Railroad Forums 

  • Turntable pit at Johnsonville, NY?

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England

Moderators: MEC407, NHN503

 #177128  by henry6
 
Not getting response on B&M/MC thread so will try here. This past Sunday happened upon Johnsonville, NY tower and while walking the dog opposite the tower found concrete foundation that looked like it was a turntable pit. Was there, in fact, a table there or just a big water tower. Also wasn't this at one time a three way junction of the Troy line and the M'cvle line and the origonal Greenwich and Johnsonville? So speaking of G&J what and where do they operate today?n

 #177640  by slotcanyoneer
 
Since when was NY considered part of New England?
 #177741  by henry6
 
My bad. I was thinking in terms of "B&M" railroad and not geography. But question still stands.

 #177958  by TomNelligan
 
That's OK; Johnsonville is close enough to the state line to be "honorary" New England.

The water tower at Johnsonville was a couple hundred feet north of the Fitchburg Division mainline near the station, not farther west near the tower. Also, the B&M never originated or terminated any trains there, so they would have had no reason to regularly turn steam engines. However, as you mention, the Greenwich & Johnsonville terminated there (until 1932) and the G&J *would* have had a need to turn engines. So maybe you were looking at the remains of a G&J turntable?

The G&J became the Batten Kill Railroad and still runs out of Greenwich with Alco RS3s. Probably someone on the New York forum could fill you in on their current (infrequent) operations.
 #178286  by henry6
 
Thanks, Tom. The pit is a concrete circle and is where I imagine the G&J came in.