What is a railway turntable?

A turntable is a means of turning your engine around.

An example of this would be, if you have several engine sheds at the end of your layout, you would have track coming from each of your sheds leading up to the turntable. When you drive your loco on to the turntable you can then revolve the turntable 180 degrees and reverse your loco on to the correct track for that engines shed.

You could also use a turntable on an end to end layout for turning the engine for its return trip.

In OO gauge, there are prebuilt turntables available from companies such as Peco or Hornby or for the hardcore modeller there is a plastic kit from Dapol that you can make yourself.

The Hornby turntable is motorised, but the others are not. There are motor kits available to fully motorise them though.

Just bear in mind that there are different size turntables, so if you want to turn your loco and tender, you will need a larger turntable to accommodate the tender.