Kentville facilities dimensions.

[briantrainman]

Does anyone know the dimensions of the old Kentville station and the roundhouse , also how many stalls did it have?

[stem]

Exact dimensions are not known but it is a standard CP roundhouse as far as I can tell. There are blueprints for standard CP roundhouses at the CP Historical Association site: http://cpsig.ca/

Kentville was a 10 bay round house. Visit the wiki and look at the Trackage-Structures-Roundhouses section. I just added more info on the Kentville Roundhouse tonight including links to Ivan Smith's Nova Scotia's Electric Scrapbook in which he documents the roundhouse and it's demolition with great photos. He even hired a plane to get aerials. Links are there also to the NSRHS which has a section including photos before the demolition.

I will be adding more info in the next few months regarding the Kentville yards as well which includes some track layouts and aerial photos of the yards.

Steve

[Paul Charland]

Hi All,

I have scans of the entire Kentville yard from the Kentville engineering department that shows all buildings. Although the actual buildings are not measured the drawing include the measurement of the concrete platform at the station (183 feet long) and that could be used as a scale to get fairly accurate measurements for the station and probably all other buildings on the property.

The images I have are from photographs of the yard plan, they are at a slight angle but I'd think that could be taken into a photo program and straightened out, the turntable is an oval and once you adjust the image until the pit is a circle then it should give a measurable drawing.

Paul

[stem]

I've put one scan I had of the yards on the wiki already but if yours is clearer than this one it sure would be appreciated.
http://dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?title=K ... e_Railyard

You can email to me or upload to the wiki.

What do you prefer (That is is you care to share!) ??

[Paul Charland]

Hi Steve,

You can e-mail me with your address at p.charlie@sympatico.ca This is a set of nine scans from the DAR's engineering department, last updated April 16, 1974, it's a line drawing with all buildings showing and the odd measurement here and there that could be used as a scale for the building footprints.

I have the aerial photo you have posted, never could figure out why the big traffic jam. Sent the shot to the Town offices asking if anyone knew what the event would have been but never heard a peep out of them.

Paul

[briantrainman]

A couple of years ago someone took the time to send me copies of the first four photos posted on the wiki. I am forever grateful to that person but have lost the original e-mail and don't remember who that was ( Paul ? ). Whoever it was started the ball rolling for me in my search for information on the DAR. Glad to see that DAR enthusiats now have a forum that will open some eyes to people that only know the letters VIA when it comes to passenger service. Thanks to all of you that have replied to this posting. In the first photo posted on the wiki the old engine house is still standing but in the second one there is a new building and sanding tower. Does anyone know when this change came about?

[Paul Charland]

Sorry, not sure who you are,

Might have been me, I've never turned anyone down when they were looking for information if I had it. I had all this stuff up on the Yahoo group for a long while but when they decided they were running out of space the first thing to get deleted (and usually the only thing to get deleted) was the DAR folder. Stopped uploading the second time it happened.

Paul

[stem]

I have now put up the images you supplied Paul. Thank you very much.

No deletions here are ever planned. We're going to keep everything we can get our hands on!

http://dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?title=K ... n_sections

To all: Does anyone know the right way to set up an ACAD file for mapping? We need to pin this drawing to GPD coordinates but I don't know how to set up the "units" on the drawing to acceptable standards. My ACAD just shows for unit options: Architectural, Decimal, Engineering, Fractional or Scientific. Do you use one of these units or is there some other method to add a unit option for GPS coordinates for mapping?

[Evangelineroute]

Steve:

Reference to the the "two buildings east of the roundhouse...

I have a typographical map of downtown Kentville, including most of the rail-yards, produced by the Council of Maritime Premiers from photography flown November 1977.

The outline is marked by the map-maker as "platform". I remember a large concrete pad in that area when photographing the roundhouse c2000.

From the Jim Taylor overhead image, the two building appear to be storage/freight sheds. The map outline, like the photo, indicates the two were one foot-print.

I also have an undated overhead image, and like the two references above, there are no tracks running into those two buildings, but tracks appear to run close enough to the south side of the buildings to permit unloading from box cars.

A small structure to the east of the "platform" is pencil-marked "coal tower".

Fred

[stem]

More shots of this building that we don't know what it was called:
To the right of the open doors and engine:
http://dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?title=I ... R6227b.jpg
Behind the coaling tower of the left:
http://dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?title=I ... _Train.jpg
To the right of the van:
http://dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?title=I ... d_1961.jpg

Ring any bells?

[Dan Conlin]

The building described above was the DAR machine shop/blacksmith and stores building. Leon Barron walked me through the concrete foundation. (He almost became a blacksmith apprencetice in the shops but jumped at a chance to become a brakeman instead.) The Kentville 1954 Fire Insurance map has some good details on the shops. I have edited the various dpi photos accordingly.

Regarding the roundhouse dimensions. Here is what I have, based on onsite measurements and a 1980 drainage drawing from Graves :

South wall: 80' 6"
North wall: 83' 7"
End wall of each stall (ten segments): 27' 5"
Doors (Seperated by 10" posts): Four south doors, 13' 4" each , Six North Doors 13' each

The stalls were numbered 1 to 10 started from the south side.

I'd love to see some plans for the roundhouse. All the standard CPR plans I have seen are for 100 foot roundhouses. Has anyone seen any plans that match these dimensions?

- Dan Conlin

[stem]

Great info Dan! Look like the roundhouse was a total original. For even up to a 100' bay, they would have used one less post on CPR's standard design. Also, the wider than standard entrance doors and back walls indicate the roundhouse was setback more than normal from the turntable.

CPHA has some prints that come close. Here's an 80' roundhouse. The elevations however aren't anywhere near close and there's one less post inside on page 2 yet one more on page 3 than Kentville :
http://cpsig.ca/data/Structures/teeswater_39988.pdf

This one's elevations are very similar to Kentville:
http://cpsig.ca/data/Structures/25874.pdf

Probably the closest of all thought is this one:
http://cpsig.ca/data/Structures/Chalk_R ... dHouse.pdf

[Dan Conlin]

That Chaulk river roundhouse does seem to have a lot of detail similarities to the Kentville construction but I agree that the overall building was unique - what a loss. It is such a pity that the wretched mayor of Kentville rushed to demolish before the building could be properly documented. The Nova Scotia Industrial Heritage Society had lined up an architect to do proper measurements and drawings of all those neat details - pit length, drop pit locations, fastenings etc - but that did not sit with the mayor's agenda.

I think, and I would welcome other opinions, that the Kentville roundhouse was built with one brick wall and four stalls and a wooden wall and then expanded with six more longer stalls added with the longer brick wall. This interim wooden wall approach was used at some other roundhouses.

[Ric]

Steve:

Reference to the the "two buildings east of the roundhouse...

Fred

Waaay late again into a conversation but the first building to the east is labelled American Can

[stem]

Never too late to add detail to a subject that has stalled a little bit.

I just want to make sure we're all talking about the same two buildings. I was referring to the building I have highlighted in yellow in the attached photo. Are these the same two building you are talking about?