A closer look
Turning a massive locomotive around on a tiny mountain ledge is a fantastic way to end up at the bottom of a ravine. Robert Francis Fairlie's wildly cynical solution was to simply build a train that never had to turn. He patented a bizarre, double-ended articulated locomotive that looked like two trains violently welded together at the cab. It could bend around impossibly tight narrow-gauge curves and drive in either direction, completely negating the need for dangerous railway turntables.
