Stucco covered roundhouses? In California

[voldemort]

I have a kato (n scale) roundhouse section that I'm going to finish up from the plastic it is now.  My layout is Southern Pacific (at that end I'm trying to incorporate the Daylight route).  I'm asking if anyone knows if there is a prototype roundhouse in California that is stucco covered?  Mike Fifer has an excellent video on how he painted/weathered one up.  I know the roundhouse in Santa Barbara is stucco covered know, but I suspect that was part of the conversion to a wedding venue type of place.  Anyone know of another out there?  Its not something that google does very well

[JMaurer1]

I can't speak for all of them, but the ones I knew in the SF Bay area were not...just brick. Same goes for the big ones in LA. I can't recall a single one that would have been stucco, or a reason that they RR would bother 'dressing' up something that the public wasn't supposed to see.

[MK]

I would imagine stucco would be a high maintenance finish compared to brick face.

[Steveruger45]

Although not stucco but a concrete   roundhouse Might be a good option.
 
 https://historichawaii.org/2014/03/03/old-railroad-roundhouse-hilo-2005/
And this one on the EJ&E https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ub8MJFHQvTk/WSrv6vrk98I/AAAAAAAAtaM/4izmfwM-xRM8Qf15ch_nIk1hbZKxzw86wCLcB/s1600/18622283_1894085190867270_2739052118420941855_n.jpg

[nickelplate759]

Santa Barbara is, or was in the mid  20th century, a stucco-crazy place.  After the 1925 earthquake they went nuts with the stuff (especially in pink), and near as I can tell the rebuilt SP roundhouse got the Spanish-colonial stucco treatment (but maybe not in pink).  Not clear if any place else had a stucco roundhouse.

[StarCruiser]

There are a few photos of the Santa Barbara Roundhouse:

https://www.google.com/search?source=univ&tbm=isch&q=Santa+Barbara+Roundhouse&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjip9GxqL3tAhUIQq0KHTh7AWgQjJkEegQIBBAB&biw=1615&bih=964

[MetroRedLine]

Roundhouses are utilitarian structures and were usually just made of wood, brick or concrete. They are commonly found in industrial/out-of-the-way places.

The aforementioned Santa Barbara roundhouse was an exception because of its location - it was located right across the street from the beach and adjacent to commercial and residential areas with buildings of similar Spanish-revival architecture. After the original 1925 roundhouse was destroyed by an earthquake, the replacement design was inspired by the Bullfighting Ring in Seville, Spain, most likely due to pressure from the city/chamber of commerce/community groups or as mitigation for a perceived eyesore. The original arches remain today, most likely restored, but the original was stucco.

So basically, your roundhouse shouldn't look fancy, unless there's an aesthetic reason for it.

[JMaurer1]

Steve pointed out a good reason for a roundhouse to LOOK like stucco...it's built of concrete, but, of course, the SB roundhouse WAS stucco. It probably is the ONLY SP roundhouse that was stucco, but it sure was stucco.

[Cajonpassfan]

Agree with most of what’s been said, stucco finish on a typical roundhouse seems inappropriate. But to me, the Kato roundhouse lends itself nicely to represent a concrete structure; the pilasters and wall beams have the look of concrete construction, and the finish could be relatively clean, or rough, depending on how carefully it was formed. The San Bernardino roundhouse, while bigger, was built using a similar technique, see pic below. I would simply paint and weather it “concrete”, remove the offending signs, and move the roof vents to the back to sit over the locomotive stacks. I don’t know about the doors, in the Southwest there may not have been any....
Just my two cents,
Otto K.

[voldemort]

Thank you everyone!!!  The argument against stucco makes sense.  I live in Canada, and people have in recent years put stucco over extruded insulation.  Why you would cover brick with it....  Oh wait.  I live in a house built in 1914, and the second store is stucco.  I only recently discovered that there are not one but two layers of brick behind it.   Probably a style issue like in California.

Thanks again.  Now I know what I'm doing.

[brokemoto]

I can't speak for all of them, but the ones I knew in the SF Bay area were not...just brick.

I saw the one at College Park almost every day.  It was brick.  Mission Bay was brick.  I forget if the one in Monterey was still there.  The power for the Del Monte in that era usually was a pair of torpedo boat GP-9s (which was overkill for the San Jose-Monterey part of the trip, as that train had three of four cars for that part of the trip in that era.  As SP added commuter cars for the San Jose-San Francisco part of the trip, that power was about right.

As I recall, the roundhouse at Oakland was brick, as well, but I do not remember seeing it often.

There were several stucco stations, but, I do not recall any stucco roundhouses.  The only things that you really needed to turn on the SF Peninsula were the Trainmasters, the SD-7/SD-9s or that SSW FP-7 that often pulled #110 (was its Northbound counterpart 125?  I forget, now).    The PAs or E units usually ran A-B-A (often A PA-B E-Unit-A PA) or AAA, thus there was no need to turn them.

[SandyEggoJake]

In addition to San Berdoo and others, the San Diego & Arizona's engine house was stucco over brick. 

Built in 1918 and used until the mid 80's, it had 7 parallel bays and industry windows very similar to those included in the Walthers Modern Roundhouse kit.  Except the SD&A "roundhouse" wasn't round.


http://sdrm.info/gallery/sda/downtown/sda106.jpg

[Cajonpassfan]

In addition to San Berdoo and others, the San Diego & Arizona's engine house was stucco over brick. 
...

Umm, I don’t like correcting people’s posts, but “San Berdoo” was not stucco over anything, it was just plain concrete. That was the whole point of my post... Perhaps you meant Santa Barbara?
Otto K.

[JMaurer1]

Was about to say what Cajon already said. Concrete and now gone. Wish that one could have been saved.

[SandyEggoJake]

>Umm, I don’t like correcting people’s posts, but “San Berdoo” was not stucco over anything, it was just plain concrete. That was the whole point of my post... Perhaps you meant Santa Barbara?

yep!  that's what I meant.... feel free to correct me when ever you wish!  I very much welcome it.