The Age of Steam Roundhouse
Sugarcreek, OH, US / OH
Location Description
Wishing to share with others his passion for the steam locomotive, Jerry Joe Jacobson established the Age of Steam Roundhouse. Currently operated by the Jerry and Laura Jacobson Foundation, a non-profit educational organization, and located just 2-1/2 miles south of the village of Sugarcreek, Ohio the Age of Steam Roundhouse site is surrounded by picturesque Amish farms with their horse-drawn buggies, plows and reapers. What a beautiful sight it will be for draft horses and their iron brethren to labor and cavort in juxtaposed pastures. The site consists of storage tracks, a store house, coal dock, wood water tank, ash pit, back shop and the jewel of the site, a complete, working, 18-stall, brick roundhouse surrounding a 115-foot turntable and turntable pit. Other than a few, small roundhouses recently built for railroad museums, we believe that this is the first full-sized, working roundhouse built in the U.S. since 1951. Not following a particular design or style, these structures have been erected in the same architectural appearance as railroad buildings of the 1920-era, but with some modern-day modifications for safety, comfort and economy of construction and operation. Of note is the roundhouse’s 53,000-square foot roof that is supported by old-time Amish timber framing fashioned from 12"x12" oak columns, and 12"x16" beams and rafters measuring 10"x10" and 10"x14". These intricate roof trusses are held together with tightly fitting mortise and tenon joints using the laws of physics as applied to the age-old science of tension and compression, and then made fast with hand-hammered 12-inch oak pegs.
Location Category
- CITIES / TOWNS - [general]
- CITIES / TOWNS - Towns / Villages
- MUSEUMS / EXHIBITS - [general]
- MUSEUMS / EXHIBITS - Automotive
- TRAINS / RAILROADS - [general]
- TRAINS / RAILROADS - Tracks / Junctions
