Recently, a couple steel girder road bridges have turned up that started life--at least allegedly--as railroad turntables:

http://bridgehunter.com/category/tag/re ... turntable/

(BridgeHunter recently added the category.)

One, not too far from Altoona, is supposedly targeted for demolition this year (pictured below):

http://bridgehunter.com/pa/blair/white-bridge-road/

Another, in suburban Washington DC, is slated for removal but is also the target of local preservation efforts entirely unrelated to its (alleged) rail past:

http://bridgehunter.com/md/montgomery/bh71996/

There's another turntable bridge already in rail preservation, not listed on BridgeHunter: the main girders of one of the trestles on the Verde Canyon RR/Arizona Central RR, which started life as a turntable in nearby Prescott and was allegedly installed during a 1926 line upgrade.

Does anyone know of others? Might any of these spans be worth an attempt at reuse for a turntable in preservation? I presume that most such adaptive reuses had to do with replacing too-small turntables for larger ones......

How about a reversal - a bridge in North Dallas that now serves as a turntable for McKinney Avenue Transit. The bridge was located off Park Ave and Greenville where the old Texas Electric crossed under the Southern Pacific line from Dallas to Sherman. It was at this underpass that two Texas Electric trains met head on, in 1949, just where the rails made an S turn under the bridge. The loss of life and the potential law suits was the death-knoll for the Texas Electric.

John Landrum, of MATA, thought the bridge should be saved and re-purposed as a turntable for the single ended PCC car slated for MATA. He presented the idea to the Board of Directors and DART and they agreed as the bridge was scheduled for demolition due to the new tracks being planned along the S. P right of way. Today, one can ride the MATA cars north and take a turn on the bridge/turntable near the Subway entrance at City Place.

Harry

There is one on the old W&LE near Adena, Ohio that is used as a bridge over a small stream. I saw it about a year and half ago.

Kevin K.