Here’s one in Port Jervis, New York:
Port Jervis, NY - Erie Railroad Turntable (roadsideamerica.com)
The sign says it was built in 1854, abandoned in 1987, and restored in 1996. My memory must be faulty. I visited it in the early 2000s and I remembered it as being non-operational. I must have gotten the wrong impression from the fact it was fenced off on the side I looked at it from. I couldn’t even remember if there was a bridge in the pit.
The sign says it is in operating condition but the comments indicate it is not actively in use.
I read somewhere that the last new turntable installed in the US was in Lorton VA in the 1980s.
With some exceptions, where the end terminal for through trains don’t have a turning facility, most engine consists are assembled with what’s available. The lead engine may need to face forward, the rest don’t usually matter.
Som reasons for modern engines needing to face forward are ditch lights and cab signals. Some railroads don’t outfit the rear end of road power with ditch lights. To go over grade crossings faster than 20 mph the engine has to have ditch lights.
Cab signals and/or ATS or ATC may only have receiver equipment on the leading end.
Jeff
Lorton’s turntable is up there, but there’s been a handful of new ones since it was built. Not counting rebuilt ones in old pits (NS did a complete overhaul of one in Altoona in 2018, for instance), the one at Inman Yard in Atlanta is only about 12 years old. New pit and everything.
Here in Portland, the Oregon Rail Heritage Museum is relocating to their own grounds the turntable from the old Espee Brooklyn Yard. It’s an American Bridge unit built in 1924 and is getting not only a new pit but a full refurb. At 102’ our SP #4449 fits tightly with a fair amount of overhang. I suspect the same with the SP&S #700. Details and lots of other goodies about ORHF at https://orhf.org/
John
Unfortunatly the two turntables that I am most familiar with are long gone. the big one was located at the Bayshore yard complex just south of San Francisco and smaller one at the Santa Clara yard near the south end of the San Francisco penisula. Both were removed when UP took over. The entire Bayshore yard is gone and is now a housing development and the entire Santa Clara yard is down to four tracks used for local switching from thirty eight tracks. All trains are made up and dispatched out of the Roseville yard east of Sacramento.