Where giants once roamed...

PRR keystone Orangeville Yard PRR keystone

Where giants once roamed...

The pictures on the previous page dealt with specific structures in Orangeville Yard, with one notable exception:

The roundhouse and turntable

By the time I got to Orangeville scant little remained of the roundhouse - I recall, I believe, six stalls.  The one positive aspect of this is that they were part of the original roundhouse. The turntable bridge also appeared to be ancient - if not original, it was certainly from no later than the the '40s.

roundhouse
Roundhouse remains
turntable
Turntable bridge
turntable
Turntable bridge
the wheels go round
Turning the table
The fellow in the one picture is my buddy, Gil, who got the sand from the sandhouse.  He's in a couple of my pictures for perspective - he stands about 6' tall, more or less.

Shop

Another large building that remained until the bitter end was the shop; I don't know what it was used for at the end of its life, but, judging by the railings surrounding the inspection pit, its last years were most likely spent storing junk.

shop
Shop exterior
shop
Shop
interior
shop
Shop
interior

General pics, and - what the heck is that?

The inspection pit is pretty standard stuff, but the covered tracks are a puzzle; does anyone know what the heck this was for?   Also, WHAT is the thing in the third picture - it looks like a shower head???  The fourth and fifth pictures are of the column visible in the "covered tracks" picture....once again, any clues what this did?

insp pit
Inspection pit
covered
Why?
Thanks to George Pitz of Baltimore I KNOW why:
a drip pan to catch fuel overflow!
gizmo
Gizmo

gizmo 2
Another
gizmo
gizmo 2
a closer look
general view
View from
coaling tower
toward throat

In closing...

When I took these pictures I was in awe of the sheer size of the coaling tower and the shop; I had never before seen anything on that scale.  I waxed poetic of the golden age of railroads and imagined I could hear K4s and other Pennsy steam thundering up the tracks to Penn Station; I imagined the cacaphony of noise in the yard - steam whistles, air horns, bells, men shouting, coal thundering into tenders - ; I could smell the coal smoke from the steamers and the ozone from the GG1's pantographs on the catneary...

giants
Photo courtesy of Gary Mittner
A couple of giants playing in the back yard (note the B&O bridge in the background)

And then I was shocked back into the present by a metroliner streaking toward Philadelphia; I was surrounded not by K4s and GG1s rumbling over polished steel ribbons, but by rusty rails choked by weeds - and instead of the symphony of a vibrant railroad I heard the discordant burps of 18-wheelers roaring loudly on Pulaski Highway as they passed the bones of the yard - taunting the ghosts of the giants that once roamed here.

rainy day
On my last visit to Orangeville it rained, and for a fleeting moment the rusty rails shone once more...

 

Counter

 

Safety First

In 2000...
425 people raced trains to grade crossings - and tied
463 people were killed while trespassing on railroad property

Don't become a statistic - look, listen and live!

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Orangeville pics, page 1
Orangeville maps, plus construction history
Photos of Orangeville when it was active
Camden Yards page
Mike's Railroad Page

Photo of K-4 #3737 at Orangeville courtesy of Gary Mittner
Photo of PRR steam at Orangeville courtesy of Ken Meyer

All other photos © 1983, 2002 by Michael Calo Commercial use prohibited without writtem permission
PERSONAL use is ok, but please tell folks where you found them. Thanks!

Last updated Firday, March 1, 2002