Most residents will have noticed the turntable which is at the Clayton end of Daranda Terrace. The first turntable was installed when the railway opened in 1884. The railway track stopped at Milang and trains went no further. Most trains in those days were designed to run forwards and would normally run backwards for very short distances.
Therefore, the locomotives pulling trains arriving at Milang had to be turned, and hence the turntable. Locomotives would back down from the station, the town school kids would push it round (it was very easy) and the locomotive would then back onto its train in the station before returning to Strathalbyn.
In the 1920s, the steam engines which operated the regular train to Milang were replaced by a diesel railcar. That railcar was designed by the Brill company of Philadelphia, USA, and was made in the railway works at Islington. It soon gained the nickname Barwell Bull because Barwell was premier when they were introduced and the horn sounded like a bullhorn. The Brill railcars were also designed to go forwards in normal use and therefore also had to be turned on the turntable.
In 1969, a large diesel locomotive was sent down to Milang on a promotional tour for freight business and was moved on to the turntable for its return journey. Unfortunately, it was too heavy for the turntable and broke it. All trains thereafter were forced to reverse down from or back to Strathalbyn.
When the railway closed in 1970 the turntable was scrapped, along with all the other railway infrastructure, so that in the 70s and 80s there was nothing south of Daranda Terrace but bush. When the volunteers opened the Railway Museum they had to start from scratch and located a turntable at Truro in the Barossa valley. They brought it down to Milang and installed it in a very dodgy operation involving battery powered jacks.
When we were laying the current narrow gauge railway we were hoping to take the track over the turntable using it as a bridge. However, the rail safety authorities vetoed the move on safety grounds and so we now go around it. The yellow vehicle now on the turntable was used by railway workers to check the gauge, gradient and cant of railway tracks around the state.
