GC1YA9Q Hugo Union Pacific Roundhouse
Type: Traditional | Size: Micro | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Grand High Pobah @ | Hide Date: 08/29/2009 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N39° 08.047 W103° 28.446 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
                 

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The cache container is a 35mm in a flat field very near parking.

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The location of this cache is at one of the 3 remaining roundhouses constructed by the UP railroad.  It is currently being restored by Lincoln County and Roundhouse Preservation, Inc as a significant example of roundhouse architecture from the past.  It is very unique in that even after it ended it's duties as a railroad roundhouse and was sold off, it was not architectually modified.  Normally the new owner would modify the structure for their needs.

What is a roundhouse?  It is a building used by railroads for servicing locomotives, typically steam locomotives during their heyday prior to 1950.  It is a large semi-circular structures which had a turntable in front that would line up with any of the interior tracks as required for a locomotive to enter or leave the roundhouse.  One or more external tracks would also connect to the turntable for loading and unloading locomotives.  Here there is no turntable here as it was removed some years ago.

What kind of servicing needed to be done to the locomotives?  Everything from getting the steam up prior to a run to a complete overhaul could be accomplished. &nbps;Typically one or two engines might be getting something a little past minor repairs to major repairs done while the rest were being readied for the next run which consisted of dumping the old fire, making sure that all the grease points were well lubricated, other minor repairs were completed, adequate water was in the boiler, and a new fire started.

What was it like inside a roundhouse?  I had the opportunity to visit a working engine servicing facility (a straight through building rather than a roundhouse) in Ely, NV back a few years ago.  It was a noisy, dark, and smelly place.  Not that these are bad things.  To listen to a steam engine is to hear a living beast, one with a pulse that you can hear breathing.  To hear the different sounds as the steam pressure comes up is almost magical.  The chuff of a pump, the gentle wheez of steam going up the stack (that is how an updraft is created for the fire in the boiler) or the dumping of water out of a stopcock is just something you can't find anywhere else.  And the darkness and the smell is something you will never experience elsewhere.  The coal smoke, with it's distinctive odor, mixed with the smell of hot lubricating oil, fills the air until you cannot see from one end of the engine to the other.  The smokejacks on the roof provide some venting so it doesn't become a total blackout, but you can certainly see the reason for large windows on the sides and back of the building.

As you can see from the pictures, this structure is undergoing renovation.  The cache is not near the building so simply enjoy the building from a distance.

Should you wish to see other roundhouses, you can find them in the following cities; Colorado Springs (21st & Cimarron retail center), Golden, Como, and Durango. Others may exist but these I know to be still standing.


 

Front view with the 8 doors
 

Side view with the large windows. Note the scaffolding near the roof inside the next to the rear most window
 

Back view with more large windows, 2 per track
 

Smokejacks
 

06/21/2019 By peruokie
Thanks for the cool history find

05/09/2019 By SGT red jeep
My wife and I are heading south from Northeast Montana to Midland Texas on a business trip. We are taking some different back roads on our trip trying to make it to a more directly straight route South then what the major highways and interstates would take us. This allows us to look at more of the rural Landscapes. This was an interesting spot here I wish they would have this completely reconstructed where a person could go in and check out the building.

09/17/2018 By Niknic
Quick find,
Sweet spot.

08/13/2018 By rfmetz
Interesting artifact and story to go with it. SL. TFTC.
Bob

06/27/2018 By blasingfam
This is really cool. I have been looking at this building all week while I am here on work and knew it had to be cool. I have never seen one before. Thanks for the fun!

05/23/2018 By 599.ltx
Found during my holiday trip. TFTC

04/21/2018 By Vegeater
Found D-J-J-V

01/29/2018 By Memfis Mafia
My caching buddy Barasaur and I decided it was once again time that we needed an extreme geocaching adventure. In the past, this has taken place in a few different states and has included kayaks and alligators. This time we wanted to go after a serious amount of smileys and cover some territory.

We headed out Thursday on a 4 day adventure that racked up some extreme statistics. The list of highlights show only a small glimpse of the extreme time we had.

2100 – Miles Covered
800 – Caches
100+ - Replaced Caches
93 – Hours of Travel
70+ – Hours of Caching
60 - Degree change over a day cold of 12 high of 72.
40 – Counties Cached
8 – Cache Types including 1 FTF and a couple 5x5’s
4 – States Cached
2 – Tired, dirty, laughing and smiling caching guys
and
1 – EXTREMELY DIRTY Rental Car

We stamped all of the logs using the Colorado Extreme Geocaching Team logo. Since this trip was focused on smileys, we replaced the logs when wet or worn out and replaced missing containers. We did our best to provide cache maintenance in an effort to help others enjoy this hobby. When we ran out of the supplies we brought, we stopped and made a trip to the store to restock. Some of the locations were more remote and we understand the value of helping out a CO.

This added to our list of extreme geocaching trips. We learned a lot, laughed a lot, and had a great time.

The answers to the virtual and the EarthCaches are coming from Barasaur. The favorite points and photos are coming from both of us. Thanks to all of the cache owners for placing and maintaining the caches for us to find.