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| ID # 1,110 |
This passenger-hauler, one of the last survivors of a large fleet of Canadian National 4-6-2's built between 1913 and 1929, weighed 260,000 pounds and had unusually large driving wheels: 69 inches in diameter. She is shown here on a turntable at Hamilton, Ontario. The turntable is one of two methods for switching a locomotive's direction. The other device is the wye, usually a "Y" shaped track with a loop at the top. The earliest North American turntable predated the loco-motive. It was built in 1826 to help the horse-drawn Granite Railway carry stone for the erection of Bunker Hill monument at Boston, Massachusetts. At first, steam-locomotive turntables were operated by hand, later by mechanical or electrical power. Since diesels, capable of driving in both directions, have displaced steam locomotives, nearly all turntables have vanished.
DAVID PLOWDEN, RAILROAD MAGAZINE
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