Crawford Roundhouse Demolition

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• Sad. I'm going to assume that it was the last roundhouse in the Windsor area, right? Makes one wonder if there are any left in the Detroit metro area.

• Are roundhouses no longer needed? Or is there a modern alternative for a roundhouse?

• It appears they haven't been needed for many years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundhouse

  Of course, as buildings used for servicing locomotives, it can be argued they retained their function -- unless servicing is no longer done at this location.

  From quick glances as I was driving by, it looked to me like that building was in rather poor condition.

• It is sad, but the building wasn't probably used much anymore. I am sure it would be pretty dirty inside. Perhaps the land will be used for more yard space. On a side note, why does Tecumseh jog so much in that area? I don't travel that route much but from the Google Map it is noticeable. Most roundhouses will live on though, on model railroad sets and virtual ones, like Trainz.

• Wasn't there one on Riverside Drive?

• I believe that there were two roundhouses on Riverside Drive. One operated by CN (originally the Great Western Railway), and one operated by Norfolk & Western (originally the Wabash Railroad). I'm not sure of the time line that these were torn down, but my guess was the early 90s.

  Additionally, there was a roundhouse between Howard and South Cameron (where the Roundhouse Centre Plaza stands now). This was used by Michigan Central and New York Central, but hadn't been used since the 1960s. It was torn down in the late 80s when The Roundhouse Centre was built.

  Diesel locomotives require much less maintenance than steam engines did, and with more freight moving by truck, and more passengers moving by car, not to mention the struggling manufacturing sector, most railroads aren't nearly as busy as they once were. Hopefully this trend will reverse some day.

  The Essex Terminal Railway still operates a full locomotive maintenance facility for it's fleet, although technically it is not a roundhouse.

• The CP Roundhouse was used for storage for years, it didn't even have electricity in it. I noticed a few months ago parts that were stored in it were suddenly put outside, so I figured the end was near. Sad to see it go, spent a lot of time getting up-close looks at CP engines in there.

• I believe CN and the Wabash/N&W shared the roundhouse on Riverside, didn't they? I thought (always an iffy thing) that the Wabash ran on the CN via trackage rights to Buffalo and Tonnawanda, N.Y. These were thru train operations, so they didn't need a big service facility in Windsor. Memory says we were stuck in Chatham on a mid 60's CNR steam excursion waiting on a Wabash passenger train.

• Within the past few years, the Roundhouse has been dead. The only time Units would go in there recently, was for accident report engines, and damaged units that needed to be out of the elements. 1 of the Last units I remember seeing inside (when there was still Power) was a CP 9000 series Engine, that had an Engine fire back around the winter of 2001. The unit sufferened damage and needed to be inspected before moving to to Repaired, and make sure it was road worthy. I have also heard that a few Engines have been through the back wall of the facility as well. With this round house, the newer engines had a hard time going into the Building as well, as the opening was not built for the new modern Wide Cabs. From what I gather the Turntable was still in use, up till a month ago, but I do not know if they will be using it still. The building also had its Asbestos removed the weeks before it was torn down.

• Ian....
  ....I think we may have a mutual friend who put a unit through the back wall of a roundhouse many years ago.

  Where does CP and CN do their heavy repairs now?