Going down the right track

I spent the morning today looking into locomotive roundhouses. I'm supposed to be working on a book, but.... well, it's Friday, and this just seemed like a lot more fun. Besides, I had an interview scheduled for early in the afternoon and there's no point breaking my concentration, so I might as well look into locomotive roundhouses, instead. And it's cold out; I really want to be thinking about sunnier weather and springtime. Writers can be just terrible procrastinators at times. For some reason, though, I never seem to procrastinate when it comes to cycling.

This all started because the GASP tour is passing through Biggar. For those who don't already know, there's a last-of-its-kind locomotive roundhouse in Biggar, and there's a tug-of-war happening over what's going to become of it. The circular building, constructed in 1908 for servicing and storing steam locomotives, is the last surviving roundhouse built by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. There is not another one like it in the whole world. When it's gone, it will be like the extinction of a species. The CNR wants to tear it down, citing liability concerns. The citizens of Biggar, and railway buffs everywhere, on the other hand, want to save it. Right now, there's a good chance the roundhouse could be torn down in 2009, before we get the chance to see it.

Railway preservationists say that the building is so well preserved that it's like the railroad just pulled out. Never mind that it has found ignominious use for housing turkeys for the past few years. Perhaps that's a back-handed social commentary about those who would tear down such an historic structure (bird-brained turkeys), but how much damage could a bunch of birds do to a place that was built to support a dozen or more gigantic iron horses?

Biggar resident and railroader Tom Cholowski and Mayor Ray Sadler organized a petition to save the roundhouse, collecting more than 2500 signatures so far. That may not sound like much, but it's more than the town's population.

Some of the cyclists intending to take part in this summer's GASP became downright excited when they heard that we'd be passing through Biggar. They knew about the roundhouse and they would love the opportunity to see it. Imagine how they felt when we asked the town if we could arrange for a closer look.

While calling around to the other towns along our route, I happened to mention how pleased we were to be able to include a visit to Biggar's roundhouse on our itinerary.

"We've got one of those," Theresa from Kerrobert said on the phone. "Well, it's just the turntable. The roundhouse is gone. But the turntable's still there. I'll ask if you could get a tour."

And that's how I ended up spending Friday morning looking into locomotive roundhouses.

My curiosity was piqued. I figured, if Biggar and Kerrobert each have one, where else could we find them on our route? I wondered what they might look like after so many years of disuse, where to look for them.

I spent about half an hour on Google Earth, looking all along the railway lines north, south, east and west of Kerrobert, trying to find something, anything, that might look like a locomotive roundhouse. I didn't really have much of a clue about what I was looking for. Finally, I spotted it, northeast of town, a circular mark on the landscape at the centre of a semicircle of concrete foundations. In the aerial view, it reminded me of a gigantic oriental fan, gradually sinking into the prairie soil.

Now, I had a shape to look for. I found similar structures in Wilkie, North Battleford and Outlook, where Google Earth had enough resolution to show the detail. I pinpointed Biggar's from the aerial photos posted on the town's website. Unity and Rosetown? Google Earth lacked the resolution to know for sure, but I'll be calling those town offices to find out.

I managed to find archive references and photos of some of the historic roundhouses. We'll be sure to include whatever we can learn about these places in the route guide for GASP 2009.

It shouldn't be surprising to find these roundhouses or, at least, their remnants. Steam locomotives needed frequent servicing. Most of the towns along our route ought to have had a roundhouse. I wonder if we'll be able to find what became of it in each place we stop.