Restored to its current site in 2003, the historic Summerville Railroad Turntable dates to an era when railroads were the primary means of long-distance commerce and travel. Built in 1916 in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, by the American Bridge and Iron Company, later part of U.S. Steel, this ninety-ton steel turntable is one hundred feet long and was made of two steel I-beams joined by riveted support beams in a fish-belly design. For many years it served at Boyles Yard in Birmingham as part of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, where it stood beside the largest roundhouse in the L&N system, with thirty-six stalls, and was used to rotate locomotives and direct steam engines of passenger trains including the Pan American, the Azalean, and Florida Arrow, as well as the Silver Bullet fast freight train and many other regional and local trains. It continued operating there after L&N was merged into CSX Railroad and was retired from Boyles Yard in the late 1900's. Donated by CSX Railroad, it was acquired by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, moved from Birmingham to Lafayette, Georgia, by truck, then placed on a railroad car and transported to J.R. "Dick" Dowdy Park in downtown Summerville. Appraised at $1,250,000, it served as matching funds for two grants from the Georgia Department of Transportation. Its installation restored one of very few operational turntables in the United States and required extensive engineering, including a large circular concrete pit, drainage system, peripheral track, electric motors, and steel pilings driven eighty feet into the earth to support both the structure and locomotives weighing about one hundred fifty tons. Since its dedication and renaming in May 2003, it has been used to turn steam locomotives on excursions from the Tennessee Valley Railroad, diesel locomotives on local passenger excursions, and railcars on excursions by the North American Railcar Operators Association, while contributing to tourism, civic pride, and Summerville’s identity as a historic railroad town.

Photo: Leah Tibbss

Photo: Leah Tibbs

Photo: Leah Tibbs