Steam & Excursion > installing a new turntable at Bayshore

Today was too cold outside to do trackwork for our Live Steamers club, so I stayed warm inside our NRHS chapter museum to continue cataloging and entering our collection into the database. One of our generous donors is Bob Foley of Napa, CA. In the past he has donated literally thousands of items from his collection. Today I briefly examined the 34 photo albums he donated and selected some images to post on this site.

The first one is from SP Engineer Bob Kennedy showing the installation of a larger turntable at Bayshore. Of all the tough jobs to do in steam days, putting in a larger turntable has to rank high in "pain in the ass" projects. The Roundhouse Foreman tries to have only those locomotives needing time consuming repairs inside the roundhouse, and those locomotives ready for duty outside. In the photo Bayshore Roundhouse "Shop Goat" SPMW966 is coupled to hook SP7019. On the other side of the turntable is another hook, pushed along by what appears to be an early EMD diesel - probably an NW2. SP 2-8-2 #3214 is inside one of the stalls.

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That is a remarkable capture of a moment in time. Thank you - B

So, Okay...

How do you get the old one out of the the hole? and set aside?
The crane with the long boom is for lighter, ROW, work, right?
Was the replacement turntable longer than the original?

How did they actually do the swap-out?

Wes.

Great shot Tony. Thanks for posting.

Martin

Great photo of something that did not happen very often. Sure looks like a lot of action in this still image.

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

wcamp1472 Wrote:
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> So, Okay...
>
> How do you get the old one out of the the hole?
> and set aside?
> The crane with the long boom is for lighter, ROW,
> work, right?
> Was the replacement turntable longer than the
> original?
>
> How did they actually do the swap-out?
>
> Wes.

Good question. I would guess the turntable is lifted to one side and placed on temporary cribbing. (It appears the longer crane in the photo is used to place the cribbing on the ground in front of the three men on the right.) The turntable would have to be placed next to a track leading to the outside if they were going to lift it whole and use it elsewhere; otherwise they would simply cut it to manageable pieces for movement.

The replacement turntable was longer. (I've seen another photo in a book somewhere.) From a photo or two published showing SP forces replacing a turntable elsewhere (Dunsmuir perhaps?) in a book, the railroad dug out the extra room needed from all around the old turntable pit and placed temporary tracks on temporary cribbing until the new turntable was in place. Then it's simple a matter of filling in the expanded area with permanent fill, rails, and the turntable wall.

Like I said, it was not a job everyone looked forward to.

I loved the photo --lots of drama!

Like you, I'm fascinated by the challenges.

Generally, when a new turntable was installed in place of an old one, the pit was re-engineered for the longer span,
I could speculate about the timing and sequence of steps, but will keep still and smile at the ingenuity of of grandfathers.

Was this to allow the handling of big articulateds?

Love the mysteries..

Wes.

Was the 966 oil fired? Interesting to see the rear of the cab left wide open. Don't see that often, especially on coal fired engines as there would be a bunker there. Any way to zoom in on that engine? Is the original image high resolution?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/12 07:44 by puddlejumper.

puddlejumper Wrote:
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> Was the 966 oil fired? Interesting to see the
> rear of the cab left wide open. Don't see that
> often, especially on coal fired engines as there
> would be a bunker there. Any way to zoom in on
> that engine? Is the original image high
> resolution?


Yes, the 966 was oil fired! When I first saw it up close and in person on the Bayshore deadline in 1959, someone had "cracked open" a valve from the oil tank. From the size of the puddle on the ground it looked like it had been leaking for a year... and it was still oozing out. Being a stupid 16-year old I found an old mayonnaise jar and lid and took a jar-full home to see how well it burned.

While my folks were not home I put a little on some newspaper in our fireplace and lit a match to it. Nothing! Then I remembered SP had to pre-heat the oil with tank heaters in order to get the Bunker C oil to flow and burn. So (dummy me) I put a little in an old saucepan and heated to where it felt warm. I put it on the newspaper in the fireplace and put a match to it. Let me tell you that stuff burns hot! I got worried that I might burn the house down, even though I only lit a small amount.

I ended up scrapping the residual goo from the fireplace, while at the same time letting in fresh air to dissipate the scent of the fuel. I don't remember my folks saying anything. I probably had plenty of time to make things normal.

As for the wide open cab. in one of the Sunday River Production videos it shows the rear of the cab as the 966 passes by. It appeared to be solid, but perhaps it was just a curtain across the back. I'll check the video.

I scanned the photo and had to compress it so it would download on Trainorders.

Thank you for the response. If you are feeling froggy I would love to see more pix of that engine. Looks like a great candidate for a modeling project.

Dave

puddlejumper Wrote:
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> Thank you for the response. If you are feeling
> froggy I would love to see more pix of that
> engine. Looks like a great candidate for a
> modeling project.
>
> Dave


Here you are Dave. I took this shot of SPMW966 on the Bayshore deadline on New Year's Day 1960. I believe this was the first or second time I saw it up close.

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Thank you sir!