Rotunda (railway)

The rotunda with the railway direction is an annular building of form being used for putting up of the Locomotive S. It is served by a bridge swing.

If this construction came very quickly in the railway field it is with the aim of be able to shelter the machines between two races. This indissociable building of the deposit was several models. Indeed according to the company and the year of construction the shapes of the rotunda varied. If the first rotundas could not accommodate that about fifteen Locomotive to vapor S one come very quickly to constructions being able to shelter about fifty machines. The first had also the effect of being entirely covered.

With the creation of the SNCF it was decided to build only 2 models of rotunda:

the type unified
the type G having for origin the Company of the railroad the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean

If the deposits had one, even two or three, rotundas it was frequent that those does not cover the totality of the radiant park thus creating a park discovered . In other cases all the park was covered but it occupied only part of the radiation of the bridge swing the such deposit of Hausbergen with three “half-rotundas”.

Beside the rotunda another alternative to the garage of the engines was the given served by a bridge translator but by preserving the bridge swing to carry out the turn of the engines.

Some deposits comprised in addition to the rotunda and its bridge swing a triangle of turn moreover.

An interesting case is consisted the deposit of Montlucon which had a revolving bridge serving a rotunda and a bridge coupled sector which served also a coupled rotunda itself creating a building not completely circular.

Another case was the rotunda of Nogent - Vincennes, which of 1849 with 1859 was the rotunda of the deposit of Paris the Villette. But this one having become too small it was dismounted stone by stone and was rebuilt with the deposit of Nogent - Vincennes.

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