I personally think this is a wonderful and typical solution that any traction company would have come up with given the present conditions of small amount of land at extreme cost.

In regards to the high cost of maintenance of the turntable. If you consider the higher cost to maintain the track in a tight loop along with the added wheel wear and thus car maintenance cost you may find the cost to maintain a turntable will be substantially less. Since there is a small amount of land available, I believe they have made a wise and economic decision to build a turntable.

Hi

I can just imagine the expense. Here the table will be in some sort of public space (I am guessing here), be motorized to spin by the push of a button, operate through all kinds of weather, seven days a week and be reliable.

Being able to utilize all types of cars makes this attractive as you have not limited yourself to any one type of car (double or single end).

I'd love to see how it does (really).

Karl Johnson
SFMTA

I don't see anything to indicate the length of the turntable. Does anyone have that information?

Just over 40 feet if I remember correctly. Maybe 45 at most. The interurban would hang over a little.

From the MATA Facebook page:

It is a very interesting concept. The table will be electrically powered and will only turn 180 degrees. So essentially when a car pulls onto the table it will turn to the right. For the next car, it’ll turn to the left. Also the turntable will be for any car in the fleet, as long as the motorman has time to use it. Of course the single ended cars will have to use the table everytime.

The plan is to operate three cars all day with the third car travelling from St. Paul & Ross to Cityplace and back and the other two cars from Olive & Bryan to Cityplace and return. The eventual plan is to connect the St. Paul Terminal with the Olive Street Terminal and create a loop downtown. That section of track will travel up St. Paul from the end of the line now and over to Olive on Federal St.

With the turntable in place we’ll be able to restore and use the single ended PCC cars when the loop is finished.

The controller will be an interface where the motorman will punch in a security code. The controller will then ask if the motorman has lowered his trolley poles. After the motorman punches in an affirmative reply, the controller will ask the motorman if he is SURE that he has lowered his trolley poles. After punching in an affirmative, the controller will tell the motorman he better be darn sure his trolley poles are down and then the turntable will begin to operate. The wire will be fixed, not rotating with the table. This shouldn't be a problem for ex-Oporto single-trucker No. 122 since it has only one pole designed to be rotated.

The motor is an off-the-shelf AC motor and the gear reduction is 1:10,000 or something like that. As I recall, there are sensors to guide the alignment of the tracks, there are no locking bars. The computer will attempt to align the rails 3 times and then go into default mode if unsuccessful. A supervisor security code will be required to take the turntable out of default mode.

Oh boy, I can see it now... the informal contests to see who can center the car on the turntable well enough that the pole won't de-wire as the car rotates beneath it.

Toronto Rwy.s 1706 at the Shore Line Trolley Museum's Branford Electric Rwy. has the pole base for that application. It's designed to flip all the way over, like half of what might be used for a double end car with only one Bow collector. However, 1706 is single ended, and fitted with an ordinary single ended harp. The eye for the rope would be on the wrong side (top) if the pole was flipped!

But if you don't take it down before the rotation, it'll be pointing the wrong way when you finish the turn.

The deck is framed out now.



I got a picture of the outrigger wheel assembly, but it is on my Canon and I can't find my download cable. Maybe later this week.

OK, here is the outrigger wheel, but you can't really see it all that well. The decking continues to move along nicely. I'm wondering what the surface is going to be. I would guess some concrete with some type of textured surface or brick pattern. From 6/18/2011



The architecture of the "roundhouse" reminds me of a veritable "Fortress of Solitude" at this point. From 6/25/2011:

Apparently the new turntable is now able to move itself under power. There is a video of the testing on facebook, but I'm not sure how to share it here.

It turned a full 180° and then slowed and stopped in perfect alignment.

The decking looks like artificial or plastic wood.

Well, the turntable opened a few weeks ago. It has temporally conflicting elements, but for what is need it looks great. Smooth and quiet. I think Irwin Car did the mechanical gear for it. I played dumb, got lost and accidentally wound up on the dignitaries car. Suppose I was representing the Fort Worth Streetcar.

http://www.dallasnews.com/video/?bcid=1338801224001

As I recall this end of the line has a loop around several blocks, so why the need for the turntable?

Wesley

Except for Cityplace which is on a stub-end spur. This is where the new turntable is.