Bruceton, TN: NC&StL Railyard, Lost Roundhouse and Depot

Roundhouse: (Satellite)

Depot: (Satellite)

NC&StL = Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis (The Dixie Line)

Hometown Tuesday posted two photos with the comment:

🔵 WEST TENNESSEE HISTORY

THE RAILROAD TOWN THAT FOUGHT TO SURVIVE

Most people know Bruceton as a quiet West Tennessee town. What many don’t realize is that the town exists because of the railroad.

Originally known as Hollow Rock Junction, the community sat where two important railroad lines crossed. In the early 1920s, the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway (NC&StL) selected the site for a major railroad terminal, locomotive shops, and one of the largest reinforced-concrete roundhouses in the Southeast. Almost overnight, workers and their families moved to the area, businesses opened, and Bruceton began to thrive.

In 1928, the town was renamed Bruceton in honor of W. P. Bruce, a railroad executive whose leadership helped expand the railroad’s operations in the region.

For decades, steam locomotives rolled into the Bruceton Roundhouse for repairs and maintenance. The railroad employed hundreds of workers, local businesses flourished, and trains kept the town alive day and night.

Then everything changed.

As diesel locomotives replaced steam engines and railroad operations became more centralized, many of the jobs that had built Bruceton disappeared. Businesses closed, families moved away, and the once-busy railroad hub entered a new chapter. The historic roundhouse stood as a reminder of those glory days until it was demolished in 2019.

Yet Bruceton endured.

While the railroad no longer drives the local economy the way it once did, the town remains a proud West Tennessee community whose story reflects the resilience of many small railroad towns across America.

Outcome:�Bruceton’s history is a reminder that communities can survive even when the industry that built them changes. Its railroad heritage remains one of the most important chapters in Carroll County’s history.

Evidence / Sources:

 ● NC&StL Preservation Society

 ● Tennessee Magazine

 ● Tennessee State Library & Archives

 ● Carroll County historical records

 ● Historic photographs of the Bruceton Roundhouse

Question:�Do you remember the Bruceton Roundhouse, or did someone in your family work for the railroad? Share your memories in the comments.

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Street View, Sep 2012

Google Earth, Oct 2015

Google Earth, Apr 2019

They did a good job of removing the foundation and pits. Or did they just cover it up with dirt?

Satellite

1936 Vale and 1950 Bruceton Quads @ 24,000

Some of the railyard is still used.

Satellite

On Google Maps, the building on the left is labeled Old Railroad Depot. I didn't believe that. But I can believe the building on the right was the depot. But, given its location and architecture, even that is hard to believe.

Street View, Mar 2025

Keddie, CA: Lost/Western Maryland Railyard, Backshop and Roundhouse

(Satellite)

When I think of Keddie, I think of the Keddie Wye. But it makes sense that the wye was named after a nearby town.

Rick Shilling posted
1946 Western Pacific Railroad Roundhouse, Turntable, Shops and Yard, Keddie, California. Eastman's original collection, UC Davis University Collection.
[Behind the roundhouse is a small backshop. Note the tank cars behind the backshop. I wonder if they had to haul water here to supply the steam engines.]

Terry B. Carlson commented on Rick's post
Keddie Roundhouse now.

What this map marks as Keddie is labeled as Cabin 26 on Goolge Maps. 

1950/52 Greenville Quad @ 62,500

Actually, Cabin 26 is in the northern part of Keddie. The town is spread out along the river. The railyard is now the light tan area near the center of this excerpt.

Satellite

The roundhouse was on the east side of the railyard.

Nov 27, 1946 @ 37,400; AR1CQ0000030181

Note that the wye had its third leg in a tunnel.

Digitally Zoomed

Commerce (Los Angeles), CA: UP East Los Angeles (UPLA) and BNSF/Santa Fe Hobart Railyards

UP Yard: (Satellite)

UP Roundhouse: (Satellite, long gone.)

UP Backshops: (Satellite, long gone.)

BNSF Yard: (Satellite)

Today, both yards are intermodal yards. Although the UP yard does have an engine servicing facility about where the backshops used to be.

Railroad Repair Shops and Roundhouses 1850-1950 posted
Layout of the Los Angeles & Salt Lake subsidiary of the Union Pacific at Los Angeles as they looked in 1927. (Railway Mechanical Engineer)

1926/1939 Alhambra Quad @ 24,000

An addition was added to the erecting shop building.

1966/68 Los Angeles @ 24,000

Jul 30, 1952 @ 23,600; AR1VP0000180011

Digitally Zoomed
Dennis DeBruler commented on the post
Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/5jDMthm7Vgr1zuX97.
Research: https://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/2026/06/commerce-los-angeles-ca-up-east-los.html

"East Los Angeles Yard (UPLA): Situated in the City of Commerce along East Washington Blvd, this massive off-dock yard handles the bulk of domestic and international containerized cargo coming from the ports." [Google AI results]

The AI did a good job of combining information from PortsOfLosAngeles and wheree. UP's webpage is also of interest.

Clarksville, TN: Lost/L&N Freight House & Railyard and "The Cage" Bridge

Freight House: (Satellite)

Railyard: (Satellite)

The Cage: (Satellite)

Reed Reding posted
An aerial view of the L & N freight depot at Clarksville, Tennessee. Part of the Cumberland River Drawbridge and the L & N's small Clarksville yard are visible. The line crossing over the L & N is the Tennessee Central's Western Division. You can also make out the unique spur track that the L & N used to serve customers near downtown.

The Tennessee Central Bridge still stands at the end of the Upland Trail.

Ralph M, Sep 2025

Timothy T, Nov 2023

This is a view of the Cumberland River Drawbridge from The Cage. Note that the swing span is open.

정리중, Jun 2025

Fairburn, GA: CSX Intermodal Yard

(Satellite)

Facebook Reel
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It is the second largest intermodal yard on CSX's network.

This railyard is modern and purpose built for intermodal traffic. It was a greenfield in 1982. The railroad was the Atlanta & West Point.

1982/83 Fairburn Quad @ 24,000

Some of the yard was built by 1999.

1999/2002 Fairburn Quad @ 24,000

Since then, quite a few industries have built along US-29.

Satellite

Bartonville, IL: IAIS/Rock Island Collier and TZPR/P&PU Iowa Junction Railyards

Rock Island: (Satellite)

Peoria & Pekin Union: (Satellite)

Noah Haggerty posted
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific GP7R #4511 has just arrived at Collier Yard in Bartonville, Illinois in August 1979. The Rock Island operated these parts over the Peoria Terminal Company, an old 10-mile electric railway between Peoria and Pekin, but by these days had basically become a railroad on paper. John & Roger Kujawa Photo, Thomas Dyrek Collection.

Roger Kujawa: The Rock “3:55PM Belt Job” left the Rock Island Yard in Peoria and traveled the Belt trackage along the river behind Hiram Walker and arrived in Collier Yard. It met the 3:55 PM “CPC outside job which departed the Pekin Corn Products Company plant. The trains exchanged cars and sometimes locos at Collier Yard. These two trains regularly worked 12 hours with all the switching they had to do in addition to the travel time. Originally the trains rain all the way to Pekin on Peoria Terminal track until the Pekin bridge was damaged. They then got trackage rights on the P&PU.

The Rock Island Collier Yard was just south of the crossing with the C&NW, and the P&PU yard was just south of Iowa Junction.

1960/61 Pekin Quad @ 24,000

Both yards are still used.

Given all of the steel industry in the area, including Liberty Steel, I was expecting Collier Yard to be full of gondolas. Instead, it is full of tank cars.

Satellite

But the Iowa Junction Yard is full of gondola cars.

Satellite

Houston, TX: BNSF/Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Milby Yard

Turntable: (Satellite, saving the location of another turntable because the yard is now abandoned.)

Street View, Nov 2022

Erin Bristow posted 11 images with the comment: "BNSF has abandoned their yard/shop on Milby street in downtown Houston. Stopped by today, turntable is flooded and sadly the homeless have already moved in.  Construction crews are prepping for demolition soon.  Its the only turntable in the Houston area.  Wish it could be saved by the future developer and kept as an historical landmark.  🫤"

Roger Eyrich shared

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This yard probably initially serviced locomotives for passenger trains to Union Station and then locomotives for freight trains that were handed off to the Houston Belt & Terminal Railroad.

1955/57 Settegast and Park Place Quads @ 24,000

In case a developer wipes this yard clean, this is what it looked like.

Satellite

I knew that CB&Q had a route from Colorado to Texas, but I thought that route terminated in Fort Worth, TX. So how did BNSF get to Houston? The answer appears to be the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe, which went from Fort Worth to Galveston. That railroad was serious about the "Gulf" part of their name, the railroad went west and south of Houston to get to Galveston. It did have a branch going North from Alvin to access Houston.

1956/63 Houston Quad @ 250,000

Kansas City, KS: UP/MoPac Armstrong, UP Matoon Creek and UP/RI Armourdale Yards

UP Armstrong: (Satellite)

UP Matoon Creek: (Satellite)

RI Armourdale: (Satellite, the southern part of this yard was the Rock Island.)

Caoimhín Kevin Bunker posted three images with the comment: "Here's just one of those perfectly posed roundhouse photographs:  Union Pacific's Kansas Division at Armstrong, KS., c.1870s.  We see four beautiful Baldwin 4-4-0s and four handsome Rogers 4-4-0s, the eldest and smallest of which (making the most stack exhaust) had been downgraded to a switch engine and fitted with pilot footboards.  The engine crews also posing were justifiably proud.  Southern Methodist University Libraries - digital collections (online)"

Guillermo Bas: Not all the engines shown were 4-4-0s, KP 80 (third from the left) was an 0-6-0 switcher, Baldwin 2326 of 1870. She survived until 1916 as Shop Goat Cheyenne.

Rolando Maggi shared

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Dana T. Parker posted
The Union Pacific roundhouse at Armstrong, Kansas (ca 1870s), showing off its handsome engines...
Tom Hamilton: I assume that this is Armstrong yard in Kansas City, KS.
Dana T. Parker: Yes. Armstrong used to be a separate community, but was absorbed by Kansas City.
Rolando Maggi shared

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John Ott commented on Caoimhín's post
The Kansas Pacific started life as the "Union Pacific Railway Eastern Division" in hopes of siphoning off some of the congressional grant money and land offered to builders of a transcontinental RR. Here's one of the Rogers locomotives fresh from the factory, according to the Rogers order specs.
And he commented on Dana's post
Wrong "Union Pacific." Kansas Pacific Rwy started out corporate life as the Union Pacific Rwy. Eastern Division in 1863, but had no relation to the Union Pacific RR starting in Omaha. Started laying track in Kansas City that same year, changed name to Kansas Pacific in 1869, and reached Denver in 1870. The photo of the roundhouse in Armstrong, KS, was taken in 1873. Here's one of their early engines.

Andre Ming commented on Dana's post
I've always really liked this picture. I have this smaller non-cropped version that shows the original photograph I.D. plate.

1957 Shawnee and Kansas City Quads @ 24,000

This is how I learned about the Armourdale Yard.

Fans of Rock Island Lines posted

Terry Hinds: Flood of 1951. The Missouri River caused the Kaw river to back up. Heavy rains in the region caused bad flooding.