1941 Locomotive Cyclopedia

Has an entire section on locomotive shops, including plan drawings of an example locomotive shop. There are drawings of shops in various configurations as well as complete lists of machine tools. Somewhat before your era, but a solid reference. 

Roundhouse interiors

Due to space limitations, I also did a cutaway of my eight stall C&NW roundhouse based on the prototype located in Ironwood, MI. The drawings I used to construct it showed a wood floor, brick interior walls, wood exterior walls, and access pits between the rails.  I included work benches, ladders, a lathe, drill press, grinder, and air compressor. Also included are lubricant drums and handcarts. I illuminated the interior with tiny LEDs. 

"Locomotive Facilities C&NW and CStPM&O Engine Terminals "  by Joseph Follmar is also a great reference.

Tools

Lathes, drill presses, milling machines, forges, air compressors, cutting torches, saws, wheel turning machines, pipe bending machines, work benches, saw horses, dollies, tool bins, jib cranes, lockers, wood blocks.

D&S Shops

Here is what the D&S shops look like, they aren't "Class1" but its an active steam roundhouse:

Roundhouse

I recently uploaded a few pages of the backshop portion here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gmpullman/albums/72157711942181498

When I did the Walthers roundhouse I scrounged lots of bench and tool details as I could find.

I also used planking and railings to imply that a drop-pit was present, hence the drivers sitting there.

Herpa Minitanks makes a handy set of tools and benches (including a vice) that make a nice addition:

http://www.hobbylinc.com/herpa-maintenance-set-ho-scale-model-railroad-vehicle-740654

I also simulated some steam-heat pipes along some of the outside walls.

Good Luck, Ed

Here are some interior photos

Here are some interior photos of IC roundhouses in the 1950s:

And some from backshops:

This excerpt from a Railway Age Gazette article on the construction of the IC Centralia, IL locomotive shops should give you an idea of the layout of the machinery in the backshop.

Jeff White

Alma, IL

I couldn't be happier and appreciative...

... for all the replies to my inquiry.  The documentation (photographs, drawings, and associated references) is exactly the information I need to add realism to my roundhouse.  I just hope my humble efforts come close to the examples you folks provided.

Again, thanks VERY much.

Inspiring!

You guys have done such a nice job with these roundhouse interiors!  I'm trying, as a rank novice, mine are nowhere near as good. < sigh>  

It is disappointing how expensive detailing kits are.  A few detailing kits can cost more than the whole building!  What with 3D printing, I am hoping that our younger modelers get into it and jump into providing shareware programming files for universal 3D printing modeling detailings.  At our local university you can give them your file and they print out whatever you want on a very nice, high-end machine charging only the price of the raw plastic, a few cents a gram. 

I am struggling with 3D engineering replacement doors that are missing from my 8-stall RH building I have cobbled together from a few Heljian kits I picked up from eBay for a fraction of the price of new ones. 

I did the "concrete" floors using layers of large cardboard sheet from Office Depot, and the pits came with one of the bldg sets I bid on.  I'll score lines for the expansion seams next. 

One thing I've found in my hunt for what is found inside of the old RH's and somewhat missing from what I see here are "A" frame cranes with chain falls on dolly wheels, at least one for every two stalls.  Some were small, only 8-10' high, like the one shown, even a cherry picker or two, while most were tall enough to easily straddle the locomotives.  These all had wheels.  And plenty of work tables, between every other set of tracks, usually set up against the pillars to make the most of the dead space they created.

Fantasti looking round

Fantasti looking round house!

Were did you find the drawings? I'm working on the C&NW Winona version!

James

WOW, just found a couple of these roundhouse topics

Hope to use some of this info on detailing my roundhouse
https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/diamond-scale-turntable-korber-roundhouse-repairs-12214967

Not mentioned, but photos show it:

In the 1950's, the workmen wore cloth (engineer's) caps if they wore any caps at all. Carmen working around wrecks with a crane still wore cloth caps too.

 In my neck of the woods, hard hats became mandatory in the mid/late 70's; first at wreck sites, then engine facilities, car inspectors, etc.

 

Interesting thing I've noticed from these older pictures...

...is how dark and dirty these roundhouses were. The dirt was a "duh" bit, but I mean that they're filthy. Grease spots, oil slicks, grime, soot, rust, etc. Looks like every one of these was under "extremely heavy weathering" parameters.

The other thing I noticed is how little light shows up. Most of the light through these images was through the windows in the roof, not by internal lights. We take flourescent tubes and LED fixtures for granted nowadays, but most of these looked like their loco rebuilds might be hampered by a wayward cloud getting in the way of the sun. From a safety perspective now, everything must be brightly lit. But looking back at those roundhouses, most of them were pretty dim, even at midday.

Also, every one of these is cluttered, but not trashed. I see tools and equipment everywhere, but no scraps of paper, lumber cast-offs, or other hindrances or trash. Basically, organized chaos.

Absorbents too

Juxen, your comments bring to mind the not-infrequent sight of powdered absorbent spread on a spill of some sort on the RH floor. The spill was covered with the stuff and left for a time before cleaning all of it up; I'm talking 1970+ of my experience, and the  areas involved no more than about 2-10 square foot area. 

Funny how something jars your memory banks to show a common sight that you never made any note of, until many years later.

Jay Bird, for more memories:

Now imagine the smell; that fresh diesel exhaust, the stale coal smoke, and the overall permeation of oil, cheap cigarettes, and welding sinters. If there was a way to bottle and sell that particular smell, you'd totally sell the scene to any viewers.

Or, as other fine details, the cat that perennial hovers around the roundhouse, chasing off rats, or that one gutter that always sags and leaks, that the maintenance foreman will get to "someday soon". The stack of office paperwork and blueprints on the one desk in the area, as the manager is a big believer in the horizontal filing system. The tattered safety notice that claims that Safety Is Always First, despite evidence to the contrary.

And always the sound of hustle and bustle, clanging and creaking, only pausing during the lunch break or shift change, when only that squeaking exhaust fan is audible.

A few more...

-The coffee pot that is ALWAYS on. The stuff in it never tasted any better, but also never seemed to taste any worse.
-The "C&P" [i.e., Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co., to differentiate from the Company's trackside short line] ringing nearly constantly.
-The clear view steam tender sitting behind the ready shack, still neatly lettered in yellow, "Baltimore and Ohio" looking like it's waiting for its locomotive to return. (One night in the mid 70's I showed up for work and noticed the tender was gone.)
-An East End engineer's seniority roster still readable, that was glued to a bulletin board in the early 1950's. (I'll never forget being struck by the fact that out of the first 10 men on the roster, something like four hired before 1900!
-Familiar faces of the [mostly] friendly, sometimes philosophical/often hilarious electricians, pipefitters, laborers I worked around during those years. Some of them have been gone for these many years...

  "What equipment would be

Round houses were typically for between trip storage, service, maintenance ,and light repairs. So the stuff you mentioned plus tool boxes steam cleaners, mechanic's cranes, etc. Most heavy repairs would be done at an engine back shop with much more heavy equipment.  By 1955 many round houses were starting to hold a few diesels too. By the 1960s they were full of diesels if they were still in use. I recall visiting the SP round house at Watsonville jct. in the early 60's and it was full of black widow engines( and a few new bloody nose units) with the light coming thru the big windows lightiing them up. One of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen :> ) Not long after they tore it down and the engines just sat outside on the service tracks.  :> ( .....DaveB