SUGARCREEK, Ohio — Construction has begun on a new 10-stall roundhouse has begun at the Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum in Sugarcreek, the organization has announced.
The new structure, known as the East Roundhouse, is a separate building not connected to the existing 18-stall roundhouse displaying 24 steam locomotives. The East Roundhouse will contain an office and storeroom in addition to the 10 stalls for rolling stock. The building was always included in the master plan of founder Jerry Jacobson, but is needed now because the museum’s collection of locomotives and railcars is outgrowing available space. When completed, says Tim Sposato, the museum’s chief mechanical officer, the building will increase roundhouse track capacity by 58%.
Unlike the timber framing of the current roundhouse, the new building will feature steel framing. It will be designed with an older appearance, using composite materials with fewer and narrower windows, as well as a monitor roof with a cupola. Stalls will have a 112-foot interior track, and the floors will feature radiant heating through hot water tubes placed within the 14-inch concrete slab.
The building is expected to be completed in 2026. It is not intended to be used for public display, but items kept in the new building will be rotated into the main roundhouse for exhibition.
More information on the museum is available at its website and Facebook page.
Illinois Railway Museum would’ve done well to have learned from Age of Steam. Many of the steamers at IRM have been shorn of their mechanicals and likely scrapped. Imagine the Mona Lisa after a vandal with a switchblade and you get the idea.
The only thing better than a roundhouse is TWO roundhouses.