FULL CIRCLE FOR ABERDEEN FERRYHILL AS TURNTABLE RETURNS
Gresley ‘A4s’ will soon be able to turn at Aberdeen again, with the restoration of Ferryhill shed’s turntable. The 70-foot Ransomes & Rapier turntable, which was built in 1906 for the Caledonian Railway and has Category A listed status, was craned back into its pit on April 26 following an 18-month restoration by Eblast Ltd and RIM Fabrication of Kintore. It is a key part of the Ferryhill Railway Heritage Trust’s plans to create a steam centre on the site of the former 61B shed, providing a servicing point for regular steam railtours to Aberdeen. One of only three remaining in Scotland, the turntable was last in regular use in 1987, the year in which the depot closed. The £86,000 rebuild, funded by grants from the Railway Heritage Trust, Historic Environment Scotland and the Association for Industrial Archaeology, included replacing approximately a third of each end of the turntable owing to corrosion, and the centre pedestal which had broken in two. The trust is now seeking a replacement vacuum motor to allow locomotives to turn under their own power, and is working with Network Rail regarding maintenance of the line leading to the turntable. Other remaining tasks include assembling the central bearing, and installing the decking and handrails. Trust Chairman Jon Tyler said that the group hopes to welcome its first locomotive towards the end of the year, once test weights have been used to ensure that the turntable works correctly. The next project will be to repair the roof of the 1850-built locomotive shed, for which £35,000 needs to be raised. The trust is overhauling RSH 0-6-0T Works No. 7846, and has just acquired 1947-built 10-ton Taylor Hubbard steam crane No. DRT80169 from the Bodmin & Wenford Railway.