Locomotives
use hundreds of gallons of oil and grease. The Oil House is a fireproof
structure used to hold it all. Located about 30' south of the old Round House in the Chama yard, this structure, was
built after the devastating fire of 1899.
The building is early industrial masonry with arched doors and windows and a pitched
roof. A large room with a lowered floor is entered through the steel plate door on the
north side of the oil house. The main storage room near the center has large cylindrical
tanks of different types of oil. Some grades of oil are thin and some are very thick.
Large barrels of grease are also kept here. Sometimes the grease is so thick it is shipped
in blocks and is carved like soap.
The south end of the building has two offices and is currently occupied by the Chief
Mechanical Officer. The middle portion contains two storage rooms where batteries and
small easy to loose parts are kept. There are still old signs on the wall from the Rio
Grande days of operation.
The oil house is a substantial structure which is all brick with a poured flat concrete
ceiling. The pitched roof was built on top of the fireproof concrete ceiling. Whether the
fire is inside or outside, this structure was designed to contain it. Fires were a
constant threat on the railroad and the Chama yard area (enginehouse, station and almost
every structure) burned completely in 1899.
