(rshsdepot) Pomona, NC Roundhouse

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Roundhouse a dying part of railroads

3-17-03

By JIM SCHLOSSER, Staff Writer
News & Record



GREENSBORO -- Structures like the semicircular building on Spring Garden
Street in Pomona were once so common they influenced the American way of
talking.

When a prizefighter landed on the canvas, sportswriters would say he was
decked by a "roundhouse" punch.

At the old Pomona Roundhouse, its ceiling still black from smoke and soot,
Southern Railway maintained and repaired steam locomotives from 1919 until
the early 1950s. It is the oldest of three surviving railroad roundhouses in
North Carolina -- the others being in Spencer (built in 1924) and Asheville
(1926). There are 188 left in the nation, according to research by the local
chapter of the National Railroad Historical Society. There used to be
hundreds.

The Pomona building now stands empty and fragile. Until last year, a tiny
portion of it was used as an office by Myers Brothers, which ran a scrap
metal operation on the grounds of the roundhouse.

"Every time a train goes by, the building is subject to vibration," says
Charles N. Myers, whose family owns Myers Brothers.

A group of model railroaders and historical society members would like to
see the roundhouse restored. They see it as a possible site for the
elaborate train layout of the Carolina Model Railroad Club and, perhaps, for
the archives of the Southern Railway Historical Association. The association
leaders live in Guilford, but most of the archives are in Tennessee.

Kevin von der Lippe, a model railroader and train buff, hopes it's not too
late for the roundhouse. A few years ago, when he and others were touring
the structure, "chunks of concrete literally fell off the roof."

Myers Brothers, which has several locations in Guilford County, recently
ceased operations at the Pomona site, except to park vehicles and equipment
there. Charles Myers says operations may eventually resume. If so, the
office at one end of the roundhouse may reopen.

Roundhouses, such as the 18-stall relic at Pomona, used to be located about
every 50 miles along a railroad. One of the largest was at Spencer. The
recently restored 37-stall roundhouse there is part of the N.C.
Transportation Museum.

Roundhouse mechanics worked atop engines and below them in grease pits,
servicing and repairing. Afterward, engines would be backed out of stalls on
tracks that led to a turntable in front of the roundhouse. The table rotated
engines toward the direction they needed to face for their next journey.

Steam locomotives, despite their fearsome appearance, were delicate,
requiring maintenance after almost every journey. The railroads had to build
a lot of roundhouses.

In 1953, Southern Railway retired all of its steam locomotives and became an
all-diesel railroad. Diesels could go 5,000 to 6,000 miles without
maintenance and could pull larger loads than steam locomotives. Diesels made
roundhouses obsolete.

After Southern Railway departed, the roundhouse site became part of a flour
company operation until Myers Brothers arrived in the late 1960s. Anyone who
passed the property from then until last year saw big piles of metal
scattered about the premises. The roundhouse served as a backdrop.

Myers says when Southern closed the roundhouse, the railroad removed the
turntable, filled in the grease pits and pulled up the tracks.

Myers leases the roundhouse and surrounding property from Norfolk Southern
Railroad, formed by a merger of Southern and Norfolk & Western Railroad in
the early 1980s. The railroad would have the final say on whether the
structure remains or is torn down. Norfolk Southern didn't respond to
questions about the property.

Old aerial photos show the roundhouse as part of a massive railroad
operation at Pomona during the steam era. Southern's main line between
Washington and Atlanta ran -- and still does -- behind the roundhouse.

Spur tracks from the main line allowed locomotives to reach the roundhouse.
Or they arrived on the "K Line," the nickname for the railroad to
Kernersville and Winston-Salem that branches off the main line near Holden
Road and parallels Spring Garden Street in front of the roundhouse.

The property also included a 95-foot-high coal chute on a spur next to the
main line, near the rear of the roundhouse. The chute dropped coal into the
tender hooked to a locomotive. The railroad took it down with a dynamite
blast decades ago.

In its heyday, the roundhouse hummed 24 hours a day with activity. In 1949,
the roundhouse boss called a Superior Court judge in Greensboro to say one
of his workers was busy. Could he be excused from jury duty?

Sure, replied the judge. But he summoned the boss to take his place.

County planner Julie Curry, in charge of the county's historic landmark
program, says the roundhouse would easily qualify for landmark status, if
Norfolk Southern applied. Owners of local historic landmarks get a 50
percent reduction on property taxes.

Von der Lippe says the roundhouse could be the means of resuming a warm
relationship that once existed between the Carolina Model Railroad Club and
Southern Railway. From 1973 until 1979, the club paid $100 a year to rent
space for its train layout in Southern's passenger station downtown. After
Southern quit using the station and donated it to the city, the club rented
the same space from city government.

The city is now converting the terminal into a transportation center for
buses and trains. It has set aside space for a return of the model
railroaders, but von der Lippe says the rent may be too steep for the club.

The club would like to work out an arrangement with Norfolk Southern to rent
the roundhouse at a nominal price. The club would try to raise money to
repair the building.

Von der Lippe, who once a week devotes a few nighttime hours to watching
trains go by in Norfolk Southern's Pomona freight yard near the roundhouse,
daydreams about a platform being built behind a restored roundhouse.

There, train buffs like himself could sit within the shadow of an historic
railroad building and pass the time watching the passing trains.

Contact Jim Schlosser at 373-7081.


=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

------------------------------