TWO TURNTABLES IN ONE

[NP Eddie]

ALL:

I RECENTLY SAW A PICTURE OF A STEAM ENGINE ROUNDHOUSE WITH TWO TURNTABLES-ONE TO THE LEFT OF THE OTHER. THEY OPERATED SEPARATELY FROM EACH OTHER.

CAN ANY ONE SHED SOME LIGHT ON THIS?

THANK YOU,

 

ED BURNS OF ANOKA, MN 

[Anonymous]

Hamburg-Altona (not Altoona) engine terminal had one of these up until the 1970´s. Actually, they wee not really common.

You can see why they had chosen to built the turntables "cutting" through each other - must have been the cheaper way to enlarge the number of engine house stalls.

[Firelock76]

The Jersey Centrals Communipaw shops had two turntables, one for passenger locomotives and one for freight locomotives.

[richhotrain]

I have seen some photos of two turntables side by side, but never two turntables "cutting" through each other.

That is an incredible photo.

Thanks for sharing, Ulrich.

Rich

[Firelock76]

You know, if they managed to squeeze a third turntable in there cutting the other two they'd have the old Ballentine Beer logo!  At any rate, whoever laid out those Hamburg turntables must have had the soul of an artist,  the interplay of the 'tables and tracks are just spectacular!

[tomikawaTT]

IIRC, NYC had twin turntables at their Selkirk Yard engine terminal.

When you're dispatching trains on three minute headway, you have to turn them fast!

Chuck

[J.Rob]

So if you run a loco off the end of one of the tables you could drop it into not one put two turntable pits. Interesting design and appears to be an engineering accomplishment but just seems like two separate items with their own trackage would have been more useful.

[Juniatha]

@ Sir Madog & Firelock

A similar question was put up earlier and I posted a picture of the Hamburg-Altona shed , too .  

The turntables ( tts ) were not originally planned to intermesh .   This roundhouse was built by the prussian state railways , they used 20 m diameter tts and the tts were aside each other then - later , Deutsche Reichsbahn generally enlarged tts to 23 m standard dia ... and that's when they became intermeshing , since it would have been a major re-tracking work to enlarge the distance between tt centers and consequently tracks would no longer have been radially true to roundhouse ;  it would have produced stands slightly - and varying - off radial to house .. uh-well , possible but just not 'the german way' - *g* - then rather have tts intermeshing and pay attention not to collide them .

Uhm , Firelock - how would you suggest to get onto the third table ? ... and why not use the famous five rings theme of the Olympic Games ?  ok , let's decently compromise on an Audi four rings layout ...

For every thing - turn , turn , turn

there is a season - turn , turn , turn

( Byrds )

 

Kind regards

Juniatha

[Juniatha]

@ tomikawa TT

 

quote >> When you're dispatching trains on three minute headway, you have to turn them fast! <<

Uhm - trains ? Jezzas !?

Well , during steam times the problem with high-speed turn-tables inevitably has been to properly balance varying loco masses and that ever-present nuisance of splashing tons of water from the rear-end tank lids during speed-turning and an occasional spray of coal when braking too hard to stop a spin - the latter was said to have been especially bad with L-4 long distance tenders - and - it was not advisable to keep locos spinning for longer than three minutes with crew in cab ...

or so some old-timer spun his story ... 

Things are said to have much improved with diesels of centrally placed tanks :  they can be turned at virtually dazzling speeds and never get launched into neighbor's garden - *g* .

At the turn of a friendly card ..

with regard

Juniatha

[Firelock76]

Hi Juniatha!  Glad you're back on the Forum sites where you belong!

Now of course, I was just kidding about a third turntable and reproducing the old Ballentine Beer logo, but a third intersecting turn table would be cool, as if the two pictured aren't cool enough.

Four in a row like the Audi logo?  OOOO?  Think of the advertising revenue the Reichsbahn could have made!  And the Olympic rings?  Very appropriate should the Olympics return to Berlin, Munich, or Garmisch-Partenkirchen! 

I better stop before I get out of hand!

 

[Juniatha]

Hi Firelock

 

I was of course kidding , too , with that Audi four rings logo ,

actually there is no end to it until each loco has a turn table of its own

and will no other loco touch it in its absence please !

E-hm , yep - ok ..

back to normalcy ...

Regards

= J =