I follow this photographer on the Flickr site.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lrmyers/albums/72157700692484762
He has been posting a series of photos of the replacement of the turntable at the Juniata Backshops of NS (Formerly the Great Pennsylvania Railroad's E&M Shop).
It will be interesting to see the new bridge set in place. I wonder if chunks of the old turntable could be cut-up and sold as PRR Relics to the devout fans?
Cheers, Ed
40 years ago I stumbled on an old WM turntable in a very run down section of Baltimore. It had a big builder plate on the side and I did not own socket wrenches big enough to remove it.. Probably would have needed a torch to get the nuts off.
It was probably sent to the scrap yard and a factory was built in it's place.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Can't help noticing that some lucky kid can look out his upstairs bedroom window that's about 50' from the turntable.
Ed
Ed, seeing the size of the real thing, with workmen looking rather small in comparison, suddenly popped things into perspective after mostly looking at models for 60-odd years!
Deano
What wore out that couldn't be replaced by less than a total replacement?
Looks like more than the table. Looks like the entire pit area and surround is being redone. Longer table perhaps? see all the coal ash on the table after the tracks were lifted? The stories that table has
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
This is from 2 weeks ago today
www.altoonamirror.com/news/local-news/2018/11/how-the-tables-turn/
Attempt 3 to make it clickable. When is the update going to be finished?
https://tinyurl.com/yccamce9
Just based on the pictorial information I see, the pit remains, but the inner footing and circular rail that supports the bridge end trucks is being rebuilt. Also, the central footing and pivot bearing, if that's all it is (and not also electrical) is being rebuilt/is new.
selectorAlso, the central footing and pivot bearing, if that's all it is (and not also electrical) is being rebuilt/is new.
Yes, that's all it is. The pit is still the same pit.
It was looking pretty rough back in 1978.
http://68.169.49.59/Images/CR-2076-Altoona-PA-7-25-1978
I recall being there for one of the Railfests in 1997 and the turntable was down for repairs. The motor/drive unit was overhauled some time in the late 1990s.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lrmyers/14176092646/in/album-72157629091837684/
The turntable is critical for movement of locomotives in and out of the backshop. It would appear that someone at NS decided that a total overhaul, including replacement of the bridge, was the best economic choice.
I thought it was interesting to see this kind of work being done. That's neat to see the new bridge being prepared, Henry. Thanks for the link to the photo in the Mirror.
IT FITS!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lrmyers/44313742100/in/dateposted/
Regards, Ed
And the crew breathes the all to familiar sigh of relief as things don't bind up on the first test run.
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
I would have liked to see the cranes drop that puppy in. If you go back to the original link there are some other in-between pictures of the bridge on a truck. Surely the rear wheels of the truck must be steerable?