Roundhouse
Cornelius W. Hauck Roundhouse
Railroad roundhouses were the garages and workshops for locomotives and cars. The Cornelius W. Hauck Roundhouse was completed in 2000 and is named after one of the Museum’s founders. It has five stalls and houses the tools and equipment needed to restore and repair rolling stock.
Roundhouse workers must have many skills to keep equipment in working order. Volunteer machinists, pipe fitters, carpenters, electricians, painters and upholsterers contribute more than 1,200 hours a month restoring and maintaining rolling stock at the Museum.
Restoration
There are five stalls in the roundhouse. No. 1 has an inspection pit for undercarriage access, No. 2 has narrow gauge rails, No. 3 includes a machine shop, No. 4 has dual-gauge rails and a wood shop and No. 5 has a pit.
Our visitors’ gallery allows our guests to safely observe restoration work safely and is open during Museum hours.
The Roundhouse area also includes a fascinating display of locomotives and cars on the roundhouse ”radial” tracks, as well as a fully functioning 74-foot, Armstrong turntable.
EXPLORE MORE OF THE MUSEUM
Turntable
Turntables are rotating bridges used to move rail cars from one set of tracks to another or to turn them around.
The Colorado Railroad Museum turntable came from the end of a Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad branch line at St. Francis, Kansas. It is 74 feet long and was built in 1900 by the American Bridge Company of Chicago at its Lassig Works. A sophisticated center bearing and counterbalance system allows two individuals to easily rotate a car or locomotive by pushing on the arms or “cheaters.”
