Turntable - Whitehead

WHITEHEAD TURNTABLE

Builder	Thomas W. Ward Ltd, Sheffield
Built	1976
Company	Northern Ireland Railways
Preservation	Installed 2016

The turntable was built for Belfast Central Services Depot (CSD) at Queen’s Quay in Belfast in 1976.

Construction is attributed to Thomas W. Ward Ltd of Sheffield. (On Wikipedia, there is an advertisement from 1928 which lists Wards as supplying "tanks, winches, pipes, locomotives, cranes, contractor's plant and structural steelwork". The firm was family-run until 1951 and an advertisement from about then has the slogan "Wards might have it!". Sadly, Wards broke up several British Railway steam locomotives after the end of BR steam in 1968. The firm was taken over by Rio Tinto ZInc in January 1982.)

It is not a balanced table as it was used for turning railcars which, at that time, had all of their weight at one end of the vehicle.

When the CSD yard was taken over to make way for the M3 motorway in 1994 the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland purchased the turntable. We refurbished and extended it in our workshops before installing it here at Whitehead in 2016.

The turntable is 59 feet 4 inches (18.08 m) long and can turn vehicles up to 73 feet 2 inches (22.3m) in length. It has a locking bar at each end to ensure that it remains aligned while vehicles are moved on to or off it. Being unbalanced, it can take about 10 men to turn a locomotive, though we hope to fit a motor to make turning easier.

15/10/2015: Excavations for the new turntable have commenced. This is the view look towards Larne. (C.P. Friel)

15/10/2015: Looking towards Belfast, a significant slice of the surrounding bank has been cut cut away. (C.P. Friel)

21/10/2015: The turntable awaits refurbishment. (C.P. Friel)

13/2/2016: A view across the turntable pit along the route of the access between the Stables and No.5 Loco Shed wall. (C.P. Friel)

2/4/2016: The reinforced wall around the turntable pit taking shape. (P. McCann)

19/4/2016: The retaining wall is in place and the reinforcement for the pit base is being installed. (A. Maxwell)

30/4/2016: Reinforcing rods in place for turntable pit walls. (C.P. Friel)

5/5/2016: The Site gang chipping rust off the turntable carrying rails. (C.P. Friel)

5/5/2016: Shuttering in place for part of the turntable pit wall. (C.P. Friel)

21/5/2016: The turntable pit is more or less complete, awaiting installation of the table itself and the access track.

1/6/2016: The table installation was in two steps. First the crane lifted it from the yard to beside the pit. The crane then repositioned itself and lowered the table into the pit. One of the refurbished turntable runners is plainly visible on the circular bearing rail. (A. Maxwell)

1/6/2016: This shows the angle at which the access track will approach the turntable. (A. Maxwell)

19/7/2016: The track to the turntable embedded in the access lane to the rear, but not yet connected to the yard layout. (R. Thompson)

14/8/2016: Phillip Newell moves the Atlas cautiously onto the table - a cheat as the access is still not connected! The new deck plates are stacked in the foreground. (P.Scott)

13/10/2016: The track is finally connected up. (T.C. Taylor)

15/10/2016: Out of steam, No.85 is propelled by No.3BG onto the table for a test turn. (A. Davidson)

23/12/2017: No.85 is turned to be facing Dublin for the forthcoming 'Mince Pie' train. (P. McCann)

23/12/2017: As an unbalanced table, plenty of manpower is needed. (P. McCann)

3/4/2018: No.131 is turned for the following day's NIR 50 charter. (P. McCann)

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