Engine House - Official Work Thread

[Brendan Barry]

On Saturday the board of director voted to build the roundhouse this year. We made the Sheepscot roundhouse five feet longer than the Wiscasset version and we will have a full 40' x 10' inspection pit in the run through bay. Visible site work should start by the end of April. J

Jay Wiley has been doing all the drawings and renderings of the roundhouse.

[Bill Piche]

I notice a distinct lack of smoke jacks in this. Will bays 1/2 not have jacks to eliminate the need to wheel the engine outside for fireup (and also for dumping the fire since a smoke jack can vent the gasses out)? Or will the idea be to wheel the stack outside the door to do the fireup half in the building or something?

[John McNamara]

How deep will the pit be? I can remember sitting on the edge of the Bay 4 pit to drill holes in Number 10's frame, and it was great. There (and presumably in the new pit) water ingress was a problem.
John M

[Bill Piche]

How deep will the pit be? I can remember sitting on the edge of the Bay 4 pit to drill holes in Number 10's frame, and it was great. There (and presumably in the new pit) water ingress was a problem.
John M

If I'm reading the plans correctly, about 3 1/2 feet. A bit short for me but would make checking the pedestal binders a lot easier.

[Wayne Laepple]

What is the enclosure in the rear corner of Track 2? And what are the six circles between Track 2 and Track 3 representing?

[Brendan Barry]

All the stalls will have smoke jacks. The pit will be 4’ deep from the railhead to the floor. There will be   a sump in the pit for a sump pump equipped with an oil water separator.

[Brendan Barry]

What is the enclosure in the rear corner of Track 2? And what are the six circles between Track 2 and Track 3 representing?

The enclosure at the back of the second stall is the roundhouse office / clean room. Space was requested for a clean room for working on gauges and other small items. The circles represent the lube oil and water treatment drums. Doesn’t mean the drums will end up in that spot, we just know the drums have to end up in the building somewhere.

[Mark Spremulli]

Where will engines 4 & 8 go when this is built?

[John Scott]

Is it planned to have a drop pit? If so, that should not be in the through road as through movements would then be obstructed. A drop pit should connect two parallel roads so that a wheel set can be passed from one to the other, via a connecting pit.

[Graham Buxton]

Is it planned to have a drop pit?

The inspection pit Brendan mentioned in post#1 is visible in several images.   One of the images shows that a portion of the pit to be wider. Below is a  larger screenshot of the pit detail ....





    (It is useful to look at the images with a big monitor.)     


Note: After I posted my original response, it occurred to me that 'drop pit' and 'inspection' pit were not really the same thing.  So I was modifying my post as Mike posted his.

[Mike Fox]

By drop pit, I am assuming he means wheel drop pit. One of those is not planned at this time.

[Ed Lecuyer]

Where will engines 4 & 8 go when this is built?

The details of those locomotives' next "home" have not yet been announced. Obviously, they (and the coal pile) will need to be repositioned so that construction can begin this spring.

[Philip Marshall]

I remember there was discussion at one point of having a blacksmith shop either inside or attached to the roundhouse. Is this still part of the plan, or will the forge remain outdoors?

[Ed Lecuyer]

The bumpout on the east side of the roundhouse that was to be the blacksmith shop, was eliminated so that we can have an additional track on the east side of the roundhouse. This will allow access to the north yard via the turntable without needing to pass through bay one. Operationally, this is much desirable, as it keeps the ability to use the north yard as a run-around. As part of this reconfiguration, the "kink" in the existing run-through track will be eliminated.

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Great ! To coin a phrase everything comes in threes. After the pavillon, the carbarn extension here is the roundhouse. An other exciting adventure to follow. But when looking at the drawings and renderings what surprises me a lot is the lack of a roof over the stalls except for the inspection pit one. How comes ?