By Railfan & Railroad Staff 

BNSF Railway has donated a 135-foot turntable to Railroading Heritage of Midwest America, which will be large enough to turn the two Union Pacific steam locomotives currently being restored at Silvis, Ill. Once installed, the turntable will be the largest at a railroad museum in the U.S.

The table was built for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy’s Cicero Yard near Chicago. While Silvis once had a turntable that served the Rock Island shop complex, it was removed and the turntable pit filled in decades ago. RRHMA is presently raising money to move and install the “new” turntable. 

In September 2022, Canadian Pacific donated the former Milwaukee Road twin-span turntable from Bensenville, Ill. to RRHMA. That turntable, constructed in 1937, moved to Silvis that month. Now it will be moving to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, Tenn.

RRHMA is currently restoring UP 4-6-6-4 3985 and 2-10-2 5511.