 The ABR turntable has been constructed by Andy Walton http://www.denverlightrailway.co.uk to a design by Frank Sidebottom and is intended to be placed on gravel. This arrived in early October 2007 and has been placed outside the new carriage shed awaiting permanent installation.
Unfortunately laying the ring on loose gravel proved to be an unsatisfactory installation. The cold rolled ring had a twist in it which resulted in the table wobbling on three rollers instead of running on all four. We made the decision to lay a concrete base on to which the ring would be bolted, hopefully enabling us to remove the offending twist. |
 During May 2008 the base was laid. An octagonal timber formwork was constructed and painted with latex. Once the concrete had set it was very easy to remove the formwork.After drilling the ring, it was placed in situ and 8mm holes drilled into the concrete and secured with 8mm galvanised through bolts. However the problem still remained. Fortunately my good friend Peter Ladbrooke arrived from the UK for a holiday and we spent a day armed with spacer washers and spirit level before we managed to get it to a satisfactory level. During the process we found that table itself had a small twist too! This was resolved by reducing the diameter of one of the rollers. |
June 7th 2008 was a significant milestone in the progress of the ABR when the track panel was finally mounted to the table and we were able to roll the first item of rolling stock from the carriage shed over a temporary track panel on to the table! The next step is to lay a brick ring around the table so that ballast can be laid up to it. The photo below shows a dry run with some half size paving bricks. These are not ideal, but they are all we could find locally, conventional bricks are scarce here in Spain |
Mid July 2008 - Work on the turntable is finally completed. The 3 roads into the shed connected and work has commenced laying the other takeoffs |
