Nostalgia & History > San Jose Roundhouse

Hard to believe it's under the nostalgic heading! No idea what it looks like now...

sphogger

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Like this.

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Whoa!! Looks a tad bit different:-)

Where is the pull rope, that you would pull to go to the Depot?

Nudge

Don't remember the rope but now that you mention I can't remember how we contacted College Park. Radio I guess although I think the F-40 push/pull trade outs were pretty well scheduled to the minute. I do remember trying to balance the units on the air operated table, you had to get it right. You also had to inch the units onto the table ever so slowly, occasionally someone would hit the table a little fast knocking the rails out of alignment with the plow.

sphogger

The 2479 was the one that really gave trouble on the table. You could'nt make a short move; it was best to back up and start all over again. One Christmas eve the "man from mars" stopped short putting her in the house and when he tried a short forward move he put the front coupler through the back roundhouse wall. Of course if you examined many of the back wall spots there were signs of bricks having been replaced.

Here's an interior shot from around 1992.

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I wonder where the sign went; for that matter, how the thieves managed to lift something that big and have nobody notice what they were doing!!

I've heard rumors that the sign bandits have let it be known they would return it should the structure be rebuilt.

Ransom used in a positive way I guess...

brianbergtold Wrote:
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> I've heard rumors that the sign bandits have let
> it be known they would return it should the
> structure be rebuilt.

Found the rope pull in your picture. Its the pole between the two tracks that you would leave on. The rope came down from each side of the cross arm so the fireman could pull it on track and the engineer could pull it on the other. The rope went through a switch at the top and had a spring return. The bottom of the ropes were secured towards the bottom of the posts but didn't reach the ground.

I think you would pull it once, to go against the grain to the depot and twice if you wanted to come out and then go west down the main towards Sant Clara Tower.

The turntable was something else. They had lines on it for a 3030 FMs, 3200s, GP 9s & A units. Panama Hatie ran the table on second trick and she knew just where to stop you. When those engines came in, you could only hold your hand about 4 inches from the wheels, otherwise they were still too hot from the run from the City.

Nudge

Wasn't that Sue that was called Panama Hattie?