Radville
is located beside Long Creek, which drains about 500 square miles
to the west and north. A fairly reliable water source though seasonal
was sufficient for the Canadian Northern Railway to select that
area for a site to build a repair shop between Strathcona (Winnipeg,
Manitoba) and Lethbridge, Alberta.
Repair
shops were called roundhouses because of their configuration,
an arc with boiler room and milling equipment rooms continuing
the arc profile.
Equipment needing repair or housing approached the building from
inside the arc, drove onto a turntable which selected one of the
sets of rails that led into the various stalls.
All equipment was run by steam powered engines such as: a water
pump from a dammed Long Creek to the water tower, an elevator
to hoist coal to a hopper bottom overhead bin, a turntable, coal
transfer to boiler room within the roundhouse, milling machinery,
etc. Heat from the boiler room was also used to heat the depot
and two company houses hundreds of yards away through underground
pipes.