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Turntables.

Discussion in 'Everything Else Heritage' started by Mandator, Sep 11, 2020.

  1. 46223

    46223 Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    Yes, that's jogged my memory, I think it was on Oxford Road around the University somewhere.
     
  2. johnofwessex

    johnofwessex Resident of Nat Pres

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    I have heard a similar story about one ion the City, it may be the same one
     
  3. jsm8b

    jsm8b Part of the furniture

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    Over the sea to Skye at Kyle in 1969. Car and passengers for the princely sum of 7/6 ( 37.5 pence for the youngsters ). A more exciting way to arrive but I suspect the islanders appreciate the bridge. 32bn60sb0718 Ferry ' Kyleakin' at Kyle of Lochalsh 1969.jpg
     
  4. Ploughman

    Ploughman Part of the furniture

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    Do I remember correctly that there was a Turntable on the Humber Ferry prior to the opening of the bridge?
    Only ever used it the once.
     
  5. baldbof

    baldbof Well-Known Member Friend

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    That was possibly a compass swing platform. The aircraft would be parked on the platform and then the platform would be turned so a check of the headings shown on the aircraft's compass could be made against known, fixed headings.
     
  6. Dunfanaghy Road

    Dunfanaghy Road Well-Known Member

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    In Winchester, on the road in from Alresford, just before the cemetery, there is a house with a turntable which is nicely finished with stone setts. I don't think it is ever used, but was probably the price of getting planning consent. (I read somewhere that it is actually an offence to reverse onto a road - may be only A roads(?)
    Pat
     
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  7. Miff

    Miff Part of the furniture Friend

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    Planning permission is necessary for creating any new vehicle-access on a classified road.
     
  8. 60044

    60044 Member

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    Salisbury library has a turntable at its front entrance for turning the mobile library that parks there at night.
     
  9. gwilialan

    gwilialan Well-Known Member

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    Hummm, Not sure about that as compass swings need an area free from as much magnetic interference (e.g. ferrous metals) as possible. Even the reinforcing bars in the concrete on a designated 'compass base' are brass or similar and not steel.
    Making a turntable out of ferrous metals would certainly induce errors in the compass readings which would not be easily identified as separate from the aircraft's own errors making correction almost impossible.
     
  10. baldbof

    baldbof Well-Known Member Friend

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    The one on the airfield at Gutersloh was built of wood!! Not used by the shiny Lightnings or glossy Hunters though, it was a relic of the days when the Luftwaffe were in residence with their ME109s and FW190s - as described by one of our civvy staff who was a Luftwaffe mechanic and based there during WWII.

    Just checked Bing maps - the area where it was located can still be seen!!

    compass base.png
     
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2020
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  11. gwilialan

    gwilialan Well-Known Member

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    Wood? Now that is different! I guess it would still need metal bolts & straps etc and some sort of pivot so unless these were non ferrous they must have just accepted that there were going to be residual errors after the swing.

    I'm not sure if the turntable would really be a benefit though. The engines have to be running at about 75% - 80% power (Cruise RPM) when you take the readings of the aircraft compasses to compare with your external reference compass so it's no real additional bother just to taxi it round in a circle between readings - unless, of course, you have no hard standing suitable and the grass turns into a quagmire after any rain .
    It would have made my life interesting when swinging helicopters… Take a reference reading, wind up the power to the specified value and… Oops - rotor torque and a turntable? Oh what fun trying to hold that still! :)
     
  12. baldbof

    baldbof Well-Known Member Friend

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    Definitely wood - I stood on the damn thing as Werner explained how he had used it when he was a young mechanic servicing the Luftwaffe's finest in 1944/5 - I suspect you are talking modern procedures.

    Funny old thing - here's photo of an Me-109 on a compass swing turntable just as Werner described - don't know if it's the Gutersloh platform though..

    me-109.png
     
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2020
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  13. 45581

    45581 Part of the furniture

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    A couple of pictures of the Bournemouth Corp trolley bus turntable at Christchurch in September 1966 00538...jpg 00539...jpg
     
  14. johnofwessex

    johnofwessex Resident of Nat Pres

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    Somebody once told me the first thing he learnt about driving 'for real' after passing his test was not to try to overtake a Bournemouth Corporation Trolley Bus - it cant be done
     
  15. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

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    I remember that being put in. The house is up from the road and the space at road level was just a chunk out of a fairly steep bank and a complete blind spot for any vehicle on a busy road. So a drive in, spin around and drive out solution was pretty safe. That said, last time I went by there were two vehicles parked side by side on it thereby rendering it unusable.
     
  16. laurencew

    laurencew New Member

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    There is one inside the Palace of Westminster for turning Royal Mail vans. Still in use when I toured the place about five years ago.
     
  17. Dunfanaghy Road

    Dunfanaghy Road Well-Known Member

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    It's the same nearly every time I pass it. (Winchester Library Railway Section beckoning!!)
    Pat
     
  18. ssk2400

    ssk2400 New Member

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    one in the front garden of a house in Askam in Furness build by the present owner for his wife Nissan Micra who can reverse her car out the Cul de sac
     
  19. richards

    richards Part of the furniture

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    Can anyone provide Google maps links to any of these turntables pls? I'm struggling to find them.
     
  20. Johann Marsbar

    Johann Marsbar Well-Known Member

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