Port Jervis Railroad Turntable

Also see 2007 train revival arrives in Port Jervis 

Click this link to open a map showing Port Jervis area points of interest and their locations including that pictured above. Click on this link to see a satellite photo image of the turntable (opens in a new browser window.)

This group of photographs from the Library of Congress show the roundhouse which had at its center the railroad turntable.
July 1971 - General view of Roundhouse, from West	July 1971 - Close-up view of Roundhouse, from southwest
July 1971 - View of office area	July 1971 - Interior view of west wall
July 1971 - Detail of entrance, from west	July 1971 - Index to photographs, Historic American Engineering Records  Erie Railway:  Port Jervis Roundhouse.   Jack Boucher, photographer From the Library of Congress, American Memory
The next four photographs were taken in 2005.  The roundhouse which encompassed the turntable succumbed to an arsonist's fire in the 1980s.
Looking southeast, this picture shows the bed of the turntable on which engines and cars were sent to individual track spurs  for repair or had their direction reversed.	This photo conveys the roundhouse layout and shows the spoke-like rail spurs which were utilized as repair bays.  The turntable control booth is at right center.
Shot in a more northeastern direction, this angle of the repair bay rail spurs includes the "Point Peter" scenic viewing area at right center below the clouds.	A reverse view from Point Peter shows the roundhouse's repair bay spokes at bottom right.  Across the Delaware River bridge lies Matamoras, PA. The mountains are in NJ.
Featured on an interesting 1920 Aero map of Port Jervis found on the Library of Congress web site is this detail drawing which further illustrates the roundhouse layout.	Harold Werthwein's "fabulous Erie Railroad-Delaware Division" includes a cut-away model of the Port Jervis roundhouse and turntable.
The Chesapeake and Ohio "Chessie" 614 was photographed by Doug Thornton on the Port Jervis turntable during one of the train's several visits.  Unfortunately, enthusiasm for maintaining the turntable  ebbed when Chessie was moved to British Columbia.	Although this reprint does not adequately show the roundhouse (rear center) it does give a sense of the busy Erie rail yards.  Note that the houses in front of the mountain at right also seem to still be seen in the 2005 picture shown at the top of this column.