Taking a spin on a railroad turntable in Oyster Bay

It had been 50 years since James Kaufman, of Glen Head, had seen the historic railroad turntable in Oyster Bay do its thing.

“The year was 1971, I was 4 years old, my family brought me out here to see it operate,” Kaufman recounted moments after stepping off the fully functioning turntable last Saturday at a celebration of the restoration of the turntable and railway station in Oyster Bay. “It was a lot louder then, and faster. Or maybe I was just smaller. But it sure gave the train engine a ride — that turntable spun like a top!”

Fast-forward 50 years, and Oyster Bay’s unique 360-degree railroad turntable was at it again last Saturday, under the practiced hand of railroad enthusiast John Petshe, a member of the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum.

“I got up early this morning and practiced running the turntable several times,” Petshe, a Hicksville native now living in New Jersey, admitted. “I got the rotation just right the first time, but missed the mark by just a little on the second run. It takes timing to get it to coast to a stop at just the right spot.”

The turntable was brought to Oyster Bay from Locust Valley and installed in 1904, to turn eastbound engines back in the direction of Manhattan by rotating them 180 degrees.

The operational debut of the 117-year-old turntable, de-scribed as the only operating turntable in the country by museum volunteer Joel Friedman, was the highlight of the day’s celebration, which included tours of the Railroad Museum’s displays inside the same station that President Theodore Roosevelt used to travel from his home at Sagamore Hill to Washington, D.C. Not only did Roosevelt come and go at the station, but during his presidency, dignitaries went through the same doors visitors used on Saturday. The station was “an integral part of the scene in the early 1900s,” according to museum officials.

Built in 1889 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, the depot was constructed by Bradford Lee Gilbert, and was touted as one of the finest stations in the country. Its restoration is a multi-year work in progress, but with the exhibits in place and key decorative and design elements completed (full restoration of the western and southern facades; the refabrication of a ticket window), Saturday’s event marked one of two major steps forward: the station’s grand opening. That, combined with the operational debut of the turntable and the easing of coronavirus restrictions on public gatherings, made a celebration of the structures particularly appropriate.

“We’re all about preserving the history of our community and providing a forum for heightened awareness and understanding of the railroad’s impact on local life,” said John Speece, board president of the Railroad Museum. “And we’re all about having fun while doing that.”

For James Kaufman and the dozens of railroad enthusiasts and community celebrants who joined him for a spin on the historic railroad turntable, the fun has just begun.