Abandoned turntable?

bobyar2001 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 08, 2005 3:52 pm

Any idea where this might be, or if it's really a turntable? I have e-mailed the photographer at the address with the photo, but too soon for a reply.http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?m ... 4/f8tt.jpg

Dave Lewandoski · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 5:58 pm **Posts:** 1084

looks like one to me. Love to see it in person.

bobyar2001 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 08, 2005 4:32 pm

More photos in next day's postings on ABPR. Apparently Forrest, Illinois, ex-Wabash, other buildings there also (scroll on thumbnails). Forrest is east of Peoria, where the north/south Wabash line crossed the TP&W.http://abpr.railfan.net/abpr.cgi?dir=ma ... t=by0alpha

doowoppie · **Posted:** Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:13 pm

Hi Bob,It looks more like an old railroad bridge to me but it could be a turntable. I would really like to know where it is too. If it is Close to Peoria I know someone who could take a look at it and let us know about it.Andrew

Aarne H. Frobom · **Posted:** Fri Dec 09, 2005 12:19 pm

The longitudinal members between the rails in the center of the bridge suggest to me that this is a turntable bridge. It also looks like there is signs of a tractor frame and remains of a control cabin at the lower right of the photo. Maybe an 80-footer or so.

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6487

Bob:This is almost certainly the old Wabash turntable at Forrest, Illinois. I took some pictures of it a number of years ago after it was abandoned and before the trees grew up around it. When I photographed it, the pit was being used by the locals as a convenient place to dump their "junk". At the time, the turntable motor was still in place.Forrest at one time had a rather large roundhouse but it is long gone. It might have been a Division point as it is about 100 miles from Chicago. Their was also a branch line that ran from Forrest to Streator, Illinois and that may be the reason that the turntable survived the roundhouse.Forrest has a "L shaped" wood depot that served the Wabash and the TP&W. There was talk at one time of restoring the building and I think the windows had been boarded up to prevent any additional vandalism. The locals also acquired an old Nickel Plate Road steel bay window caboose which is currently sitting on a piece of track to the west of the depot. The last time I saw the caboose and the depot, it looked as if no work had been done to either. With the turntable and the depot, a decent railroad display could be made. But you have to have some motivation and it is questionable that the folks in Forrest have it.Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)