As some of you know we at the Georgia State Railroad Museum have been working on the completion of two major projects. The complete overhaul of our 1913/24/44 turntable(long story on the different years)and the rebuild/retrofit of our former rusting hulk of a 1937 davenport diesel loco. Both operated for the first time on friday of last week.
The table was COMPLETELY rebuilt, the component rebuilding of the centerbearing, tractor gear, and the manufacturing of 9 new races for the axles(table has roller bearings) of the idler wheels was completed by Scott Lindsay of Steam Operations Corporation. Absolutely beautiful work Scott! The races were a last minute addition to the project, Scott made them in only five days....he really baled us out. The wheels were machined, idler bearings rebuilt, and all assembly/disassembly( would you believe the removal of the centerbearing only required the table to be lifted 18 inches!) work was completed by inhouse staff.....this was only possible because I had free use off all machines in the areas largest/best equipped machine shop. The owner(wishes to remain nameless)was a great help he made new adjusting screws and nuts(about 4.5in dia threads, 6tpi)on a cnc lathe at no charge. That, coupled with the use of his shop allowed this project to be completed by it's deadline of last saturday.
The davenport was repowered with a six cylinder cummins and an allison auto trans, a 26nl brake system installed, new coat of PPG Delta along with an endless list of other things. Once again the machine shop owner is owed a great thanks for his contributions to this project. A custom built main resevoir and endless hours of volunteer work just to name a few.
We have an incredibly talented crew here, and the project could not have been done on time if not for the help of all involved. A great thanks goes out to Warren Douglas, he came into town from Atlanta last tuesday to help.....he was there everynight until midnight last week with me to help make this thing come together.
Anywho, there is much going on in Savannah,GA. I encourage everyone to make a trip, there's plenty of non-railroad things to experience in this town to interest the entire family.

jasonsobczynski@yahoo.com

Well Jason I know that you have worked very hard on this whole project. More people than you know will be thankful for everything and you and your crew has done. I know that I am looking forward to seeing this for myself.> As some of you know we at the Georgia State
> Railroad Museum have been working on the
> completion of two major projects. The
> complete overhaul of our 1913/24/44
> turntable(long story on the different
> years)and the rebuild/retrofit of our former
> rusting hulk of a 1937 davenport diesel
> loco. Both operated for the first time on
> friday of last week.
> The table was COMPLETELY rebuilt, the
> component rebuilding of the centerbearing,
> tractor gear, and the manufacturing of 9 new
> races for the axles(table has roller
> bearings) of the idler wheels was completed
> by Scott Lindsay of Steam Operations
> Corporation. Absolutely beautiful work
> Scott! The races were a last minute addition
> to the project, Scott made them in only five
> days....he really baled us out. The wheels
> were machined, idler bearings rebuilt, and
> all assembly/disassembly( would you believe
> the removal of the centerbearing only
> required the table to be lifted 18 inches!)
> work was completed by inhouse staff.....this
> was only possible because I had free use off
> all machines in the areas largest/best
> equipped machine shop. The owner(wishes to
> remain nameless)was a great help he made new
> adjusting screws and nuts(about 4.5in dia
> threads, 6tpi)on a cnc lathe at no charge.
> That, coupled with the use of his shop
> allowed this project to be completed by it's
> deadline of last saturday.
> The davenport was repowered with a six
> cylinder cummins and an allison auto trans,
> a 26nl brake system installed, new coat of
> PPG Delta along with an endless list of
> other things. Once again the machine shop
> owner is owed a great thanks for his
> contributions to this project. A custom
> built main resevoir and endless hours of
> volunteer work just to name a few.
> We have an incredibly talented crew here,
> and the project could not have been done on
> time if not for the help of all involved. A
> great thanks goes out to Warren Douglas, he
> came into town from Atlanta last tuesday to
> help.....he was there everynight until
> midnight last week with me to help make this
> thing come together.
> Anywho, there is much going on in
> Savannah,GA. I encourage everyone to make a
> trip, there's plenty of non-railroad things
> to experience in this town to interest the
> entire family.


jbrown_61@charter.net

Hello Jason

Congrats, I remember seeing the Steamtown turntable run for the first time and later turn CP 2816. As a lad of 18 I couldn't have been more impressed if the 2816 had pulled in under its own power.

You folks are doing some amazing things down there, hopefully I'll make it down this year after my cancelled (darn hurricane) trip last year.

A question about the turntable, was it lengthened in the years that you mentioned or has it stayed the same length? The power suply, is it overhead through an arch or underground?

Dave Crosby

bing@epix.net

Does the rebuilt Savannah turntable use its original streetcar-like controller, or a space age modern type like Steamtown's?

Has anyone tried to mate low-voltage controls with an original controller? Having once gotten a 440-volt buzz once off one of the old controllers, I realize their danger, but hate to see history compromised in a museum setting with a modern metal box.

ryarger@rypn.org

No space age controller, only a two push button relay box for the 3 phase. The power comes in from overhead. The Savannah roundhouse has had at least 3 turntables since 1855. The current one was the Columbus RH table lengthened and reinstalled, in the '40s if memory serves.

dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

The table was moved from Columbus in '26, lengthened in '44 by 10' for a total length of 85'. It uses an arch with the original slipring for power transfer.
The "original" controller disappeared in the late 70's. When the table was returned to operation in the early 90's a on or off type controller was installed, the use of which almost completely destroyed the two largest gears. Once again, a big thanks to Scott Lindsay for his work in repairing all of the cracks found at the hubs of the big gears. The current controller is "space age". It has 3 layers of computer boards and an LCD display screen inside of the box......the darn thing actually had to be programmed. The new controller was programed to operate the variable speed motors at a range from 0-30 cycles, decreasing the max speed of the table to half that of what it has been for the last 10 years. This is atleast close to what it would have been back in the day, if not still a little faster.

Thanks for the interest.
Jason Sobczynski
CMO, Georgia State Railroad Museum

jasonsobczynski@yahoo.com

> The table was moved from Columbus in '26,
> lengthened in '44 by 10' for a total length
> of 85'.
I forgot to add, the Central's "Big Apple's"(4-8-4) were mechanically almost perfect copies of an SP GS2 with a major difference being that of the tender length. The tender length was determined by the length of the table in Savannah, they were very short tenders for the size of loco. I got bored one day and compared the wheel base of a Big Apple to length of the table.....on a good hot day, with the table completly expanded from the hot Georgia sun, you would have about 4 inches to spare at either end.

jasonsobczynski@yahoo.com