I have a 90' Walthers turntable and matching 3 stall Cornerstone roundhouse. The TT is installed and running and the roundhouse has been built but not yet installed. Now that it is time to wire the whisker tracks and glue down the house, I find I am having second thoughts about using it at all. It is flimsy, plastic, and much larger than my small RR needs.
Besides turning steamers, for what else could the TT be used? A 2 stall engine house comes to mind. I have the FSM kit just waiting to be built.
73
Bruce in the Peg
A turntable is often used at the end of the line to turn a locomotive, certain passenger cars, snowplows and other equipment that has a "front end" if there is no room to install a retrun loop or wye.
When I visited the Strausburg RR in PA a few years ago, they had purchased a turntable to install at the end of their line to turn the locomotive so it would not have to run backwards on the return trip. I do not know if they have installed it or not.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Go with the 2 stall engine idea!
Definitely an end of line turn around. There's a large hill on the other side of this turntable.
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
We used the turntable at East Wayne Yard to turn Locos and Freight cars. Turn the freight cars when the costomer requested that a car should be delivered a certain way. Kevin
It wasn't all that unusual for there to be a turntable without a connected roundhouse. Classic trains had a pic an issue or two back showing a turntable next to a transfer table, at a large railroad shops building.
I've also seen situations of a working roundhouse, but no turntable.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a DCC controlled Lazy Susan in the middle of your dinning room table?
There was a discussion about this a while back:
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/162497/1790167.aspx#1790167
retsignalmtr Wouldn't it be nice to have a DCC controlled Lazy Susan in the middle of your dinning room table?
Well, yes that would be nice. First thing though you need to have a dinning room table, and second a dinning room to put it into. We don't have either. Good idea though and actuality a doable project.
Ken G Price My N-Scale Layout
Digitrax Super Empire Builder Radio System. South Valley Texas Railroad. SVTRR
N-Scale out west. 1996-1998 or so! UP, SP, Missouri Pacific, C&NW.
DigitalGriffin Definitely an end of line turn around. There's a large hill on the other side of this turntable.
Yes, in its current state, this is an "end of the line" turntable... However, it's a recent installation to accommodate a tourist train. The turntable itself was moved to Frostburg, Maryland from Elkins, WVa, where it served the engine house of the Western Maryland. The new location was originally the main line of the Cumberland and Pennsylvania, and the hill you mention actually has a tunnel through it, and the line continued to Westernport, Maryland. When the WM assumed control of the C&P in the 1930's, the tunnel was abandoned due to tight clearances, and the C&P was operated as two separate branches.
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
News Flash.
Yesterday at 3AM, the main roundhouse of the XYZ railroad company burned down. Several employees were interviewed by the fire marshal and the cause was determined to be accidental. A spokesman for the railroad said they have no plans for rebuilding it since steam locomotives are being phased out. A smaller metal engine shed is being considered but it has not been determined that one will be built. For the time being, until a final decision has been made, locomotive service will be continued outside. Locomotives requiring major servicing and repairs will be sent to ABC's railroad shops. The turntable and concrete pad remaining will still be used for turning and minor servicing of all locomotives.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
Yes, as someone mentioned, sometimes freight cars need to be turned. An example in the old days was a box car load of lumber. Often it neeed to be unloaded on the same side it was loaded. This would be done on a wye or a turntable. This would be a fun situation card on a model railroad. I don't know if this still happens as I suppose most lumber is no shipped on flatcars especially built for lumber?
Here's a roundhouse and turntable which, for some unknown reason, are not connected.
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
RE: News Flash,
Elmer,
It looks like ABC may have had something to do with the fire?
Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
Somewhere in my stock of video tapes, is some film of a C&NW locomotive being turned on an air-powered turntable at, IIRC, Highland Park, Illinois. During steam days, commuter locomotives had to be turned at various locations where there were no roundhouses or shops. A quick spin on the Highland Park turntable, and an engine was ready to make the return trip to Chicago.
Dan
On an old branch of the D&H RR, now called the Upper Hudson RR in North Creek NY. there is presently a tt with no roundhouse and is just used to turn locomotives.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
The CNR had many branchlines in southwestern Ontario that ended with a turntable in a field - no roundhouse, no enginehouse, often not even a tool shed. The loco's brake hose was connected to an air-operated motor on the turntable for operation, or, if no motor was installed, the table was turned by hand.
My scratchbuilt turntable (also hand-operated) is used with a shop building built from a Vollmer 3 stall roundhouse:
...and, like the prototype, we often receive cars that need to be turned before being delivered to the customer:
Wayne
I have seen photos of a 2 stall engine house with a turntable feeding it. The tracks into the shop came off the table and curved untill parallel. It also had other tracks it could store locos on.
Have fun,
Richard
Ibflattop We used the turntable at East Wayne Yard to turn Locos and Freight cars. Turn the freight cars when the costomer requested that a car should be delivered a certain way. Kevin
Been there; seen that !
(Retired NS Signalman)
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
Your just gonna cause fights over who has the remote man. Stop while there's still time.
The turntable in Durand, Mi was used for quite a few years even after the round house was demolished.
Had a pic somewhere of a diesel on the turntable after the demo, but can't locate it.
A question similiar to this was raised in one of the railroad mags--proto or model escapes me for the moment--way back when Custer was a cadet; the question pertained to why, since steam was no longer in use and the roundhouse had long since burned down, this particular Class I was still using the turntable at the end of their long coal spur that snaked back into a Weevie "holler.".
The editor supposed it may have been because the operating department, for a variety of reasong, required the train's locomotive be pointed in a particular direction on its trip down the hill. There would, of course, have been no problem had the train ran into the mountains with a couple of diesels linked back to back but if only one diesel made the trip it would have had to be turned at the EOT.
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
Not normally prototypical, but my HOn3 Port Oford & Elk River uses a turntable for both turning rolling stock, and as a combined turnout and tail track for the harbor runaround track. There is no roundhouse, just a single stall enginehouse for maintenance work. As you can guess, space is very tight at Port Orford.
IIRC, the San Francisco cable car line uses a similar track arrangement at Market Square. A turntable turns the cable car for the return trip, and exits on the other turntable entrance track to retain RH running on the return trip. The turntable is a turning device, and a turnout and tail track linking the double track.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
The Clovis Branch of the SP in Central California, running from Fresno into the Sierra foothills at Clovis, had a turntable ('armstrong') without a roundhouse at the terminal in Clovis. Same thing on the SP's narrow gauge Owens Valley branch at Inyo.
And the Nevada County Narrow Gauge railroad in the Northern California Sierra had 3 turntables along its line, none connected with roundhouses. One at the SP connection in Colfax (Oilville), another at the railroad's central shops in Grass Valley, and another one at the final terminus in Nevada City. Nary a roundhouse to be seen, though there were locomotive shop buildings in both Grass Valley and Nevada City. However the buildings were not directly connected to the lead tracks of the turntables.
For years there was a helper turntable midway up SP's Donner Pass route at Emigrant Gap, CA, that was later replaced by a balloon track. Not a roundhouse in sight.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Houston Belt and Terminal Milby Street enginer facility had a turntable at least 50 years with no roundhouse. I am not sure who uses Milby Street since the HB &T breakuop, but last I saw, the turntable was still there. Used for turning diesels.
One of the Colorado narrow gauge lines had a turntable on a switchback, along with a passing siding, so that the engine could be turned and run around to the other of the train instead of backing the train up the switchback.
I remember growing up around the Santa Fe in Oklahoma as a kid, my dad was a yard engineer at a town that was on a branch, but during harvest and summer generated many grain trains. The area where the switch engine (usually a 2-8-2) was kept was called the "roundhouse" but there was no building of any kind. Just a couple of engine service tracks (oil and sand). As the diesels started arriving, the fuel/sanding facilities were changed but nothing else. The road engines that layed over at Enid awaiting a train were simply parked, and inspected if needed by a engine watchman.
There were spots on the Santa Fe other than Enid that had a turntable but no roundhouse. Roundhouses were generally for doing repairs inside a structure, but if repairs weren't done, no need for a roundhouse. Turntables though were often needed to turn engines at the end of a branch, although in most cases, wyes were and still are used. Much simpler to maintain.
The Lowville and Beaver River had two turntables-one on either end of its line. There are also engine houses-
This one in Croghan:
And this one in Lowville:
My original intent of this post was to decide what to do with the real estate vacated by the elimination of the roundhoues. OTHER THAN TURNING LOCOS. What facilities could I put in on new track around the TT? Water, sand, ash pit, mow storage, rip track, etc. All of these come to mind in my situation as the TT is located in the center of a 4X8 loop of track and I am developing a strategy toexplain its being there. after the fact
Blind Bruce My original intent of this post was to decide what to do with the real estate vacated by the elimination of the roundhoues. OTHER THAN TURNING LOCOS. What facilities could I put in on new track around the TT? Water, sand, ash pit, mow storage, rip track, etc. All of these come to mind in my situation as the TT is located in the center of a 4X8 loop of track and I am developing a strategy toexplain its being there. after the fact
Well, the explanation for the turntable is self-evident: with a loop of track, how else are ya gonna be able to run the locos in the opposite direction?
Some roundhouses remained, all or partially, after they were no longer required. There's one in Toronto that houses an Ikea store, along with a craft brewery (Steam Whistle) and a railroad museum. The turntable is still there and, I believe, operational.
You could have a remnant of the roundhouse as a light manufacturing facility, with the rest showing as an outline of the foundation. Or, show no traces of the former roundhouse, and place a more modern style, non-rail served structure(Pikestuff has some suitable offerings) where it once stood. Hang a sign on it for any type of small business, add a parking lot and include a shipping/receiving door for trucks.