The Magnificent Roundhouse

Written by Bakersfield Magazine

Bakersfield and Kern County have long had a romance with the rails. In the late 1800s, just a few decades after Cyrus K. Holliday started the Santa Fe Railway in 1859, the land in these parts was well-covered with steel tracks. With freight lines and passenger lines traveling north and south, east and west, the Kern County railroad industry was growing at an unprecedented rate. Here in Bakersfield, that growth continued well into the early 1900s as more and more cargo was shipped across the West in the name of Manifest Destiny.

So much cargo, in fact, that time was of the essence. But the need to move locomotives from track to track and to perform engine tune-ups was no small feat. That’s when Bakersfield’s roundhouses really came into use.

The Santa Fe Railroad Roundhouse was built in 1909 and was located at the end of the rail yard, east of what is now the Oak Street overpass. At its peak, the roundhouse and the attached shop staffed roughly 240 employees.

Perhaps the most significant fact about this roundhouse was that it was once known as the largest roundhouse in the West. Locomotives would arrive on the turntable, be serviced (no engine could leave the house until the engineer was sure every task on the work order was completed), be housed, or be placed on a different track so it could travel to far off parts of the country.

As the years passed, freight trains still ruled the rails, shipping oil, potatoes, grapes, and a bounty of agricultural products from the San Joaquin Valley across the U.S.—a vital service. And those running the rails worked long, hard days to supply that need; the sheer power of the trains demanding respect.

While the heyday of the railroad may be in the past, there’s no denying the continued presence of the rails in Kern. After all, nothing says romance better than a historic railway.

Photos courtesy of Chris Brewer, Kern County Library

Article appeared in our 27-6 Issue - February 2011