Sheepscot Turntable - Official Work Thread

[Mike Fox]

I think Jason answered my questions and concerns very well off line, and am anxious to see Harolds new design for the foundation. Excellent blue prints thus far, and very detailed.

[Brendan Barry]

Another view of the Albion turntable.

[Philip Marshall]

Nice picture, Brendan. I've never seen that one before.

As a side note, I've always been fascinated by the H.K. Porter-style bell that No. 2 wore in the later years of the railroad. Did it come from W&Q No. 1 maybe?

[Carl G. Soderstrom]

Again there appears to be no turning pole.

Is that a locking mechanism on the left side of the table? With a casting with a slot on the abutment?

2X4s tacked on to keep the queen posts from moving? 

[Mike Fox]

Looks like it to me Carl. The ground around the pit would make using a pole very difficult. I imagine they pushed on the table itself

[Jason M Lamontagne]

There's pictures of 2 or 3 crew members in the pit pushing.  I'm quite certain we can do better with landscaping to allow easier use of a pole.  That'll make the open pit a low spot in the terrain; ample drainage will be key (for which there's plans).

Jason

[Harold Downey]

The turning pole is clearly visible on the Albion turntable  -- see the last picture on the previous page.  The view here is not the side with the pole.  Both images seem to be the same time period, since both show the scabbed on piece of wood to stabilize the tall queen posts.

Harold

[Rick Rowlands]

Looks to me like the left side king post started to slide down and the 2x4s were nailed there to keep it standing as the post is clearly about a foot away from the bend in the truss rod.  Kinda makes me think that the truss rods didn't provide all that much support  to the turntable.

With the droop caused by the weakened truss rod system, and the fact that it had only partial outer ring rails, I wonder if they ran into problems where the outer wheels would drop below the top of the ring rails when they rolled off the ends.

[Wayne Laepple]

The standard gauge Maryland & Pennsylvania RR had a turntable at Delta, Pa. that was built on a hillside. There was only on track feeding the turntable, which was used to turn engines when the Ma & Pa operated commuter service from Baltimore up to Delta, which was just across the state line. Between 1965 and 1969, it was used occasionally to turn steam locomotives operated by Rail Tours, Inc. that made the journey to Delta from York, Pa. I was a volunteer with Rail Tours from time to time, and I helped turn engines there on two or three occasions. When the table was positioned to accept a locomotive running onto it, the opposite end was probably six to eight feet above the ground. There was only a low concrete wall with the ring rail, and there was only an abutment where the track met the table. Obviously, we had to be in the "pit" to push it around to turn the engine. I have no memory of a turning pole on either end of the turntable. After the railroad was abandoned around 1975, the turntable was donated to the Museum of Transport in St. Louis.

[Brendan Barry]

Wayne according to google this is the Delta PA turntable and there was turning poles on the table at one time.

[Brendan Barry]

A couple turntables without ring rails.

[Wayne Laepple]

Yep, that's the Delta turntable. There were no turning poles that I can recall, however. As steep as the drop-off was opposite the entry track, the folks pushing the turntable would have had to stop part way around and go over to the other end to complete the circle. Now I'm going to have to dig out some photos of those 1960's episodes.

[Brendan Barry]

Wayne any chance there used to be a wood catwalk around the turntable.

[Philip Marshall]

I don't think the steel turntables on the SR&RL at Farmington and Strong had turning poles either, though they did have continuous ring rails. There are many photos of these locations showing crews standing in the pits to push the turntables around.

[Wayne Laepple]

Well, this is what happens when one attempts to rely on a memory of 50 years ago. It's sometimes wrong. I just looked at a photo in Ron Ziel's "Steam In the Sixties," and sure enough, there are turning poles on the Ma & Pa's Delta turntable. So delete everything I said about the Delta table a few entries up.