A Sojourn to Durango

Good Mornings and Frosty Salutations to you all Readers,

Earlier this week I made the long drive down to Durango to go do some proper engineering staring at the Durango turntable. First I have to give a special thanks to everybody down at the Durango and Silverton, D&S. Everybody there was extremely pleasant and accommodating. In particular I'd like to thank Larry Beam and Randy Babcock for letting me come and look at the turntable.

Here is what the Durango turntable looks like. The picture is from the 60's as I neglected to get a good picture on Monday.





As you can see this was before an air motor was put on the turntable and it was still turned by hand. I do not envy turning a 37 on that. In addition to the air motor there are loops on the ring rail wheels for a tractor to pull the table if necessary, this will be an addition to the como turntable.

The purpose of my visit was primarily to determine how the turntable mounted on the center bearing and how the ring rail wheels were attached. Larry and Randy were incredibly helpful and their insight alone made the trip worth the drive. This table has been in service since 1920 when it replaced an earlier one. The table is from Alamosa and was cut down to fit in the Durango pit. The bridge itself was built in 1899 giving the bridge a current service life of 118 years and the table as it sits now 97 years. Considering the bridge is old enough to have been a doughboy in France it is doing remarkably well. However in talking with Larry and Randy they described the table as worn out. Many components are in need of significant repair or replacement and the table regularly requires significantly more maintenance and tweaking than they would prefer.


So getting to how the table mounts on the center bearing. The bearing sits on a cast pedistal about 20-24" off the concrete foundation block. About 3' off center either side are lateral plates held in with angle iron and rivets. Between the plates running longitudinally there are plate girders secured in place with rivets and angle iron. On the underside of these longitudinal plate girders is mounting bracket for the rocker plate. I managed to get some pictures however due to the poor lighting and crampt conditions they are not of the best quality for descriptive purposes.





This picture is in underneath the bridge looking towards the center.You can see the lateral plate girder previously described with the pedistal and rivet connections. Design of an equivalent set up for the como turntable is in process.

The ring rail wheels were my next biggest priority and much learning was had there. The current wheels we have are from a bridge crane, while nice they will require significant modification. The right rail wheels in Durango were very fat with no flange to accommodate the movement of the right rail over time. The como ring rail will be more secure than durango's however over the course of time with use and frost heaving it will move making the removal of the flange necessary at minimum. I am afraid I am going to have to curtail my blogging efforts here as blogspot does not take kindly to having pictures in the postings and the formatting is getting very difficult.



Above is the ring rail wheel assembly. You can see the hitch point in the side for a tractor if necessary. Larry told me of the trouble he's had with it and suggested I use a fat wheel with a beefy bronze bearing for como. Keep it simple and easy to maintain and adjust.

Thank you for visiting, come back soon!