Re: WW&FRy # 9 and Monson # 3 pics

Herb Kelsey Wrote:
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> Actually, the Monson did have turntables but they
> were light weight affairs used to turn the
> snowplow. Way too flimsy for a locomotive.

The Monson turntables were a George Mansfield design copied from the Billerica & Bedford RR, so they should have at least been capable of turning Monson engines 1 and 2, which were little 14-ton Hinkleys based on the Billerica & Bedford engines that became Sandy River RR 1 and 2. This combined with the location of the Monson Junction water tank on the turntable lead has always led me to suspect the Monson's original plan was indeed to turn the engines (because why would you put the water tank there if engines weren't going to be using that track regularly?), but they just didn't follow through in practice. The Monson seemed to prefer a Zen-like simplicity in all things, so I guess they decided at some point that turning the engines just wasn't necessary.

There are actually a couple of mysterious early Monson photographs that show one of the engines and/or the combine facing the "wrong" direction, meaning they had to have been turned somehow, but how this was accomplished isn't clear. (There may also have originally been a wye at the junction of the quarry branch north of the Monson enginehouse, and if that existed it could have been used for turning equipment as well.)

-Philip Marshall



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2017 11:24AM by philip.marshall.