Como Roundhouse

[ComoDepot]

George has been busy digging out the turntable pit. We found a few rusted bits, some coal and quite interestingly a pipe, 1 inch diameter coming from the boiler direction, will get a closer up photo of this.

[South Park]

  Poor Como has been neglected for so long.  Of all the historic RR places in Colorado,
I've never understood why this gem has been passed over.  I suspect the lack of being
D&RG contributes to the general dismissal.  Were a Rio Grande NG site like this still
surviving, there would be 20,000 foamers all beside themselves to turn it into a tourist
railroad.  I missed Como on my first pass through the area in 1977, but returned in 1979
to walk about the place after I had discovered its existence.  It is a shame Uncle Bob had
not centered the CRRM around the Como facilities and restored them as part of the
museum.  There is ample space and the history is solid gold.  What a shame the abandonment
was all about dollars and those scrapping locomotives not shoved into the roundhouse
bays and left to slumber.  Had they survived another 10 years, there is a good chance
they'd all be saved and restored by the budding railfan community that came about in
the 1950's.  To think a depot, roundhouse, and hotel, AND all the yard area still surviving
from 1880.  There is nothing that compares to Como.  Thanks for sharing these photos.

[ComoDepot]

The turntable was renovated in 1908/10, paper say 08, concrete says 10.

The earlier one you can see the stone wall, probably the stone is still there behind the concrete.

Seems they shuttered the walls, poured concrete, laid the timber balks and then filled in. Timber has rotted/been removed.

The pivot point is a large stone block.

There is a soft spot that might be a drain location.

[savethecomodepot]

Actually there's a date etched into the stone wall of the turntable that dates the redo as July 4th, 1910.

[Lee Gustafson]

Here are Colorado O scale Como roundhouse in a 3 stall version under construction.

Lee Gustafson

[ComoDepot]

Are you doing the late version? The car suggest so but you have the doors opening to the top.

[Lee Gustafson]

I'm building the early version. The car was an anachronism. I wanted to scratch build the round top doors out of styrene to achieve closer to scale dimensions. The car is my time travel machine. ;-)

Lee Gustafson

[Lee Gustafson]

Here are pictures of the scratch built doors from styrene from the Colorado Scale Models O scale kit plans.

Lee Gustafson

[ComoDepot]

Just another 16 stalls to be added!, will you have one or two stationary boilers?

[Lee Gustafson]

Three stalls are all I have room for. One stationery boiler. I'm working on functional, working, brass hinges for the doors. After that lights and interior detail. Don Pacetti's HOn3 Como round house model is my inspiration and I thank him for his help.

Lee Gustafson

[ComoDepot]

If you want to be ahead of the game, the turntable pit is not level, tilted slightly in the direction of the Roundhouse. Install it that way and you have a talking point and will be more accurate than anybody else.

[ComoDepot]

A transit showed about an 8 inch drop from one side to the other in the direction of the first stall, from an operational point of view we need to have it in a flat plane and that seems OK.

A hose was run into where we think the drain is and the water flowed in the direction of the gulch, so something is down there.

Some welding and beam removal was done on the bridge. The bolts came out much easier than expected by me.

The plans for the rebuild have been revised a few times by the sound of it.

Next will be a concrete trial, when they poured the concrete it looks like it was done effectively in one go, the inner ring first, then the timber was placed to which the rail was spiked and levelled, you can see that the concrete was wet when the wood was placed, they carried on filling the gaps and then the outer ring. There is a concrete fillet, but we think that was done later, perhaps the inner and outer rings were separating. The outer rings had ties emplaced to which the rails were spiked.

[Rick Steele]

Actually, no. You want a drop into a stall. This is how you get a locomotive that is dead or disabled into the roundhouse without having to be pushed by another locomotive.

You use a car mover and gravity.

The rest of the locomotives can compensate for themselves by using their own power.

Rick