SNCF roundhouse

This unique railway roundhouse, built between 1906 and 1910, features an articulated metal structure similar to the Eiffel Tower. Mandatory guided tours.

The exceptional railway situation of Chambéry has led to build the engine shed, to make easier the manoeuvre and the maintenance of the locomotives. This is one of the last big building of a metal articulated structure of longue range in France, this technique having then disappeared with the coming of the reinforced concrete. It is composed of two parts : a ring of 27m of width and a dome of 55m of diameter. The building is 34m high, 110m of diameter and is weighting 900 ton. While the railway installation were the Allies target, the engine shed has been miraculously spared by the bombing of 1944.When its destruction has been evoked in 1980, some railway workers passioned will succeed in convincing the SNCF direction to preserve this precious industrial testimony of the early XXth century. It has been classified historical monument in 1984. Maintained and restored progressivly by the SNCF, it is still used for the maintenance of about fifty locomotives, including a machine from the 1900's.