larger section that's still there in the top two 1949 pictures. The next time you go north through town on the US-131 freeway, look to the right just past Hall Street and try to envision it in 1949 as well as in 1885 as you pass right through the left side of where the roundhouse originally was.Grand Rapids City Archives and Records Center PhotosThanks to Sue Bogard and Don Geske.
Tim Shanahan: One of the turntables is at Hughgart yard in Grand Rapids Mi.
James Winslow: Tim Shanahan: Turntable at GR Hughart was a castoff from Valparaiso, IN PRR. If exists because a local GR lumber company needed it to turn some cars received around because of their unloading dock arrangement, so it was moved when engine facility was moved for highway.
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I used an old map because a newer one had railroads labeled as Penn Central. Here the one coming in from the lower right was the NYC/MC and the one coming in from the lower left was the NYC/LS&MS. The railroad in the middle of the right side was the C&O/Pere Marquette.
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| 1914/14 Grand Rapids Quad @ 62,500 |
Zooming into the area of the photo, we see a version of the GR&I roundhouse and a reminder that the MC roundhouse won't be built for almost another decade.
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| 1914/14 Grand Rapids Quad @ 62,500 |
In 1967, US-131 has wiped out the Pennsy yard, but we see the MC roundhouse. I included the railyard south of Hall Street because part of that is still left.
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| 1967/69 Grand Rapids East Quad @ 24,000 |
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