Como Roundhouse, Southwest Colorado Travel Guide

The Como Roundhouse, located in the small town of Como, Colorado, is a well-preserved example of railroad architecture from the late 19th century. Constructed in 1881 by Italian stonemasons, the roundhouse was a crucial part of the Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad (DSP&PRR), serving as a maintenance and repair facility for locomotives. Como was a significant hub for the railroad, connecting routes to Denver, Breckenridge, and Gunnison.Roundhouses were essential structures for servicing steam locomotives, providing a circular or semicircular building around a turntable. The turntable allowed locomotives to be turned around for their return journeys, and the roundhouse offered bays for servicing and storing these locomotives. The Como Roundhouse originally had six bays, which expanded to nineteen by 1900, along with a machine shop capable of building entire steam engines.As the mining industry declined in the early 1900s, so did the railroad traffic through Como. In 1935, a fire damaged much of the remaining structure. The last train left Como in 1938, and the tracks were removed shortly after. The roundhouse was used for various purposes, including a sawmill, before falling into disrepair. In recent decades, preservation efforts have been undertaken to restore the roundhouse, with ongoing projects by the South Park Rail Society and the Denver, South Park & Pacific Historical Society. Today, the Como Roundhouse, Railroad Depot, and Hotel Complex is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.