Re: Hole in the Chama Roundhouse wall

As John said, these are two different walls. The first photo shows the south wall, the southwest corner. Chama "shop improvements" drawing from 1909 shows a boiler room window left of the door and two windows on the right, then three windows for the old blacksmith shop, directly east of the boiler room. The drawing also shows three boilers. There was (is?) track from stall one (?, westernmost stall anyway) that extended into the machine shop, this is likely the track on which the wayward loco crept into the boiler room, damaging the exterior south wall taking out the windows on either side of the door. It more likely pushed the stationary boilers into the wall.

The second photo shows the east wall of the old boiler room (I think), the wall damage and bracing probably a result of the same incident. I have a 1899 drawing showing the boiler locations, they appear to extend thru the west wall into the blacksmith shop, allowing access to the flues and smokebox. Shoving the boilers around would damage that wall.

Or at least that's my best guess based on available information, I could be wrong. The second photo may be the west wall of the old blacksmith shop (which used to have windows), the wall bracing having no connection to the other damage on the south wall. Only been to Chama twice, 1972 and 2015, and have never been in the old shop, but I like to think I've been paying attention...

Regards,
Mike