All,
I was looking through the Societies 1946 Chesire CD tonight and happened across the note on the S. Hammond roundhouse saying it was built in 1941. If I had been paying attention, it would have struck me odd before learning about this fire. By the by, the roundhouse is listed having the following equipment:
-Boiler,
-Wheel grinder
-Engine lathe [?]
-Radial drill
-Crank shaper [?]
-Electric Welder
-and an air compressor system re-purposed by the railroad from locomotive compressors
It doesn't say so for S. Hammond, but in the entries for Monon and Michigan City it lists the locomotive that the stationary boiler came from. For example the boiler at the Monon engine house was rebuilt from the boiler of engine #241, an E-2 class twelve-wheeler. Inside the engine house there was a 13ft x 15ft coal bin to feed this boiler. They must have spotted cars inside the engine house to get the coal there since there was no track outside. Cool stuff.
Regards,
Mike Aufderheide