I’ve been stewing over this for awhile. I have a new town at the end of the line that needs a turntable in order to change the direction of the locomotive.Eventually, the tracks will be three wide and it will be a great place for setting up consists for a meet. During an operations meet, I would like the locomotives to turn around and head back the other way. Here are some pics of the area (structures removed) with a crude 38" prototype.
I don’t have room for a run-around or a wye, and the slope will not allow me to place the entire turntable on solid ground. Part of it must swing over the retaining wall. Also, I need to keep it as low as possible to the retaining wall height. Here are some examples from other garden railroads.
I am considering using a 24” x 24” x 3/16” steel plate for the base (painted or epoxy coated) and building something like this European prototype.
I like the idea of the full size round deck since it will cover the steel plate and I can simplify the mechanics of rotating it. The decks can be lumber or steel plate. No need for a pit, pit rail, bridge support wheels, etc. I think I can keep it low profile. I’ll have to figure out how to anchor it, maybe weld on a couple of tabs that can be screwed to stakes.
Any thoughts?