(The following story by Jeff Gearino appeared on the Jackson Hole Star-Tribune website on April 9.)
GREEN RIVER, Wyo. — Evanston’s historic railroad roundhouse has been a vital part of this city’s growth and development from the very beginning. It literally saved Evanston from becoming just another “end of the tracks” town.
Used primarily to service steam locomotives, Evanston’s roundhouse is the last complete roundhouse complex remaining on the Union Pacific line.
Like the steam engine locomotives of old they served, railroad roundhouses like Evanston’s have all but disappeared from the nation’s rail lines. Only their legacy and historical value remain.
Evanston’s unique roundhouse has one of the few turntables in the country that still operates. A roundhouse is a building with a rotating track used to change the direction of train cars.
Construction on the Union Pacific Railroad began in 1863. By 1868, the first cars of the new rail line reached the fledging town, according to area historical accounts.
By July 1871, UP officials decided to locate its roundhouse and machine shops in the small Uinta County town. The move assured the town a permanency denied some other early railroad towns in Wyoming.
The original stone roundhouse was built in 1871. The present brick, 28-stall roundhouse was constructed in 1912 after locomotives became too large to fit into the first roundhouse.
The facility soon grew to be Evanston’s major employer, But by 1925, the development of diesel engines made the Evanston facility obsolete and UP officials closed down operations at the complex.
But after a delegation of city officials traveled to Omaha, Neb. to plead with the company to keep operating the facility, UP officials reopened the roundhouse and rail yards as a repair and reclamation plant, serving the entire UP line. The plant employed over 300 workers, making it Evanston’s largest employer once again.
The roundhouse served as a repair facility until it was permanently closed in 1971. UP officials later donated the property and buildings to the city of Evanston in 1974.
That year, the plant was leased by the Wyoming Railway Car Corp. for the purpose of preventive maintenance, painting and designing of railroad cars. More than 17 railway companies sent cars to Evanston for repairs.
The roundhouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.