Western Railroad Discussion > Depot On The Move Makes A Big U-Turn

The old Northern Pacific depot in Cheney, Washington made the final leg of its move on Wednesday afternoon, including a dramatic U-turn to flip the building 180-degrees. 

The turn was time consuming, and included two trucks with winches.

Here's a time-lapse video of the depot's afternoon adventure.

On Thursday, crews will move the depot into place exactly, then put it on blocks so the new foundation can be built. 

It's been quite the spectacle to watch the various moves this week.

​Enjoy the video.

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Thanks for the interesting video!

Larry

A turntable sure would have come in handy.
Thanks for another interesting video of the move.
ALLEN

Super interesting series of time lapse videos, thank you for posting.
I'm curious about the actual time it took to make the move in this last post?
If you wouldn't mind sharing, what were your camera settings for this series, specifically image frequency?
Thanks -
Bob

WOW, thanks for the time lapse footage of this movement.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Cool video!!

Thanks for posting! Why did it have to be turned?

Cool video. I find what these movers do to be pretty impressive.

bob01566 Wrote:
> I'm curious about the actual time it took to make the move in this last post?

It was somewhere around 4 hours. I didn't note the starting time, but it was around 2 p.m., and they knocked off at 6, once the building was 100 percent on the new property. I didn't expect it would take nearly as long.

I used an iPhone mounted on a tripod, and the stock time-lapse mode. I'm sorry I don't know the interval, but I think it changes the longer the camera runs. My big concern was running out of battery power before the move was done, but that wasn't a problem. I started with 100 percent battery, and by 6 p.m. I still had 20-something percent left.

This last time lapse from yesterday afternoon is actually three videos stitched together. At the beginning, as the depot approached from behind the grain elevators, I had the lens set on 2X. Once they got to the ramp, I switched to 1X. The 1X video portion is two videos as I stopped it once just to make sure what I had was saved. The tripod location was the same throughout, although I turned the camera a little once or twice to re frame the scene.

The movers were great. I understand the depot folks got several estimates, and the other bidders wanted to break the building into 3 pieces. Only the successful bidder said he could do it as one piece. It was a tight fit with inches to spare when they swung the building around. The depot just cleared a shipping container on the new location's lot.

Getting the trailing truck under the depot up the ramp and turning was tricky. They literally inched it along.

As for why they turned the depot, I don't know. It wasn't necessary, it was a choice, and I understand there was quite a bit of discussion about it during the planning phase. Ultimately, they wanted the telegraph bay facing the street, and I understand a track will be installed along that side of the building once the landscaping is complete.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/20 08:03 by walstib.

GREAT video.....and a most excellent position for the camera.   Love the clouds and passing trains.....These folk are still raising $ for the project....according to their web site (www.cheneydepot.com) they have the move $ but need more for landscaping and interior work.   Seems like a most worthy cause to me.  thnanks for your postings!   Arlen

What is the cost of the move?

   In Ohio we also moved a depot last week! Midwest Railway Preservation Society hired Dingey Movers from Zanesville. OH to move the Falls Junction depot across the Wheeling and Lake Erie tracks to the Glenwillow Village property in Pettibone Park. Glenwillow will be the new owner of the building and they will allow MRPS to use it for displays. The more than a century old building also had to be turned 180 degrees so that the bay window will still face the W&LE track. The depot has a history of being mobile, it has been moved at least 2 or 3 times now in its long life span. The depot is set on piles of wooden 4X6 timber above the new concrete footers and basement floor so that the foundation can be built underneath it. Here is a short video from the Midwest Railway Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/MidwestRailwayPreservationSociety/videos/389337195351150/

The barn swallow and house finch birds had nests built under the eves of the depot and they were not too disturbed by the work. The house movers were slightly worried that some of the loose bricks from the chimney might fall out but that didn't happen. There wasn't even a window broken during the process.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/20 13:38 by trainsfireengine.

dtoeppen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Everything about this video makes me EXTREMELY
> nervous.

Why?? It looked like the move went well.