I've mentioned before that it is my intention to build this little beauty and I've finally got going.....
I've already gotten the board & batten siding and stripwood for the frame. Still got to order door & windows and a few odds & ends...
I'm treading into unknown territory here, so I would like your input on a couple of things.
1. Is the back of a roundhouse actually radiused, or would it be flat sections..? Unfortunately I don't have a view of the back so I'll presume it had at least a couple of large windows at each stall, and maybe a door here and there...
2. Would this have been a dirt floor facility or might it have had a stone floor..? Or maybe just some wood boardwalks between the spurs and along the sides and back..?
3. Where can I get hinges for the doors..? I would like them to be operable....
4. I had thought to make the roof with tar paper. Would this be appropriate for this kind of structure..?

This'll hold me for now, though I'm sure I'll have a ton of questions as I go along.....
Thanks for any insights you might provide....

Just a note...It'll only have three stall as I don't have room for four... :cry:

I'm surprised by how few windows there are in that one, Gus. Most had lots of big windows on the sides and rear, and a double-sided clerestory roof with more windows.
All of the roundhouses which I've seen (not very many) had the rear walls done as segments - three stalls, three segments, and so-on. The floor could be dirt, brick, stone pavers, concrete, asphalt, or wood. The one below, not very visible, appears to be either concrete or asphalt, but I recall parts of it being brick.


Brick or stone pavers were very common in older industrial buildings - one of my first jobs when I started at the steel plant was to sweep the floor of an empty area of an older mill - I looked at it and figured that it must have been a test or a joke, as the floor was clearly a dirt one. "Never mind - just sweep until I come back!" said the foreman, so I did. A half hour later, I finally did find the floor, made of bricks set without mortar, under about 4"-6" of hard-packed dust. I eventually discovered, though, that there were some areas where the bricks had been removed. After four hours or so, the foreman returned, and was surprised to see, possibly for the first time, a section of brick floor. I'm sure that it was covered back over, ready for the next new guy.

Because that roof doesn't have much of a slope, tar paper, roll roofing or corrugated iron would be suitable cladding for it.

It's actually pretty easy to build a working hinged door (not necessarily the same as operable hinges, though).
The set below was made by drilling suitably-sized holes in the top and bottom edges of the doors, near the hinged-side of each. Set at the proper distance to line-up with those on the closed doors, matching holes were drilled into the floor and lintel over the door, then pivot pins made from short lengths of piano wire were inserted. I cemented the top ones in place in the lintel and also those in the floor, with only enough exposed to extend into the holes in the doors' top and bottom edges. You can also add a small block atop the floor (drill it out and slip it over the wire), cementing it in place on the floor - this will lift the bottom edge of the door clear of the floor or ground over which it will swing. To install the plastic doors, I placed the door onto the bottom wire, then flexed it enough to slip it onto the upper wire. If you're planning on building your doors from wood, you may want to install them as you build, since there'll not be a lot of "flex" in them.


Wayne

only thing i could add to doc's is , is there a historical society in Lometa if so try to contact them they might have photos of it in better condition or when it was used in the steam era. jim

Hey Jim..!! Thanks for the heads up..!!
I've looked all over the web, but those are the only pics that I've been able to come up with. I even tried the Santa Fe archives without luck. I'll see if I can get in touch with them. Unfortunately the building was destroyed by a tornado in the mid 80's, otherwise I would have taken a trip up there...