For those with small layouts and small engines, this is my Atlas turntable and Atlas roundhouse. They are designed for each other. The turntable indexes at 15 degrees, and can not be modified to much of anything else. Still, the turntable, motor unit and roundhouse each cost about $25, so for well under a hundred you too can put a turntable and roundhouse on your layout.
The turntable measures 9 inches across. This complete facility is about 2 feet, left to right, and 16 inches top to bottom if you don't count the open-air "stall" tracks with the Geeps on them.
To anyone on the fence about a turntable: Yes. There are few things that do more for a model railroad than a turntable and roundhouse.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
We started with a Heljan turntable. and scrapped it. It was well worth it to get a Walthers turntable.
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Well I have yet to see a turntable that did not have a complete circular rail 360 degrees. That would mean the turntable with a locomotive on it could only go so many degrees of turn and then have to go completely back the other direction? I don't think so. That being said chances are if that turntable is 40 years old it's not a Walthers and it may or may not have an indexing system. This is something you need to find out before your start on this project. Some older turntables were made with hydrocal pits something that did not hold up well over time so check it out very closely. I had built several of this type over the years and had found that the rail sections did not take well when glued to hydrocal and would frequently come loose and the indexing systems were very complex and unreliable. Also on top of the indexing system they required a motor drive system as well. The two work together but are two separate components.To be quite honest with you for what you will have to spend on a reliable indexing system such as a Dalee electronics unit and a motor drive set up you can purchase the walthers turntable depending on e size one you want for around $260 give or take.
If you are decided on using your turntable the first thing it to pick a spot on the layout and plant it. by this I mean cut the hole in the top of the bench work and leave enough room for the round house and approx. 3 or 4 inches between the round house and the pit. Do a mock up by placing the pit upside down on the top of the bench work and place the round house next to it. It doesn't matter whose unit it who as the indexing system takes care of lining up the bridge with the lead in track for each round house stall. In most cases the lead in track wasn't very long but I have seen such round houses like the UP one used at Cheyenne where the lead in track was almost long enough to hold a big boy as seen in a couple of the pics the large round houses that held big road locomotives needed this kind of room but generally most didn't have lead in track no where nearly that long.
Good luck with your resurrection.
First, is the Roundhouse assembled? If not, you can lay the floor sections out on a tabletop and, using two straight edges, lay one on each outer track. The place they cross will be the center of the turntable. That will give you the radius for the turntable and small roundhouse segment. Remember, not all turntables have a complete circle of tracks around them.
If it is assembled, you can do basically the same thing, but need to be careful placing and aligning the straight edges inside.
I am trying to reserect a 40 yr old turntable and round house and need the dimension for the distance from the front of the roundhouse to the center of the turnable for installation. I think the turntable is a Walthers the ouside diameter is 14 1/2 inches. I believe the round house is a Heljan (don't have the old paper work for either).
Looks like the angle in the roundhouse is 15 degrees.
Can anyone help me on this?