10-12-2011, 11:34 AM
You might as well look up narrow gauge railroads in Colorado, since the equipment, structures, turntables, yards and so forth were pretty much interchangeable and the D&RG was involved with a major portion of them. Even outfits like the Florence and Cripple Creek started out with second-hand narrow gauge rolling stock and locos from the D&RG,which was standard gauging much of it's mainline trackage at the time.
One of the responders said here that turntables were uncommon on narrow gauge railroads. In fact, the opposite is true. Narrow gauge railroads often operated in mountainous territory where space was at a premium, and depended on turntables to reverse their engines because wye's took up a lot of flat real estate which just was't available.
In fact, one mining line installed a turntable in conjunction with a switchback in order to get ore cars up and down to the mines.
Short Line and Narrow Gauge Gazette has hundreds of photos of old turntables, and thousands of narrow gauge photos for reference, including virtually any type of terrain you envision.
For additional photos and links that might be useful, look up the Narrow Gauge Circle on the internet - it takes you through the entire Rocky Mountain circuit of narrow gauge railroads serving the mountain mining communities, and you will find desert shots as well since much of Colorado is arid.
One of the responders said here that turntables were uncommon on narrow gauge railroads. In fact, the opposite is true. Narrow gauge railroads often operated in mountainous territory where space was at a premium, and depended on turntables to reverse their engines because wye's took up a lot of flat real estate which just was't available.
In fact, one mining line installed a turntable in conjunction with a switchback in order to get ore cars up and down to the mines.
Short Line and Narrow Gauge Gazette has hundreds of photos of old turntables, and thousands of narrow gauge photos for reference, including virtually any type of terrain you envision.
For additional photos and links that might be useful, look up the Narrow Gauge Circle on the internet - it takes you through the entire Rocky Mountain circuit of narrow gauge railroads serving the mountain mining communities, and you will find desert shots as well since much of Colorado is arid.