page_title: Railway turntable
section_title: Unusual turntables
hierarchical_section_title: Railway turntable / Unusual turntables
caption_attribution_description: English: Twin-gauge (5" and 7¼") straight + curved turntable at Petit Train à Vapeur de Forest, Brussels
context_page_description: In rail terminology, a railway turntable or wheelhouse is a device for turning railway rolling stock, usually locomotives, so that they can be moved back in the direction from which they came. This is especially true in areas where economic considerations or a lack of sufficient space have served to weigh against the construction of a turnaround wye. In the case of steam locomotives, railways needed a way to turn the locomotives around for return trips as their controls were often not configured for extended periods of running in reverse and in many locomotives the top speed was lower in reverse motion. In the case of diesel locomotives, though most can be operated in either direction, they are treated as having "front ends" and "rear ends". When operated as a single unit, the railway company often prefers, or requires, that a diesel locomotive is run "front end" first. When operated as part of a multiple unit locomotive consist, the locomotives can be arranged so that the consist can be operated "front end first" no matter which direction the consist is pointed.
context_section_description: The roundhouse in Montluçon, France, was equipped with a separate turntable and sector plate, which is a table pivoted at one end, in this case at the edge of the turntable. The sector plate served the side of the roundhouse that housed autorails with less requirement for turning. Both the turntable and sector plate were served by separate connections to the roundhouse. If turning was required the two could be connected together. The resulting roundhouse was not completely circular. Part of the roundhouse with the turntable is still extant. A similar, operational sector plate is located in Bavaria at the German Steam Locomotive Museum.
  Due to a lack of space at Ventnor railway station, a small turntable was provided to allow steam engines to run around their trains.  Other stations with this arrangement included Bembridge and Harcourt Street.
  There is a turntable for trolleybuses on the Solingen, Germany, trolleybus system, at the former southern end of route 683. The Unterburg trolleybus turntable was in regular use until November 2009, at which time the route was extended beyond it, but it remains operational and is used for special occasions.
  The last remaining operational triple-gauge turntable in the world, used to station trains into the 23 bay roundhouse, exists at the Steamtown Heritage Centre in Peterborough, South Australia.
  A turntable exists on the Midland Line, New Zealand at Arthurs Pass in New Zealand. Steam engines on excursions cannot enter the Otira tunnel so must be turned around for the return
caption: Twin-gauge straight + curved turntable at Petit Train à Vapeur de Forest, Brussels
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft ICE v2.0.3.0", "Image DateTime": "2019:04:04 17:15:44", "Image Tag 0x4748": "[1, 0, 0, 0, 4, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 211, 213, 1, 191, 72, 49, 1, 63, 133, 20, 158, 190, 48, 31, 7, 63]", "Image ExifOffset": "198", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[50, 48, 20989/5000]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[4, 18, 526597/10000]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "1613/25", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[15, 15, 44]", "GPS GPSProcessingMethod": "[85, 78, 73, 67, 79, 68, 69, 0, 0, 65, 0, 83, 0, 67, 0, 73, 0, 73]", "GPS GPSDate": "2019:04:04", "Image GPSInfo": "342", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2019:04:04 17:15:44", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2019:04:04 17:15:44", "EXIF SubSecTime": "769392", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "769392", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "769392", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB"}