In modern-day businesses that employ a lot of people, probably the most dreaded five words heard are: the computer system is down. Whether it's a system crash or a planned upgrade of technology, downtime is downtime, and the less of it there is, the better for business operations.
Back in 1924, Oneonta's D&H Railroad yards were a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week operation, and by far the busiest along the line's system. It was imperative to keep the operations as smooth and wreck-free as possible.
It was critical that the D&H roundhouse was be operational at all times, as it served as a center of maintenance and repairs for the steam locomotives.
An engine would be brought in to the roundhouse and placed on a large turntable. The table would be turned to a certain track and the engine was moved to a maintenance or repair area.
Around this time, the steamers were getting larger. The D&H management decided to install a much larger turntable in the roundhouse. At completion the new table would be able to accommodate a locomotive up to 104 feet in length.
Work began on the project Aug. 27, 1923, when crews began excavating for a new, larger circular wall of the roundhouse. The structure had been built in 1906 and for a few years was the largest in the world. While construction got under way, it was business as usual for taking care of the locomotives.
Preliminary construction continued in the coming months, including lengthening the tracks from the turntable to each enlarged workstation in the roundhouse. The new turntable was delivered to Oneonta on Dec. 20 and final preparations were under way to get this installation done as quickly as possible, as all roundhouse operations would have to temporarily cease.
Management's big concern, given how busy the D&H yards were, was how fast could this job be done?
Other railroads had installed turntables in their roundhouses and the previous record time had been 18 hours. The D&H chose Monday morning, Jan. 7, 1924, to make the conversion.
George D. Hughey was the D&H division engineer who planned the job and directed its operation that day.
"With a force of trackmen, bridge carpenters, machinists and other workmen on the spot," reported The Oneonta Star the next day, "the work began and with clocklike precision each step was taken. Quickly the old was dismantled and the material moved aside and then the old turntable, which will be used elsewhere, probably at Mohawk or Lanesboro, was placed upon a flat car and moved aside."
It was 8:10 a.m. when the work began. "There was no cessation for lunch and the work went about rapidly." Photographs of the progress were taken often and can be seen in Jim Loudon's book "The Oneonta Roundhouse."
The next railroad to install a new turntable in their roundhouse had an incredible new record to beat, made that day by the D&H workers. The Oneonta job was completed in a phenomenal seven hours and 15 minutes, at 3:25 p.m., or 10 hours, 45 minutes under the previous record.
"Mr. Myers, the expert sent on with the table by the Bethlehem company, of which it was purchased, after it was completed, said that he had witnessed a good many such jobs but he had never seen one done so perfectly and so expeditiously and that he had not believed it possible to accomplish it in less than 12 hours," the Star wrote.
Some D&H officials had come from the Albany headquarters to observe and "said later that it was a fine piece of work."
It was back to work from there in Oneonta's busy roundhouse.
On Monday: It's Cooperstown in the national spotlight.
City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com.
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