Looking at the pics of the new turntable installation in Altoona got me to wondering. How many turntables have been placed back into service in new locations since the end of steam? I know that TVRM is responsible for two (East Chattanooga and Summerville, GA), the one in Altoona, and I believe there was one in Colorado that even involved the building of a new table. We can even count existing installations that were refurbished so now we've added Spencer and Savannah. Any others?

Two museum installations that I can think of are the California State Railroad Museum (not to forget the transfer table now back in service) and the Nevada State Railroad Museum at Carson City.

sc 'doc' lewis

Let me see if I can recall the list I made while we were developing our turntable design for Owosso and surveying installatons around the country, including, of course, lots of help from a visit by our engineer to Chattanooga.

Scranton (new table in old pit)
Strasburg
Frostburg
Dearborn
Long Island (still under design)
and of course the lengthened (90-100') one at Owosso, of which we're seriously proud. I don't know if we beat the Altoona installation for tonnage of re-bar.
and one new Amtrak table out east somewhere, which it would probably be interesting to compare the cost of with reinstallations of old tables by museums.
Every museum seems to have a turntable bridge in the weeds awaiting capital: Union, Green Bay, St. Louis (2), North Judson to name a few.
Original tables are in use at Spencer, Currie MN, Baltimore, Fort Worth and others I'm not aware of. Not sure if I remember one at Palestine or Rusk, TX.

Orange Empire Railroad Museum has built an new gallows style narrow gauge turntable in a new pit.

There is a new gallows turntable in an old pit in Folsom California (not connected to rail, think of it as a park loco)

I am curious about brand new turn tables.

There's the one mentioned in Co.
And CSX's Cliftion Forge VA fueling center (built about 10 or 15 years ago) has what appears to be a new turntable. (there was one for MOW equipment there before, but the current one looks a lot younger and is in new pit)

How many others have been built from scratch? who does it?

Ben

FYI Heber Valley Railroad -- not quite qualifying as a museum-- has two turntable bridges "in the weeds awaiting capital"

sc 'doc' lewis

Ben,

Our drop table which we will put in our roundhouse and which we purchased very used from Jack Showalter right there in Staunton, VA, was built by Whiting. They are still very much in business and build very nice turntables and transfer tables.

I'd add the 110 ft. table at Port Jervis,NY which was completely rehabbed after decades in the weeds for our 1996-98 steam excursions with C&O614 from Hoboken to Pt. Jervis. I'm told that the City is keeping it in good repair and that NJTransit uses it occassionally to turn its equipment.
We had to redeck it, put new electric motors on it and clean out 30 years of trash, shopping carts,trees and dead animals but other than those issues it was in amazingly good shape.
It worked like a charm.
Ross Rowland

Reading & Northern dug out the pit in Port Clinton, PA and put a table in, does anyone know from where?

Joshua

Two in Quebec I can think of, at ExpoRail in Delson and on the tourist RR at Wakefield, both hand-powered and I think both ex-CP. The Colorado RR Museum's table is ex-CB&Q and came from the end of the branch at St. Francis, Kansas.

And how about the duel gauge one that the Colorado Railroad Museum put in front of their new roundhouse restoration building?

The table came from somewhere in Kansas I think.

And then for you smal train folks.

The hand powered one at the billy Jones Wildcat Railroad in Los Gatos, CA is I think 18" gauge; works quite well I have watched it go around!

Ted Miles

Seems to me the now defunct operation in Eureka Springs Arkansas built one. The site they chose happened to lie over a substantial shelf of bedrock, as I recall seeing some blasting going on when I drove through there one time. From memory it was not one of these gigantic long bridges that would turn anything on wheels.

A little odd that the operation was not connected to the national rail network, had a fairly short ride, yet they felt the need to invest in and install a turntable.

Bob Kutella

As to who builds new turntables, as Scott points out Whiting is still in the business. If I recall correctly their bid to build a new bridge alone at Owosso was $400,000 - b.y.o. pit and foundation. After opening that envelope the $30,000 price for the used bridge at New Buffalo started sounding very good to us.

When I mentioned at a historic-bridge conference that we were looking to build a turntable, I got hustled by the firm that I believe built the Amtrak and possibly the new CSX tables. They bought us drinks, but we never talked at length with them or got a price. Probably any bridge contractor could build a turntable, with a little allowance for head-scratching time to deal with the fact that it moves in different directions from a normal bridge.

Our installation was aided by an "Enhancement" handout, which meant that it was necessarily to FHWA bridge standards, and the work was not regarded as out of the ordinary by the contractor.

One preserved turntable known to but a few is the NYC table at Niles, Michigan. The roundhouse is in use as a warehouse, and the landlord keeps the turntable clean and, I believe, functional. But it spent so many years under water that the steel bridge is swiss-cheesed, so (for a variety of reasons) it's turned its last Mohawk.

Bob,

I'm not sure the Eureka Springs & North Arkansas Railway is "now defunct" - although I recall the business was more or less for sale when I rode their train last summer. The turntable in question came from the Frisco at Ft. Smith and is 75 foot long. It was "part of the show" and is usefull since there is a wye at the other end of the line.

Despite the short length of the ride, I enjoyed my visit there very much and they had a neat collection of equipment.

Three others that come to mind - I believe the truncated Reader Railroad installed a turntable when attempts were made to revive a tourist operation there; the Knox & Kane Railroad installed a turntable at Marienville, PA; and the city of Huntsville, Alabama installed a turntable and a replica roundhouse at their Depot Musuem.

Alan Maples

Yes it did:



And for the record, the Texas State Railroad does not have a turntable; rather it has wyes at each end. I think it does have a tiny turntable for turning speeders and other equipment at the maintenance facility midway on the line.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

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