Talk:Roundhouse

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To-do list	Pending tasks for Roundhouse:	(purge cache –  edit this list)
	Add a photo or two of a roundhouse Add more information on the development of the structure List well-known roundhouses Point out that the great majority were semicircular, and that roundhouses that formed complete circles (like in Baltimore, or on the Algoma Central in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario) were less common. Mention what roundhouses no longer in railroad use are being used for today
See also Wikipedia:WikiProject Trains/Todo

[edit] Reason for roundhouse

I quote "Early steam locomotives normally travelled forwards only; although reverse operations capabilities were soon built into locomotive mechanisms, the controls were normally optimized for forward travel." I don't see the relevance of this. Surely the point was to make it easier to "get at" individual engines. The equivalent for a carriage workshop was the traverser, though Derby station originally used a series of turntables between each of the tracks. I believe in the early days engines were manhandled in and out of the roundhouse. Chevin 12:12, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Normal practice on US railroads was to park locomotives in the roundhouse head-first, that is, with their tenders facing the turntable. This put the parts of the locomotive that normally needed the most work at the most sheltered end of the roundhouse stall tracks. The majority of roundhouses were built to surround turntables.

When a fire is dumped from the firebox into the facility's ash pit (which was often located very close to the roundhouse), there is normally still enough steam pressure in the locomotive to operate it into the appropriate stall. It did not have to be towed into the roundhouse. Once it arrived in the roundhouse, the hostler would vent any remaining steam pressure and allow the locomotive to cool so the shop employees could work on it. It was common practice on US railroads (at least as far as I can tell in my research) to "shut down" a locomotive in this manner to prepare it for maintenance. To get it out of the roundhouse, the shop employees would light enough of a fire to get enough steam pressure to move the locomotive under its own power to the fueling/watering area in preparation for regular usage; this task could take more than eight hours to perform depending on the amount of pressure needed to move the locomotive. If a locomotive could not be moved under its own power either into or out of a roundhouse, a shop switcher (such as an 0-6-0T) was used. Slambo (Speak) 13:30, 27 April 2006 (UTC).

[edit] Disambiguation problem

When searching for Roundhouse this article is the first to appear. However according to various dictionary definitions Roundhouse refers to a jail cell in most cases. Railway roundhouses only appear as the 4th definition of the word. Perhaps it would be more useful for people entering the word 'roundhouse' if they were directed first to the disambiguation page where there are 10 or 12 roundhouse articles??? Don't know how to do this but perhaps a clever Wiki person does. Mr Susan, Norwich.