The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-09-18
RAILROAD NEWS.
First ROundh0Hse of Santa Fe
Still Standing i'm Topeka.
Built to Accommodate 3 Engines
Forty-One Years Ago.
TOO SMALL FOR USE
1t Would Not Hold Tender Of
Engines in Use Today.
Other Items of General Interest
TOO SMALL FOR USE
Other Items of General Interest
in Traffic World.

In an article headed THE Beginning
Of a Great Railway the Kansas City
star of Sunday has the following to
say of the well known first round
, house of the Santa F'e in Topeka:
Three hunrded feet southeast OF
+! the present passenger station of the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway
company in Topeka stands the first
roundhouse built and used by the rail-
way.
In october. 1868, a small force com
+ menced the construction of the Atchl-
son, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad from
Topeka toward the southwestern part
of Kansas. But money was scarce
there were no engines or cars or roll
ing stock of any kind available, the
weather of the following autumn ana
winter months was severe ana niue
was accom- plished. The Kansas Pacific
railway (noW the Union Pacific) ran
along the north side of the Kansas
river opposite the little town OF To-
peka but no railroad bridge spanned
the stream, the only bridge crossing
the river at Topeka being a weak pom
toon bridge scarcely strong enough to
bear a heavily loaded wagon SO near
~ all the money and energies OF the
new and financially feeble railroad
were devoted to the construction OF a
railroad bridge across to the north
side so that connection could be maze
with the Kansas Pacific In March,
1863 the bridge was sufficiently near
completion that rails could be laid
across it and on March 3d. 1863 the
first locomotive of the Santa F'e RAM
road company crossed over the bridge
and into Topeka. It was numbered 1,
and as was the custom in connection
with all the engines of the santa re
in the early days, was named, bearing
the cognomen lettered on each side OF
the cab &C. K. Holiday" thus honor
ing the originator and first president
of the railroad. On August rs, 1863,
the second engine arrived over the
Kansas Pacific and was transferred
across the bridge to the new railroad.
1t was No. and bore the name of
General A E. Burnside" General
Burnside being a director OF the road,
a noted general on the Union side DUR
ing the Civil war, and the gentleman
whose flowing side-whiskers gave an
everlasting name to a particular type
of facial adornment, the FURNISHES
There was no rOundhouse Tor these Two
LOGON olives, so the construction COM
PAW which was building the railroad
put up a cheap, temporary wooden
structure in which to house the en-
gines. In the fail OF 1859, When out
twenty-seven miles of track had been
laid, the construction company which
had been organized to build the ROAD
surrendered possession to the Atchison,
Topeka & Santa F'e Railroad comp any
of the track engine, rolling stock ana
everything connected with the road,
and from that time on the railroad
company itself took full charge. Dur
wooden structure built by the con-
struction company for the engines was
removed by the railroad company and
in its place was erected a roundhouse
of brick, consisting of three stalls; the
first and original roundhouse of the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Rail
road company.
The LOGON olives for which this
ancient roundhouse was built were full
sized for those days, but they would
be pigmies in comparison with the en-
gines Of today. They averaged less than
thirty tons each, while the average
road engine of the Santa Fe today
weighs one hundred and fifty tons. It
would be impossible to get any of the
modern engines through the small
doors of this old roundhouse, for they
would touch both at the sides and at
the top. Some of the locomotives of
today IN use on the Santa Ke are twice
as long as the space allotted in this
roundhouse for the engines of the
'70s. 1t would be impossible to get the
tender alone of a present day locomo-
tive through the doors of this building
For some time after its discontinue
ance as a roundhouse the old building
several years past 1t has been entirely
abandoned, and it is only a question
of time until it will entirely disappear.
The front and nearly all of the roof of
one of the three stalls has fallen in,
and the remaining two stalls are hard
ly more than shells. The old building
IS but a ruin, but it stands as a remin-
der of a time when a rOundhouse with
a capacity of but three LOGON olives
was adequate for a railroad which now
stretches from Chicago to the Pacific
and the Gulf which operates over
$500 miles of track. and which owns
and uses nearly two thousand locomo- |
ttVes in its daily ODeratiOnS.