KCR turntable (south) [c.1969-c.1993]

Submitted by David on Tue, 11/16/2021 - 14:49
Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists
Date completed
(Day, Month, & Year are approximate.)
Date closed / demolished
(Day, Month, & Year are approximate.)

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When the decision was taken to relocate the KCR TST terminus to Hung Hom in 1965, it was also decided to relocate the workshops from the area north of the eastern end of Gascoigne Road to Ho Tung Tau in 1968. Likely for the new Hung Hom Station, a new running shed and a turntable were built. Both appear on a 1969 aerial photograph. So 1968 or 1969 would be year of construction.

The turntable is featured in a film on YouTube entitled 九廣鐵路(英段)Kowloon-Canton Railway (British Section). At 31:22 min, a Chinese locomotive is turned. The speaker refers: " Luckily, Kowloon was provided with a turntable, which enable the single-ended Chinese locomotive to turn around. Until the advent of these Chinese engines, this turntable has seen little use".

The turntable is visible on aerial photographs until 1993, it's gone on the one from 1994-10-20.

More in use was another device: "As indication of the cramped nature of the station is given by the fact that all platforms are dead-end and a traverser had to be used to enable engines to be released from the head of incoming passenger trains (although it could also move mail vans from the platform lines to the adjacent International Mail Centre)." (Source: Kowloon-Canton Railway (British Section) - A History)

Another photo here, additional information here..