I installed all the service tracks and all works flawlessly except I used code 70 track. It still works but has a slight bump of course. Should I just shim the service tracks a bit ? I installed it what I thought was the same way on last layout but I might have shimmed the lead track and used the proper code service, don't know. Also some of the settings seem a hair off, used a ribbon rail allignment gauge on all.
Normally I would just file down the bridge a bit but the turntables are a bit expencive (however I got a deal).
I use code 100 rail on my Bowser turntable bridges. I like the way that beefy rail looks on the bridge.
Approach tracks are code 83 (from service tracks), 70 (to the roundhouse), and 55 (the two garden tracks).
All that needs to align are the tops of the rails and the inside gauges for the flanges. I use plastic sheet shims under the ties to get each track to align properly.
The Bowser turntables are on 1/2" plywood bases, and do not have the lip around the pit like the Walthers model, but a similar technique should work.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I would just shim it. Tiny little bits of whatever glued to the underside of the rails that go on the edge of the pit.
Make sure the storage tracks are level or you will end up with things in the pit. I had to readjust after I found a truck had made its way there.
I am not sure what you mean by the settings being off but you may just need to reprogram it.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Whatever you elect to do, shim or file, don't implement the 'quick fix that backfires.' What you do at any one meet of rails, on a rotating two-ended platform, you must match at the opposite end of the platform, and at all other possible meets.
So, think about it a bit. You adjust levels here, and then you rotate the turntable to back the engine instead of pulling off the table pilot-first. Will that rotation have the same height of rails at the meet? Nope, not unless you also adjust that meeting. Now, what about all the other radials?
This is why the turntable should be carefully leveled, and why its various meets have to be taken into account for elevations at all points, but for both ends of the bridge.
If it were me, I'd be careful during construction to ensure most of the meets were at grade, and then, when I found that others were less so, I'd wet any 'terrain/mud/cinders' to soften any soluble adhesives and lift them slightly...or sink them as the case may be...and slide thin plastic packaging 'shims' under the last three or four inches to level the meet. You don't want the loco climbing to the meet, and then teeter-tottering over it, with a clunk and visible shift in angle of attack. You'll hate that. So, make the two rails, at all compass points, meet at grade for about the length of a 2-8-0's driver base, and then allow a slight dip toward the end of the radial if needs be.
Ok, took an outside track and pryed it up and recaulked under it and put a .02 shim near the table. Tryed out a Proto 2000 0-8-0 and it seems smooth, transition was 5 to 6" long. We are not really talking a lot of height here, aprox 1/32".
Sounds like it is working out. That is good work to solve a problem.
Almost spoke too soon, also needed a .01 on turntable to or the heavy engine sometimes dips a bit, can hide it under the rails and once painted rail color you will never know. Guess I should have noticed the need for code 83 for all but lead, maybe this was an issue last time and didn't notice because it dose work fine without making it perfect.