B&O Railroad West Roundhouse, Martinsburg West Virginia
West Roundhouse is a building in the former engine and machine shops complex erected by the B & O in Martinsburg beginning in 1849. Destroyed by Confederate troops in 1861, the existing shops date from 1866 and later. West Roundhouse was one of two identical buildings used for running repairs to locomotives. It is a sixteen-sided, brick-walled polygon covered by a bell-shaped roof over the locomotive turntable, with sixteen wedge-shaped work bays radiating from the turntable. What makes the building unique and architecturally distinctive is its total cast-iron frame of octagonal columns, struts and beams. It is one of the most significant cast-iron framed buildings in the United States.
The B&O Railroad shops operated until 1988. This site was active early in the Civil War and was the site of the first National Labor Strike of 1877.
LOOKING EAST ACROSS RIGHT-OF-WAY SHOWING OVERALL VIEW OF SHOPS COMPLEX, BELL-CAST ROOF OF WEST ROUNDHOUSE IS DOMINANT IN CENTER. WEST-BOUND TRAIN COMES TOWARDS YOU 1970
LOOKING NORTHEAST 1970
VIEW OF BELL-CUT ROOF 1970
