Valley Girl Views: The Williamsport Roundhouse

The Roundhouse, Turn Table, At Walnut Street, Williamsport Pa

Information from fb comments, from those who know much more than I do about the railroad:

A new turn table and round house were being built in 1906. Scroll down to the bottom under "Read more" for an 1880 article about an accident at a round house in Williamsport. The 1861 map also shows a round house.

Roundhouse on the left. Little League Boulevard now runs where the train tracks are in this photo.

The PRR Roundhouse in Williamsport
The left of the photo is Erie [Now Memorial] Avenue
Walnut Street runs along the bottom of the photo.
To the right would be present day Little League Blvd
Just east of the roundhouse is the boiler house
The Ash Pit is on the second track to the right

Not an aerial view like the photo above, but the best I could do. from the ground. the train tracks were on the right, where the road is. The round table was to the left, where "Roundhouse Field" is today.

In this aerial view of the round house, look at the bottom, to the right of the tracks. The Park Home (originally Herdic's Hotel) is the square building with the hold in the middle. That hole was a courtyard. Note the train station behind the Park building.

A view of the park home (originally the Herdic Hotel) and train station.

See more about the Herdic / Park Hotel, here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2022/04/herdics-hotel-at-park-place.html

The three bay roundhouse at Walnut Street, Williamsport

Part of the turn table visible, in this 1956 photo.

Turn Table, Walnut St, Williamsport Pa

Turn table at Walnut Street, Williamsport

"Taken in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on 2 December 1956. Shown here (L to R) are four Pennsylvania Railroad steam locomotives poised for action: #4249, #4293, #6734, and #1496. #4249 and #4293 are I-1SA (2-10-0) "Decapods" built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works: #4249 was constructed in June of 1923 and retired in August of 1957, while #4293 was built in July of 1923 and retired in October of 1959. #6734 is an M-1B (4-8-2) "Mountain" built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works as an M-1A in June of 1930, rebuilt in Juniata as an M-1B in August of 1948, and retired in September of 1959. #1496 is a B-6SB (0-6-0) switcher built in Juniata in January of 1916 and retired in December of 1957.

All that smoke and steam means it's really, really cold! This photo comes from a color slide set entitled "Steam on the Pennsy's Elmira and Shamokin Branches" that's produced and distributed by Blackhawk Films of Davenport, Iowa"

In this photo, the Park Home on the right (large white square) and the train station is still standing behind it. The station was destroyed by fire on August 31 1979. It was torn down a week later.

A cropped version of the above photo - train station on the right, behind the Park building. Little League Boulevard it partially built, but train cars still appear to be sitting here in the middle of the photo.

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Round House Field

Photos From August 2026

Gated and locked.

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Map Views

1861

Williamsport & Elmira Railroad

Work Shop, Machine Shop, Round House, Freight house, and Office

Sunbury & Erie Railroad Depot Grounds

Cropped from the 1879 Bailey Map

These maps did not typically over exaggerate

1889 Map - also showing a larger roundhouse. Combined with the 1880 article below and 1906 article at the top - I suspect there was a larger roundhouse here, and then a new one build in 1906. I have not yet searched through newspapers for more information.

1911

Sanborn Map. Maybe 1912? The Williamsport Sanborn Maps are not clearly dated, I have three sets all from "1912", and these two maps are too different to both be from the same year. Need to look online to confirm dates.