By JULIE E. GREENE / Staff Writer

photo: RIC DUGAN / staff photographer [enlarge]

The Tri-State area lost a major piece of the region's railroad heritage in the fall of 1995 when bulldozers tore down the roundhouse in Brunswick, Md.

Now several citizens in Hagerstown and Martinsburg, W.Va., are trying to prevent the same thing from happening to their historical roundhouses, which are owned by CSX Real Property Inc.

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Government officials in both cities said preserving the two historical roundhouses would be costly and there are access problems.

Hagerstown's has the additional burden of being on land that may or may not be severely contaminated with diesel fuel and hydrocarbons.

That unknown liability led to Hagerstown City Council members rejecting an offer to buy the 46-acre complex along South Burhans Boulevard on Aug. 4.

CSX rejected a counteroffer on Aug. 12 for the city to buy just the five-acre parcel with the roundhouse on it because the city wanted access to that parcel as part of the deal.

Giving access to the city would have lessened the land's value and marketability, CSX officials said.

"CSX needs to be more realistic in their effort to get the city involved. We're not going to change our position. They can't change their position," Hagerstown Mayor Robert E. Bruchey II said.

"They should be as willing to preserve their heritage as we are," Bruchey said.

CSX officials have been adamant about moving forward with razing the 36 structures at the roundhouse complex to protect the company against the liability of someone getting hurt since many of the buildings are dilapidated and there have been fires set by trespassers.

Asbestos removal is expected to begin Monday and CSX already has a permit to demolish 14 of the structures, the most significant of which is the turntable pit in front of the crescent-shaped roundhouse. The turntable allowed several trains from different tracks to enter the roundhouses where they would be repaired or maintained.

"Until the wrecking ball hits we're open to somebody coming forward and taking over the property," said CSX Real Property Director Kevin Hurley.

The roundhouse complexes in Hagerstown and Martinsburg are surplus properties CSX is trying to sell since they are no longer essential to railroad operations, Hurley said.

In Martinsburg, developer Moncure Chatfield-Taylor has a contract to buy the roundhouse parcel so it is not in immediate danger of being razed, Hurley said. That contract is expected to be settled by the end of the year, he said.

Chatfield-Taylor wants to preserve the roundhouse, Hurley said.

Chatfield-Taylor was out of town and could not be reached for comment.

Since the Martinsburg City Council voted 5-2 on July 16 not to buy the roundhouse property from Chatfield-Taylor, several citizens have begun a petition drive to ask the council to reverse its decision.

Also, Berkeley County Commissioner Jim Smith said he wants city and county officials to discuss the roundhouse at a joint meeting in September, but he doesn't have any proposals to preserve it.

If it's impossible for the city to buy it, then "maybe we need to face up to that," Smith said.

But, if it's possible to preserve it, especially in light of the inability to save the Hagerstown roundhouse, Martinsburg officials need to keep talking about ways to save that city's roundhouse, he said.

Saving history

Supporters of both roundhouses tout their historical importance not only to the region, but the nation.

The Martinsburg roundhouse complex is a symbol for why the Eastern Panhandle counties are part of West Virginia, said Roger Boyer, project coordinator for Potomac Headwaters Research Conservation and Development Region Inc.

When it was obvious there was to be a Civil War and the railroad would play a vital role, the Panhandle seceded from Virginia to keep the strategically important railroad complex out of the South's hands, Boyer said.

Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson burned both roundhouses down around 1862, he said.

After the war, the roundhouses were rebuilt in Baltimore, disassembled, shipped to Martinsburg by railroad and reassembled, Boyer said. Only one remains after vandals burned down the south one several years ago, he said.

The roundhouse also is significant because it was the site of the nation's first organized railway strike in 1877, officials said.

The Hagerstown roundhouse is the largest railroad complex left from the steam era and features the second longest turntable in the world at about 115 feet, according to the Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum Inc.

Museum officials want to renovate the 25-stall roundhouse into a working tourist attraction where steam and diesel locomotives could be rehabilitated.

The region has already lost the Brunswick roundhouse.

"It's really a sin against America that they chose to tear that roundhouse down," said Leona Sauser, who spearheaded a campaign to save the Brunswick roundhouse in the late 1980s. The preservation campaign advocated turning the roundhouse into retail stores and a museum.

"Brunswick was a little pocket of American history" with generations of railroad workers in the southern Frederick County town, she said.

Sauser said she eventually gave up her quest to save the roundhouse because there wasn't enough community support.

Community support doesn't seem to be lacking in Hagerstown or Martinsburg.

About $335,000 has been raised so far in pledges from people across the nation to save the Hagerstown roundhouse should a private investor, the state or federal governments step forward to take over ownership, museum officials said.

Not only does Martinsburg have a petition drive going, City Councilman George Karos was swayed by a committee's research to reverse his stance and thinks the city should buy the property. Karos cast one of the two July votes to buy it.

"That's a real moneymaker down there if it's marketed right," Karos said.

Karos and Boyer said the roundhouse could be used as a community center, as a sports facility and to house trade shows. Shepherd College and West Virginia University also have expressed interest in it, Boyer said.

City Councilman Glenville Twigg agrees the property is historically significant, but said there are still more questions than answers.

The most reasonable cost estimate for developing the Martinsburg roundhouse was $8 million to $12 million, toward which the city would have to contribute $2 million to $3 million up front to secure grants, Twigg said.

Then there's the annual $200,000 to $300,000 it would cost the city to subsidize the roundhouse's maintenance and operations, he said.

Access - just like with Hagerstown and Brunswick - also is a major problem since the roundhouse is near active rail lines.

The lone access road is through a residential neighborhood that cannot handle large volumes of traffic so a bridge over the Tuscorora Creek might be needed, Twigg said.

Brunswick's Sauser said Hagerstown and Martinsburg officials have legitimate concerns.

But if they don't save the roundhouses, down the road they will be looking to rebuild them to promote the area's railroad heritage, she said.