Turntable At Yeovil Junction Station

BARWICK

241/0/10024 YEOVIL JUNCTION STATION 04-SEP-05 Turntable at Yeovil Junction station

GV II Locomotive turntable. 1947. Built by Cowans, Sheldon & Co Ltd. of Carlisle for the Great Western Railway. Plan completely intact. 70' diameter, steel and iron plate; in brick-lined pit with concrete floor. Pivoted by runner wheels at either end on a circular rail around the perimeter of turntable pit. Operating apparatus located at one end of deck beneath a canopy with corrugated sheet roof. Hand rails to deck. HISTORY: The original Yeovil Junction Station was built in 1860 by the London and South Western Railway Company (LSWR) when it extended its main line from Salisbury to Exeter. In June 1864 the Great Western Railway opened the Clifton Maybank Railway, a broad gauge goods-only branch line from its line at Yeovil to a transfer shed at Yeovil Junction. The turntable was installed alongside the transfer shed in 1947, replacing the original hand-propelled one that was installed in the mid C19. It is operated by the vacuum or air brake system of the engine. The turntable now forms part of the Yeovil Steam Centre and is in working order. ASSESSMENT OF IMPORTANCE: A remarkably complete and rare survival of a railway turntable that remains operational. It contributes significantly to the character of Yeovil Junction Station and has good group value with the adjacent former engine transfer shed. SOURCE: `Yeovil, 150 Years of Railways', (2003) B.L. Jackson