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Wheelhouse: How Technology Changes the Meaning of Words

• AnimalMuppet 11y ago
  > The term “wheelhouse” was also used in the rail yard. When a train came to the end of the line, it had to turn around to go back the way it came; this was usually accomplished by using an enormous circular turntable that rotated the train. These turntables were often covered, or partially covered, with a building so that maintenance work on the locomotive could be carried out indoors between runs. The buildings were commonly called roundhouses but were also known as wheelhouses. When a train came to the end of the line (or even a division point in the middle), the engine was often rotated on a turntable. Not the train, just the engine. The roundhouse was built around the turntable. It was not a cover over the turntable. And I have never heard of a roundhouse being called a wheelhouse. It is by far not standard terminology, if it was ever used that way.