Hey, that is very spiffy, Dave! Good for you. Are you still turning your attention to the outdoors? How are you doing...apart from the turntable, natch?
-Crandell
Jerry SP FOREVER http://photobucket.com/albums/f317/GAPPLEG/
GAPPLEG wrote:And who says there isn't a prototype for just about everything somewhere !
Saw lots of prototypes at the mine workings in Fukuoka-Ken, Japan, in the late '50's. There would be one in the "main stem" minecar track in front of each workshop that might need a car switched to it. Most of them had crossing rails (90 degree crossing) welded to the steel disc, presumably so they wouldn't have to reposition the disc for through movements, and then again when the car had to leave the shop.
Track gauge on these was 450 -600 mm, and the cars could easily be moved by a single worker. The shops were used for maintaining in-mine equipment (pumps, winches etc) or preparing special-design props that would then be taken underground for installation.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
heh, rides up on flanges, turn, then its a prototype rerailer
I think your first prototype photo is from Wales, UK not Luxembourg. The wagon on the turntable appears to be a Dinorwic Quarry wooden bodied slate wagon from the extensive 2ft guage system used there up to the 1950s.
There are examples of this type of turntable in the Penrhyn Quarry museum at Penrhyn Castle , Bangor, Gwynedd http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrhyn - and also at the Welsh Slate Museum in Llanberis, Gwynedd http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Slate_Museum .
Check out this site for some additional ideas, see the AAA Molasses Works
http://www.carendt.com/microplans/index.html
Turn Tables can be used to replace turnouts, Crossings, Yard ladders, Wyes (T junctions), and even 90 degree curves on tramway type lines. Very useful little critters at times.
Have fun