* This roundhouse is one that was in service on or before 1838. Located in Jersey City NJ. It was built by the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company. This structure isn't just a roundhouse but also a machine shop and a Locomotive assembly and repair shop. Three different purposes shops all interconnected. I have this view taken from a lithograph on a 1841 map. It is found in a map of that year of Jersey City and Hoboken. It is in the Rutgers Historical Map collection of their library in New Brunswick NJ.
* This is the partial enlarged view from that map. It shows a revealing view of both the Roundhouse and the locomotive manufactory building. The only place I found information on this building is the footprint of it that is on the 1848 map of Jersey City. This new roundhouse view from a 1841 map is a recent addition to my info. The reason I used the word revealing is that from this view many important facts are gotten. Enough so that I can make a reasonable copy of the building. Information gained here is the type roofs and their detail. The fact that the locomotive Manufactory section is two stories high. The roundhouse has 9 stalls and not the 8 shown on the 1848 map drawing. Most important is that the small view of the Depot inself show a completed terminal building on this 1841 map. This predates all other information on the depot by a minimum of 8 years. Still missing are a few answers, was the Machine shop one or two stories high? What type roof did it have, and what did it look like? Were there windows on the other not seen side of the Locomotive Manufactory section. What style of windows were on the rear wall of the Roundhouse and machine shop. The search for information goes on. With something like this it may never stop.
frank
* In this view of the 1841 depot are shown are four train guards or security guards. Two on each side of the roundhouse. They have very fancy military looking uniforms with top hat and tails. They must be from a policing or a railroad security force.
*About the train seen in this lithograph; What was it doing? Did the artist just draw it here to add detail to this lithograph. If the artist didn't, this train is being pushed back to the terminal by a yard locomotive in preparation to a scheduled departure. An inbound train on this track would have the locomotive on the other end of the train. Because it is on the left inbound track and the New Jersey Railroad ran its trains on the left side. That means that train of cars is on a inbound track which must be cleared soon. Having a depot in a city, switching moves must be made in a way to avoid disturbance of traffic on streets the trains will cross. Terminal switching moves are continuous and will not be tolerated on all street crossings. All depot switching must be done east of Washington street and west of Hudson street. When viewing the 1848 street layout you can a switch on the west side of Washington street. This made no sense to me for it extended the yard limit another block. All it accomplished was tiring up another cross street in a unneeded way. Limiting this switching train traffic interference at this time to only Green street. This would be within the yard limits of the depot. All switches for terminal switching would have been within this two block area and not three blocks. A simple replacement of the turntable entrance track removes this problem.
This attachment is a section of the 1848 map showing the railroad depot at that time.
View attachment 166959
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