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.

Little Rock, AR: Union Station and MoPac/SIMS Railyards

Depot: (Satellite)

Classification Railyard: (Satellite)

Backshop Railyard: (Satellite, it still has a transfer table.)

Abandoned Coach Railyard: (Satellite)

Street View, Jun 2015

RRAdventrues posted four photos with the comment: "Union Station— in Little Rock, AR."

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The Amtrak passengers have to walk a rather long way aways to get to the platform.

Street View, Aug 2019

The back shop with a transfer table on the east end.

Satellite

SIMS (St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern) had two through routes this this metro area. By they 1954, MoPac had bought SIMS. MoPac and SSW (Cotton Belt) had branches that terminated here. I presume that MoPac and SSW shared this station with SIMS. Rock Island also had a through route, but they had their own Rock Island Depot. What remains of all of these routes is now owned by UP.

1954 North Little Rock, Mc Almont, Sweet Home and Little Rock Quads @ 24,000

Pittsburgh, PA: Pennsy Roundhouses destroyed during riot by striking workers in July 1877.

Roundhouses: (Satellite)

These roundhouses and the railyard shown below in a topo map supported the Pittsburgh Depot.

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted
Burnt out Pennsylvania Roundhouse at Liberty Avenue and the 28th Street Bridge in Pittsburgh during the Railroad Strike and Riots of July 21-22, 1877. In July, after refusing to negotiate with striking workers in Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania Railroad brought in militia from Philadelphia to end the walkout. When the Philadelphia militia fired into a crowd killing 20, enraged Pittsburghers attacked the troops and burned the rail yards. By the time the rioting ended, some 40 people had died, one hundred locomotives and 1,000 rail cars had been destroyed and 39 railroad buildings were burnt to the ground.
(Photo from https://www.facebook.com/OddPittsburgh/) 
[This was the one just west of 28th Street.]

John Gombita commented on the above post

John Gombita commented on the above post
The previous map is from 1872, This map is from 1882. Many properties and railroad structures were not rebuilt.

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted

Destroyed locomotives and railroad carsat the burnt out Pennsylvania Roundhouse at Liberty Avenue and the 28th Street Bridge in Pittsburgh during the Railroad Strike and Riots of July 21-22, 1877. In July, after refusing to negotiate with striking workers in Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania Railroad brought in militia from Philadelphia to end the walkout. When the Philadelphia militia fired into a crowd killing 20, enraged Pittsburghers attacked the troops and burned the rail yards. By the time the rioting ended, some 40 people had died, one hundred locomotives and 1,000 rail cars had been destroyed and 39 railroad buildings were burnt to the ground. 

(Photo from https://www.facebook.com/OddPittsburgh/)

James Louis: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Railroad-Strike-of-1877

[This is the one just east of 26th Street because we can see the other one in the right background.]

The roundhouses were part of a railyard that served the Pittsburgh Depot that was on the west end of the yard. The railyard also helped serve the many industries that we see on the Sanborn maps.

1951/51 Pittsburgh East Quad @ 24,000

Digitally Zoomed

Both transfer tables are depicted rather weirdly. The western one has as many tracks feeding it as there are tracks in the building. The eastern one doesn't have any tracks feeding it.

Even without a fire, these backshops would probably have been replaced with shops in railyards in towns with cheaper land. For example, Altoona.

Digitally zoomed from 1872 map above

Tim Starr posted
Double full-circle, 32-stall Pennsylvania RR roundhouses in Pittsburgh, 1872. Both were burned down in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.

Old American Life posted
[This photo is so bogus, it is obviously created with AI. (e.g. locomotives don't park on the roundhouse walls.) I didn't bother to read the text.]

Deniver, CO: UP Roundhouse, Shops & Transfer Table and Purina Pet Food

Railyard: (Satellite, it is now an intermodal yard.)

Feed Mill: (Satellite)

Richard Crabtree posted two images with the comment:

Click here for current view

https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5...

We are at The Union Pacific Shops, Offices & Yards. Bound by 40th street - York - 43rd Street - Franklin.

Photo 1) UPRR Shops Photo William Henry Jackson DPLDC

Photo 2) Union Pacific Shops, Offices & Yards 1904 Sanborn Map Vol 2 1904 DPLDC

Richard Crabtree shared

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Dennis DeBruler commented on Richard's share
Thanks for including the Sanborn Map. The topo maps don't properly depict the transfer table. 1950/50 Derby Quad @ 24,000

While looking for the railyard on the satellite map, I spotted a big and modern Nestle Purina feed mill.

[I forgot to save the link and could not find it again.]

The west side of the headhouse says Dog Chow.

Street View, May 2024

And the east side says Cat Chow.

Street View, May 2024

Denver, CO: UP/D&RG Burnham Shops, Turntable, Transfer Table, Overhead Crane and Coaling Tower

Railyard: (Satellite)

Turntable: (Satellite)

 

HistoricDenver, p31

Richard Crabtree posted

We are going to need a bigger Turntable!

Here we see the installation of a roundhouse turntable from the American Bridge Company at the Denver & Rio Grande Western Burnham Shops.

Denver, Colorado

April 29 1940

Photo George Lytle Beam

DPLDC

Myron Moyano: Now the turntable is at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL.

Richard Crabtree shared

Mark Locke: Is this the same turntable that was acquired by IRM ?

John E Bush: Mark Locke No, theirs is from Chicago area.

Dennis DeBruler: John E Bush IRM did get the Burnham Shops turntable, https://www.irm.org/turntable/. The turntable that was in the Milwaukee Bensenville Yard went to the Railroading Heritage of Midwest America’s Silvis, Ill., facility (RRHMA).

irm

It appears that there was a transfer table in the shops.

1948/48 Fort Logan Quad @ 24,000

At first, I thought there were two transfer tables. But only the east/west light rails would have been a transfer table. The north/south light rails are elevated, and they are for an overhead crane. We can still see the crane at the south end of the rails.

Satellite

HistoricDenver, p32

The overhead crane:

Street View, Aug 2024

HistoricDenver, p14

I see the coaling tower peaking around the water tower, but I don't see the roundhouse.

DenverLibrary, 1947 Otto Perry photos
D&RGW roundhouse

Sheffield, AL: NS/Southern Railyard and Backshops

Eastern Yard: (Satellite, just the mainline is left.)

Western Yard: (Satellite, some of the tracks are left.)

Shops: (Satellite, now an industrial park and trees.)

Tim Starr posted
After having labor troubles at its shops in Memphis, the Southern Railway built new shops in Sheffield AL in 1902. Included a 15-stall roundhouse, machine shop 100 x 100 feet, blacksmith, storehouse, planing mill, paint shop, and car repair shed 200 by 60 feet. Served by 2 transfer tables. (Railway Age)

Dennis DeBruler commented on Tim's post
The shops were between Cherokee and Shop Pikes, https://maps.app.goo.gl/tECR6gLXNzxzimZd6. 1952/58 Tuscumbia and 1957/58 Florence Quads @ 24,000

It looks like there may have been a roundhouse in the southwest part of the land.

Oct 13, 1953 @ 60,000; ARA001080505446

Sedalia, MO: MoPac Roundhouse & Backshop, MKT Backshop and MoPac Depot

MoPac Roundhouse: (Satellite, they did a good job of removing the roundhouse foundation.)

MoPac Backshop: (Satellite)

MKT Backshop: (Satellite)

Tim Starr posted
An "old fashioned" shop set up in Sedalia MO, 1898. An obsolete enclosed roundhouse is being used as a freight car building shop, siting next to a small brick machine shop, wooden carpenter shop, and new roundhouse. Several other support buildings were spread out along Howard Street.

Tim Starr posted
Postcard of the new MoPac's Sedalia Shops about 1915.

Tim Starr posted
In 1905 the Missouri Pacific opened a new set of shops in East Sedalia MO to take the place of the old shops. The workers must have been impressed moving from the obsolete shops to these new ones, which had ten times the capacity.

William Pfaff: Looks like a lot of buildings still there.

The transfer table is gone.

Satellite

1946/46 Sedalia West and East Quads @ 24,000

I wonder of what this was the foundation. It is not in the correct location to be roundhouse stalls.

Satellite

Tommy Sharp posted five photos with the comment:

All photos are from 601 Marshall avenue Sedalia, Missouri

Mo Pac repair shops!

William Freeman: It’s way beyond repair now I’m sure, but the building that still stands would make an awesome apartment complex.

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Rommy Sharp commented on William's comment
This is the coach shop on the north end of the big building. This picture is today 2-19-26

Missouri Pacific Depot

Lehigh Valley Railroad & Railroad Photography posted
My grandfather Jack Koehler photographed the Missouri Pacific railroad station in Sedalia, Missouri on May 18, 1974

Michael L. Bradley: Love the Mopac MofW truck. Would like to see more Mopac MofW trucks.

Street View, Jun 2013

It is still a train station because Amtrak uses it.

Jon Pinet, Jul 2020

dan luttrell, May 2025