Fred Bailey and J. David Conrad suggested I contact you about a turntable from the old Steamtown site at Riverside. Please reply off list.

rdgoldfede@aol.com

Ron is asking about the disposition of the turntable from the former Steamtown USA Riverside (Bellows Falls), VT location.

Anyone out there know what happened to it? I believe the Green Mountain Ry / Vermont Ry System now has a intermodal reload site where the Steamtown site used to be. Did VRS keep the table, scrap it, whatever? Did it "disappear" prior to the GMRC getting the property?

Regards,
Jim Robinson

The turntable in question was a 60' manually operated one from the Hoosac Tunnel & Wilmington and not the Rutland tables installed at Riverside or Chester. This one was never installed and arrived about 1972. I'd been told that when Steamtown moved in 1985 and the site was cleared it was sold to a Jim Robinson of Newport, NH. The question is where is it now?


rdgoldfede@aol.com

LOL... same name, different guy. Isn't he a rigger/hauler/used equipment guy--I've heard the name before. However, no turntables in my back yard!

Anyway what did happen (if anything) to the ex-Rutland turntable that was in use at Steamtown USA

Regards,
Jim Robinson

From several sources it appears the 90' Riverside turntable, from the Rutland's Rutland roundhouse, was owned by the state of Vermont after the demise of the line. After Steamtown moved they took it to Burlington for use as a bridge over a canal, and it was still there but not installed in 1999. No word after that date. Can anyone bring us up to date? The unused Chester table (also state property), from the Bellows Falls roundhouse, was buried when its pit filled with water and became a safety hazard in 1975, and may still be there under a parking lot built over its site. Does anyone have any other info on it?

rdgoldfede@aol.com