A friend of mine that is in his early 90’s and still can walk a mile every day has asked me a question about the early turntables that were used to access the roundhouses on any major railroad, back into the late 1880’s.
The question is, how did the railroads MOVE the turntable from one access track to another, in all kinds of weather, from simmering hot to bone chilling cold?
We both live in Ohio, which has had some miserable cold weather in the hardest parts of December thru February, so if there was a large amount of snow and ice on the ground, and a steam loco and tender had to go into a roundhouse for repair, how did the turntable get moved?
Give me some good detail on this. Did the method vary from one locale or road to another?
What has always amazed me about the Armstrong method is that it worked… when one considers the weight of the engine, and the likelihood that at was none too well centred on the turntable, and all, that the engine crew could even move the thing, never mind get it accurately lined up! But they did!
Some turntables had steam engines mounted on them. Like the one here in Victoria. When the turntable was installed in 1913 it was an armstong turntable. However after many complaints from shop crews, CPR mounted a steam engine on one end of the turntable bridge. Today the engine is powered by compressed air from either the roundhouse or brake system on the RDC’s.
In Australia, there are still a number of hand worked turntables in existence, (generally kept in rural areas for preserved special trains) but most are directly electrically driven, with power brought in from wires connected to a set of slip rings mounted on top of an arch in the centre of the table. There is a controller in a little shack on one end, which looks like an old streetcar or electric commuter car controller.
Even with powered turntables, balancing the locomotive in the centre was regarded as important, and there was generally a bit of to and fro until the table was balanced. A lack of balance was often indicated by a heavy “thump” as the table dropped on to one set of end wheels or another. Some locomotives were hard to balance and there were stories of filling tenders before or after turning depending on the design and balance. The 1952 Baldwin NSW 59 class had a very short tender to allow turning this 60" wheel Mikado on a 60 foot turntable. The wheelbase fitted, but the balance was difficult and the overhang quite long. The overhang sometimes caused fouling with parked dead locomotives, and splitting the locomotive and tender was sometimes required.
A rare cast iron Sellers turntable was located at Delta, Pa on the Maryland & Pennsylvania. It was built for M&P predecessor York Southern RR in the 1890’s. The table was purchased by the Illinois Railroad Museum, dismantled and sent to Illinois. As far as I know, this table has never been exhibited.
I read in the book “Grass Between The Rails” the turntable in Waukon Junction, IA had an air driven ratchet mechanism that turned the turntable. The Engineer after balancing the locomotive on the table, would hook up a air hose from the air control valve on the table to the locomotive air line. They used locomotive air because they didn’t have an engine house at that time. The table had large arms for manual operation in the event the air ratchet didn’t work. This railroad started out as a narrow gauge, and was converted to standard gauge when the Milwaukee Road bought it. They added a wye to turn equipment and simplify operations. With the wye, there was no more need for the turntable. It was removed and an engine shed was built in its place.
Whilst doing research at University of Iowa Library, came across Rock Island standard plans and details for the system on their turntables. Along with showing their location, size, age and method of turning power, it was very interesting to see how may times some of these monsters got moved around the railroad when replaced by newer units. Also interesting to see where the railroad had turntables located over the years.
The SOO line at their Enderlin North Dakota division point had an air operated cylinder that probably was similar to the ratched type mentioned above. There was a foot on the end of the cylinder rod, that would push on the bottom of the turntable pit and retract to move the table around. This was in use in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. I’m not sure what type of power is currently used or if the turntable still exists.
Those were almost all “Armstrong”, in other words the crew got out and pushed.
Nevada State RR Museum in Carson City has one that is an upscaled version of those on SP narrow gauge. The RR Museum in Laws, CA has an original SP narrow gauge Gallows which I used to push around as a kid. It got pushed over a kid and the alledgedly welded it in place but on my last trip I saw a padlock on the locking mechanism so it may actually be operational also.
The ‘Hull-Chelsea-Wakefield’ steam tourist line in Quebec has an ‘armstrong’ turntable at the Chelsea end of their ex-CP track - once their 2-8-0 is balanced, passengers standing around the turntable are often invited to help push! Most remark on how easy it is to turn the locomotive. The turntable itself is ex-CP, bought and re-located from elsewhere on the CP system when the tourist operation was set up and the line truncated at Chelsea.