CAN THE ROUNDHOUSE BE SAVED?
As you drive by the piles of rubble near the railroad tracks in Hagerstown, Maryland, you see what is left of the dreams of the community – a working museum based in the historic roundhouse and shops of the Western Maryland Railway. For ten years a band of several hundred rail historians and enthusiasts, with the support of the local citizenry, have struggled to save these structures and property nestled between the active tracks of the Norfolk Southern and CSX railroads. While the roundhouse is not gone yet, it only has days to live. During the last 14 months the hopes that the buildings could be saved have turned to despair as a demolition contractor has taken down a dozen smaller buildings and is preparing to bring down the roundhouse, locomotive and machine shops and warehouse. That is about all that is left of the complex that employed over 2000 workers at the peak of rail employment in the Hub City, so named for the seven rail lines radiating from its center. In 1988, the CSX Cor
