An old question (dating back to August of 2017) was recently brought up again on the Indiana Railroads Bull Session website concerning the supposed existence of turntable for an interurban railroad that was once located inside of a railroad building. The table location was a barn, used as a shop at that time, somewhere south of Peru, Indiana. Were these turntables a common thing for interurban railroads? Do any exist anywhere today? As for the one in the Peru, Indiana area, no response was ever received to the original question.

Les

The San Francisco cable cars have a turntable inside the barn. It was originally outside, but then the car yard was roofed over (eliminating some good photo angles).

From my reading, turntables were rare in electric railways. They did not have roundhouses, and if the cars were not double-ended, then the carbarns were through tracked with a big loop.

Steven -

There was a thread here on RyPN some time back about interurban turntables and there were two brought up. Both of those were on electric lines which started out as steam railroads and the tables were in conjunction with roundhouses. One of those turntables was on the Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern in Iowa and the other on the TCRT in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The supposed turntable on this thread near Peru, Indiana was a turntable inside of a building. Perhaps the original report back in 2017 was in error. Would be interested in knowing one way or the other.

Les

Les,

Not exactly what you are looking for, but the main trolley barn for the Olean (NY) based interurban had a turntable that was big enough for a trolley truck. This building was on the north edge of the city of Olean.

The trolley abandoned in 1927, but the building lasted into the 80s. A friend who worked there relatively recently (60s or 70s) described the mini turntable to me.

JR

JR -

Perhaps that is the size of the Peru area turntable. That would probably make sense. Thanks very much for the info.

Les

When I worked at the CTA's West Shops years ago, the bay our wood mill was in had a single track down it's length, left over from streetcar days. Just outside the north door were two circular patches in the pavement, which happened to line up with two glass block windows in the low brick wing that was now the foreman's office. A 1910 era plan of the then new facility showed that this wing had been a lumber drying kiln with two doors (at the window locations) and two small turntables in that through track to move carts of lumber into and out of the kiln. Such arrangements were very common in those days, one man can move an impressive load if it's steel wheels on steel rail.

The Bellingham and Skagit Interurban (Pacific Northwest Traction, North Division) had a turntable at the Mount Vernon, WA, passenger terminal from 1912 to 1920, according to Warren Wing in To Seattle by Trolley. No photos were shown in the book and I have not seen any. The turntable was replaced by a tight loop that extended on a trestle over the Skagit River.
Very few electrified interurban turntables existed, as far as I know.

Yup - been there. I can pull down Electric Railroads of Minnesota and point to the page. But that is a rare example, and only because as you said they converted a steam dummy line to electric. Turntables on electric railways after 1900? That is pretty rare, and not really useful.

Electric traction had such a tight turning radius that it just was not cost effective.

Not to mention the option, double ended cars.

Earlier in this thread, someone mentioned a small, truck-sized turntable. These are common in car shops, including new MU, rapid transit and light rail shops.

They are used to get the trucks out from under the car. You spot the truck on the turntable, then lift the carbody enough to clear the truck. Disconnect anything attaching the truck to the carbody, turn the truck 90 degrees and roll it off to the truck shop. Roll a shop truck under the carbody and repeat as necessary for the other truck. Or use the bridge crane to set the carbody on blocks in another bay.

Phil Mulligan

Most of the truck turntables I have seen in light rail shops are located away from the service pits or from the built-in jacking locations. Here is a page from the Whiting Corporation's website: Single Truck and Full Locomotive Turntables

Whiting is right: those little turntables are useful anywhere you want a truck to change direction 90 degrees. One shop employee can spin the truck. Easy Peasy.

Phil Mulligan

Worked for Appleton Machine Co in Appleton Wi, started back in 1973. The building I mention was torn down long ago. The original building on our side of the road was a foundry dating back to the Civil War era I was told. We had a narrow gauge track running down the floor with a turn table that directed change in traffic to our old manual shot blaster and a small paint shop bay. This was long out of use by the time I started there but it was a smaller version of the "truck turntables". This was before we had overhead cranes and the trolly system was used to aid in material handling of what ever needed moving. I recall the ancient casting turntable being in the floor. You just ran over it as the rail and turntable were flush with the floor. Hadn't thought of any of this for years. Any narrow gauge carts were long gone by the 1970s. Industry had many uses for turn tables and I have toyed with the idea a few times for my own personal needs. If there was a patent on "the wheel" you would be smokin rich. Regards, John.

Is this what you are talking about?

http://www.tramz.com/br/cj/cje/cje07.html

Well I'll be...! A narrow gauge interurban on an interurban turntable. This must be the hens teeth of the hens teeth! Thanks for sharing. More about that line is here:
http://tramz.com/br/cj/cj.html

Related subject:
https://groups.io/g/NG-Traction