Engine House - Official Work Thread

[Ed Lecuyer]

The final design features a concrete "lip" above floor height so that if there are any cinders, etc., they will not ignite the walls.

[Mike Fox]

It is not a concrete lip. It will be a footer (or frost) wall, then the floor will be poured inside it, much like a basement floor. The wood walls get built on top of the footer walls.

[Ed Lecuyer]

Thanks for the clarification.

[Joe Fox]

So what about the proposed outside storage track adjacent to roundhouse track 3. Will it be No. 4 or maybe 3A?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't turntable tracks that aren't attached to anything and aren't under cover called Garden Tracks?

They are called radial tracks.

[John Kokas]

My Grandad who worked for the DL&W (Lackawanna) told me they called them pasture track.  When I asked why, he told me that's where they put the engines that were going "out to pasture".  I assume he meant that was the tracks where any parts that could be recycled for other engines would be removed before the engine was sent to either a deadline or scrapyard.

[Graham Buxton]

I expect that these kinds of tracks had different names depending on the region, or perhaps the dominant railroad in that area.

Certainly in some areas of the country those tracks were indeed known as "garden tracks".  The Southern Railway built a major shops facility -- Spencer Shops -- near Charlotte NC. (The entire facility is now NCTM, a transportation museum.) The  American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has published a PDF about the history of Spencer Shops, here:

https://www.asme.org/wwwasmeorg/media/ResourceFiles/AboutASME/Who%20We%20Are/Engineering%20History/Landmarks/248-Southern-Railway-Spencer-Shops.pdf

... and here is a snapshot of part of that PDF:

[Wayne Laepple]

I've also heard them called "whisker tracks."

[Bob Holmes]

So we can choose??

[Ed Lecuyer]

So we can choose??

There was open discussion about this in a forum section reserved for train operations; the consensus was "Garden Track."
I like "garden track" as it will roughly fall where Clarissa's flower garden was.


And, incidentally, the structure being built is an Engine House - as that is how they were (generally) referred to on all of two-footers, including the WW&F's building in Wiscasset.

[Dana Deering]

And I don’t think there is any original Maine Two Foot precedent for naming that type of track. There was only one turntable on all of the Maine two footers that had those tracks that I know of and that was at Kingfield on the SR&RL. I have never seen any reference as to what those tracks were “officially” called so Garden Track would be fine.

[Jeff Schumaker]

I wonder how the term "garden track" came about.

Jeff S.

[Mike Fox]

I wonder how the term "garden track" came about.

Jeff S.

The track will be built over what was left of Clarissa's flower garden.

[Brendan Barry]

The foundation forms are almost done.





















Inside the inspection pit.

[Bob Holmes]

This is totally amazing.  Did you provide for conduit access for electrical, or is that premature?

Bob

[Brendan Barry]

Access for all future utility needs is being provided.