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Churston turntable
- Thread starter bella
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duffield
Established Member
Just beat me to it! I make it pretty much exactly 60ft as well.
Looked at Bing maps as well but their aerial coverage of this area is much worse than Google's
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ExRes
Established Member
65 feet it would seem
ExRes
Established Member
:roll:
A big hand will come out of the sky, pick it up and turn it to face the right way!
What's the wheelbase length?
That's all that needs to fit.
Ploughman
Established Member
65 according to the turntable survey.
http://www.tt.vintagecarriagestrust.org/ts/turnInfo.asp?Ref=17
http://www.tt.vintagecarriagestrust.org/ts/turnInfo.asp?Ref=17
ExRes
Established Member
I really think you ought to be looking it up yourself if you're that interested, if you look at the railalbum.co.uk site I think you will find the information you want
LMS Steam Locos - Non-Streamlined Princess Coronation Class Pacifics
You will find a Steam Locomotive Diagram giving you the information
Ploughman
Established Member
Not forgetting to add an allowance for the flanges on top of the Wheelbase.
The Duchess is about 6 inches longer in the wheelbase than Tornado, which has had many a spin on the Churston table. I think the only UK main line locos any longer than the Duchess were the small series of experimental pacifics produced at Doncaster during WW2 by Edward Thompson, Sir Nigel Gresley's successor as CME of the LNER. The longest of these was the A1/1 (a rebuilt Gresley A1) which was 63 feet 6 5/8 inches long, over 7 inches longer than the Duchess. Of course non of the Thompson locos survive today.
For the latest run they took the Duchess off at Plymouth, to be turned & fueled at Laira presumably. Had there been significant problems on the previous run with turning?
In my longest engine suggestions above I'd omitted (ashamedly) the P2 which, at a shade over 64 feet, beats even the old A1/1.
Makes me think it might be worth the P2 rebuilders being able to offer an alternative shorter tender, interchangeable as required, perhaps also with Tornado, for greater flexibility and compatibility with the limited number of main line linked turning opportunities in the west and elsewhere. Otherwise such large locos might risk being limited to the wyes, at Norton Fitzwarren and Laira in the west, for example, or to circular tours like the Exeter round trip out via Southern, back by Western (not so common the other way round!) A shorter loco and tender combination might help getting more appearances on heritage railways too.
There is no fencing near the Churston table so overhang should not be a problem, but it is only 65 feet long just like the Cornish example and it was an extremely tight fit there as seen here: https://youtu.be/EOy7X0roaX0. A problem with being so close to the limit is there is no margin to inch forward or back to get the weight distribution as balanced as possible, so any variation in the level of the rail around the circumference of the pit could represent a problem in pushing it round. It's a good idea to fully coal and water the engine before turning to get even weight across all the axles and achieve better balance on the deck so more of the weight is carried on the central pivot. Uksteam.info claims 'gauging issues' for the loco coming off at Newton Abbot on Saturday's run but doesn't give any more details, so it could be the turntable or something else on NR metals or on the Dartmouth Steam Railway.
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