Also see the following address at trains.com http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/8/992893/ShowPost.aspx#992893 Fred Swain wrote: I can contribute a little bit to your inventory of turntables and roundhouse locations in the Houston area. You'll want to open Google Earth while you are reading this as I'm going to tell you right where to look. You have the old Hardy street turntable shown on your sight but sadly this was removed last year and the grounds leveled. There is only one turntable left in Houston and it is the Milby St. turntable. To find this in Google Earth, start at downtown Houston. More specifically at Minute maid Park. The old Union Station is now integrated as a part of the stadium. Go southeast from this location about 1 mile or so. Follow the train tracks. You'll see it. The roundhouse is gone but you can see where it was. The turntable is there and still very much active. This is a Houston Belt and Terminal engine facility that is also shared by UP. I've been by there several times and would be happy to snap a picture of it one day for you. From this location go n/ne about 5 miles to the large hump yard at Englewood. It's hard to miss. There is another large yard due north of it a mile called Settegast. At Englewood yard which runs NE/SW look on the south side of the yard about halfway across. Zoom in and look closely. At the corner of Wallisville Rd and the end of Boyles St. you can just make out where a roundhouse once was. In Google Earth it has tractor trailers parked on it but you can see the shape underneath. If you stare at the tracks you can tell how they fed the turntable and you can also see some old rusty buildings that are still in use today. Up north of Houston about 20-25 miles or so in Spring you can see a wye on the north end of UP's Lloyd Yard. This wye was built in 1901. While there was never a turntable here, there was a roundhouse. I'd more accurately call it an engine house as it wasn't round in any way. It had 3 stalls with a 4th siding next to it. That 4th siding is still in place today and only parts of the engoine house slab remain. It was removed in 1921 when the roundhouse was moved to Houston. Not technically what you are looking for but historical never the less. Going back to downtown Houston in google Earth. Find the Amtrak station. I-45 runs right next to and over it. To the east of the freeway you can see the remants of an old abandoned railyard. There are about 8 tracks remaining. On the south side of the yard is a large warehouse. There used to be additional tracks where this building now is but more importantly this used to be the location of Houston's Grand Central Station. It was torn down in the 60's. On the west end of this yard is the Amtrak station. If you go a couple of blocks west of this location and look on the north side of the tracks between Hickory and Goliad Streets and south of Dart street, you'll see what looks like a scrap yard. This is the location of the roundhouse and turntable that were built in 1921 when the one in Spring was torn down. There are no remnants of this anywhere on the ground but now you know where it was. I am the only person that I know of that knows where this one was as well as one more. At one time in Houston from the mid 20's to the mid 60's, Houston had 3 roundhouses and turntables all within sight of each other. The first one you have in Google Earth on your website already and it is the first one that I mentioned here that I said was torn out last year. From the last mentioned map position in Google Earth that was located just due NE about a mile. This was the old Sountern Pacific engine facility. Steam Engines were actually built there at one time! In google Earth if you zoom out to about 4600 ft or so you can see the old SP turntable remnants at the top right of the screen and similtaneously see the amtrak station and old yard near the bottom left side of the screen. Between them runs I-45 and I-10 at their junction points. To the NE of these freeways near the center of the screen you can see a large green area of foliage. This was another railyard. This was the MKT and they also had a station here. At one point in time there were 3 separate operating stations in Houston. Look for the building at Shea and San Jacinto Streets just east of N. Main street. This is a triangular shaped building. This is the old location of the 3rd Houston turntable and roundhouse. This building sits almost exactly where the roundhouse was. Again there are no remnants on the ground of this and I don't know anyone else who knows this. You can tell where the railroad yard was and the last remaining track which was long after the yard was removed within the last 25 years or so. You can still see the trestle on the NW end. All 3 of these engine facilities are within sight of each other. 3 railroads converged here and their proximity to downtown Houston determined their location. Just as a little bit more Houston RR history if you look back at Minute Maid Park, across the street at the corner of Chenevert and Texas Ave. there is a steam engine on display outside. Move a few blocks s/sw of here and you can see the George R Brown Convention center. On this location as well as where the freeway next to it is once stood a railyard. These were removed with the building of the freeways in the late 60's. As to another roundhouse remnant that you can see from Google Earth quite easily, travel down to Galveston. They used to have a turntable and large roundhouse down there. It's very easy to find. The tracks only run on one side of the islande. Just follow them and you'll see the old roundhouse slab. Look at the corner of Harborside Dr. and 37th. Now moving north about 1000 miles or so to Des Moines, Iowa you do have a picture of the remants of the old turntable and roundhouse. I have an actual picture of them from the early 80's when I was a kid. I've stood on it! I could probably scan it. I also have pictures from playing around on the Green Bay, WI. turntable around the same time. I hope I helped out your database in some way. I've been researching Houston railroads for a while and have learned much from old maps of the city that I've stumbled across. Let me know if I can fill you in on anything else. I'll browse your database to see if there are any others that I know of or have pictures of that you don't have. Fred Swain ____________________________________________________________ Fred's second email: Glad I could contribute. I have done a lot of research into roundhouse/turntable location here in Houston. There is an old map store in town that has an $850+ map of Houston from 1933. It has exact locations of these old structures which is how I can confirm them. Until I found these old maps, I didn't know about 2 of them. Due to the price of the map (as well as a couple of other good detailed old ones), I have not bought it. I'd love to have it though. The old roundhouse in Spring, north of Houston that is in the Wye is no longer there but I do have 2 pictures of it and the slab to it still remains today. It's easy to find as the town right next to it is a popular shopping area. During festivals they use the area inside the Wye as parking so many cars park right on that spot and have no clue what it once was. I go down there and train watch from time to time from that location since there is a lot of action leaving UP's Lloyd yard just south of town. 2 of the roundhouses that I had mentioned there is no sign of anymore. They are gone to history. Only the Englewood slab if you really know where to look and the Galveston slab can still be seen from Google Earth. The Hardy Street Turntable of the Southern Pacific is the one that you previously had on your site. Google Earth now only shows a crater in the ground where it once was and that is all that remains. Those grounds are for sale now so at some point in the near future this too will no longer exist. There are only empty hollow shells of buildings that were once locomotive construction and servicing areas. They'll be gone soon too. It was the other 2 just SW of there that have no signs of them remaining. I searched through your site more and can tell you of 3 more in Texas. There are 2 more in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Again get in Google Earth. Start at Downtown Ft. Worth. Go N/NW a few miles to the Ft. Worth Stockyards. You'll see a new turntable here. It is one of 2 turntables that belong to the Grapevine Tarantula Steam train. This is a public excursion train and they have their own website. Over 20 miles N/NE of this one is the opposite end of their line in Grapevine. This is immediately N/NW of D/FW airport. There is a turntable here as well. Go find Rusk, Texas in Google Earth. We have an excursion train there called the Texas State Railroad. This is a very nice train to go see but it's in danger of being shut down due to state budget. It is owned by the State of Texas and is Texas' most expensive and least profitable park. The train runs from Rusk in the east to Palestine in the West 26 miles away. 5 miles west of Rusk in a little town called Maydelle is the systems only turntable. It is right along the road. You can drive right up to it. It is used for demo purposes to turn the steam engines around on school excursions throughout the year. This turntable was installed here in the late 70's and was originally located in Paris, Texas. I don't know where it originally was there though. I'd be more than happy to answer anyone's questions about what I know in Texas as to locations. I'll try to get screen shots in Google Earth to send to you of the one's that I know of but unfortunately on a few of them I'm nothing more than a historian telling about what once was there but is now completely gone. If you'd like me to I'd be more than happy to go to these locations with a camera and take pictures of the grounds today. If anyone ever sees them and wants to go find the old locations, they'll know what to look for. Just let me know. I'm glad I could help. I don't want all of these to just be forgotten to history. Fred