Working rail roads and their tracks.

[Fuddy1952]

Imagine having a time machine there, going back in time watching it being used, when it was abandoned, etc.
A metal detector used there may be interesting.

 

[bcp]

Wawa turntable, maybe.

https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_2001242_01_002_013?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=e72df671c46656a150ef&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=0

Bruce

 

[Hay Dude]

Amazing find, Bruce. Is that “Hagley“ as in the “Hagley Museum”? I live a short drive/long walk from that museum.

The turn table doesnt make sense. Theres a recently reactivated passenger rail line (unused since ‘90) and the defunct Wawa to Chadds Ford RR line, washed out by Agnes in ‘72.
Why would there be a turntable where only 2 RR tracks converged?

 

[bcp]

Wawa topo map, 1894

Bruce

 

[bcp]

Museum is here:

200 Hagley Creek Rd · 200 Hagley Creek Rd, Wilmington, DE 19807

Building

www.google.com

I suspect, from the photo, that it was the end of a commuter run, using that gas-electric car, or maybe a locomotive and one car earlier.. That way it can run forward both ways. The turntable may have been an old one, sidelined when a longer one was installed somewhere. Just labor and concrete needed.

Bruce

 

[bcp]

I wonder if there were two turntables.

The first I indicated shows a circular feature with a raised "roadbed" going toward the track.

Then I found another photo that places it at a different location. See below, with the aerial image rotated to match the photo.

That photo is from a facebook thread about the area. Turntable pit removed in 2020, it said.

West Chester Railroad and PRR West Chester Branch | the old turntable at wawa around 1940...rte | Facebook

the old turntable at wawa around 1940...rte. 1 is on the right running top to bootom,you can see the trestle on the right going over rte. 1,a number of buildings were still there at that time now...

hi-in.facebook.com

Bruce

 

[Hay Dude]

My father went to the Williamson School (of Free Trades)

 

[Hay Dude]

what powered the turntable?

 

[MossRoad]

what powered the turntable?

Two guys pushing.

 

[MossRoad]

Wawa turntable, maybe.

https://digital.hagley.org/AVD_2001242_01_002_013?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=e72df671c46656a150ef&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=0

View attachment 732942


Bruce

That's the area that Hay Dude showed them putting in a new commuter station.