Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum completes East Roundhouse

The Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum recently celebrated the completion of its new 10-stall East Roundhouse with a ribbon-tearing ceremony.

The museum used its historic private railroad car, Sugarcreek, to ceremonially tear through a ribbon placed across one of the new stall doors. The Sugarcreek was originally Jerry Joe Jacobson’s personal railcar and traveled thousands of miles throughout the United States and Canada on the rear of Amtrak and VIA Rail passenger trains.

The East Roundhouse includes 10 stalls for railroad rolling stock, along with an office and storage facilities. The building fulfills a long-standing part of the museum’s master site plan, originally developed by Jacobson in 2008.

The expansion comes as the museum’s growing collection of historic locomotives and railroad cars continues to outgrow existing space.

While inspired by traditional railroad architecture, the East Roundhouse blends a historic appearance with modern construction techniques. Unlike the museum’s original timber-framed roundhouse, the new structure uses steel girders, columns and beams similar to those used in railroad roundhouses built during the 1930s and 1940s.

The building’s exterior was designed to preserve the appearance of a classic railroad facility. Features include composite back walls with narrow windows, brick end walls, an old-style monitor roof with a cupola and electrically operated roll-type doors modeled after those used in updated steam-era roundhouses.

Each of the 10 stalls contains a 112-foot interior track, matching the dimensions of the existing roundhouse stalls. To aid in long-term preservation of the museum’s collection, the East Roundhouse also features radiant floor heating, using hot water circulated through tubing embedded within the building’s 14-inch-thick concrete floors.

The completion of the East Roundhouse marks another milestone in the growth and preservation efforts of the Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum.

For more information, visit ageofsteamroundhouse.org or follow the museum on Facebook.