railandsailHave a look back at this subject thread for some NICE turntable photos, and one posting on building one cheaply (and very nice) http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/187727.aspx
Hi railandsail:
I'm familiar with doctorwayne's work. he is one of the best.
Thanks,
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Have a look back at this subject thread for some NICE turntable photos, and one posting on building one cheaply (and very nice)
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/187727.aspx
Brian
My Layout Plan
Interesting new Plan Consideration
Dave,
hon30critter Scratch building a turntable is a definite possibility. I like your idea of spliiting Atlas flex track in two to form the pit rail. Thanks, Dave
Scratch building a turntable is a definite possibility. I like your idea of spliiting Atlas flex track in two to form the pit rail.
I scratchbuilt two turntables. I don't recommend it unless you really like a challenge.
If you do go that route, IMHO kitbashing the Atlas is a better option. Of course opinions do vary.....
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
Yes, HO/HOn3 inside and built my Telluride & Tin Cup (Fn3) this spring out on the patio/in the yard. Gotta come up from the basement and get some fresh air every so often. Drop me a PM, check the old WPF threads in the General Discussion forum, or try these links so we don't get too far off Dave's topic here. Be happy to carry on at length.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/213765.aspx?page=1
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/219241.aspx?page=1
To keep this TT-related, construction of one of my manual TTs is illustrated about halfway down the secend page of the link just above.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
So you have a larger scale outdoor layout and a HO inside latout?
railandsail That is quite the layout you have there Mike. Got a link to more photos, info?
That is quite the layout you have there Mike. Got a link to more photos, info?
Sure, check them out at my Imageshack. You'll need to page back a bit right now, as I've been working on the outdoor RR, drones, etc this summer and not done much inside. Turntable pics are mostly way back near the beginning, but scattered throughout.
https://imageshack.com/user/DRGW476
I really like this 'truss bridged' turntable.
I just found another photo of my experiment with a turntable deck. Here I was also experimenting with the tower bridge on the deck being made out of some other scrap plastic.
This is the one I built for use on my modified Central Midland layout
I took two of these Atlas Plate Girder bridges and turned them upside down to make a good stiff backbone to the turntable deck...
Then I used these deck portions of the Atlas Curved Cord Bridges to form the top of my turntable deck...
I even gave thoughts to just utilizing the entire curved cord bridge as the turntable deck,...not exactly prototypical but would make an interesting turntable.
Besides there were lots of 'truss supported' turntable decks in rural and wood cutting areas of the USA.
Are you sure that one photo did not show up? I still see it.
Unfortunately your pictures in the link you posted have been bitten by the Photobucket bug! They don't show up anymore.
The upper portions of the turntable deck were two sections of a Roco Curved Cord Bridge. They were glued onto 2 sections of bridge sections by Atlas mounted upside down.The rail around the perimeter of the baking pan pit was Atlas flexible track cut down the middle between the rails.
I've got some more photos, but not with me at this time.
That would be a very productive engine servicing facility, turning the locooos at 78 RPM!
(yes I know you didn't just use the original record player motor as-is)
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I ended up building my own turntable for my layout (HERE). Basically I utilized Atlas bridge components for the rotating center span. The track and walkway portions came from the bases of Atlas (Roco) curved cord bridges, and these were rigidly mounted onto upside down plate girder bridge sections. Made a wonderfull rigid turntable bridge with wooden walks and handrails on the either side. I glued a spindle from an old 78rpm record player audio turntable onto the underside of this turntable bridge, and this spindle could be pluged into the original record player turntable located under the base pit, and the drive was accomplished with a rubber wheel sprung against the outer rim of the record player turntable. I was considering making a few of these turntables projects for resale, so I experimented with two different 'pit' styles. Both were aluminum pans that just fit the width of the 2 Atlas bridge section end-on-end. One pan was more shallow that the other for a turntable bridge that would consist of just the curved cord sections. The other pan was much deeper to accomodated the thicker turntable bridge with girder bridge sections added. It would just barely accomodate the longest loco, a Union Pacific BigBoy
JimLAAA PRECISION TURNTABLES also makes HO turntables.
JimLEdit ... I now see that you were asking for kits or plans. So, my info is not applicable.
Hi Jim:
Thanks for the lead. Actually we are open to either possibility. The cost is a bit sobering for either kits or built ups so we want to try to do this as economically as possible. Of course, cheaper often isn't better and we do want the thing to work properly.
Our club has had good experience with the (built) Walther's 130' TT. We line it up by eye. I have also seen the AAA HO turntable working at the Springfield show...it is pricey but very impressive. They provide not only the TT but the milled Aluminum base. My vote at the club was for the AAA..but the cheapskates prevailed.
AAA PRECISION TURNTABLES also makes HO turntables.
I know nothing about them other than I know a couple of O-scalers that have used them and liked them.
Good luck.
Edit ... I now see that you were asking for kits or plans. So, my info is not applicable.
The kit has always had issues, no idea if they ever fixed them, but I guess it became obvious when they used it as the bases of the fully built and indexed version. Most of the kit issues are because of design flawas. Most of the issues with the built up and indexed one are because it is rather finicky and delicate. Since all the control is throough the bridge, the slightest speck of ballast or other material on the pit 'rail' gear is likely to cause issues. And the mounting needs to be secure and not flex, it's easy to bind up the bridge . The two don't share the same issues. Mechanically, the built up one is pretty solid. The kit needs help.
snjroyWell, for the record, I bought a Walthers 90' turntable last year, factory assembled. It is indexed and it works like a charm.
Hi Simon:
Sounds like Walthers smartened up about the quality of their turntables. When I was working on my 90' kit several people suggested scrapping the mechanism completely. I was able to save it, but it took a lot of work. I'm glad yours operates properly.
Well, for the record, I bought a Walthers 90' turntable last year, factory assembled. It is indexed and it works like a charm. I do need to re-calibrate it from time to time, but its just a matter of pushing one button. The only issue I had was with the instructions. It took me a while to notice that the ones that came with the kit were missing 2 pages... After getting the PDF from the Web, I was succesful programming it. It runs very well. I understand that the earlier kits were more problematic.
Simon
Thank you everyone for all the information and suggestions.
SeeYou190Every turntable I have see run with an indexing system has been frustrating. Everyone I have seen that was lined up by eye has worked very well.
I've got 4 turntables, all HOn3 gauge. Two index and two don't. They all work well for me.
My first was a converted Atlas TT. The Geneva motion indexing is limited in the number on-off finger track locations, but is dead accurate. My 75' Diamond Scale has a New York Railway Supply drive and it's also dead accurate. If you bump it and upset things, all you need do is reset the primary track and that sets everything back to where it was without needing to do a full reprogramming. There are no sensors, etc, it's all internal to the drive motor, so very uncomplicated as a system.
My other two are manual, but I don't align by eye so much as by touch, since my fingertip can differentiate better than my sight can these days.
Due to their locations away from the layout edge, indexing is virtually a necessity for the two indexed TTs. Yes, some patience is required in setting both of them up, but once dialed in they work well and require very little attention. In fact, the Atlas is under a snowshed and I can't even see it when its working, just the top of the boiler through a vent opening to let you see it's turning. The loco drives in and comes back out turned with nary a complaint.
RR_MelI built my own indexing system but I can operate it manually also within 1/64” by eyeball using a DPDT momentary toggle switch.
.
1/64" is about 0.015", which should be plenty close to run on and off with no issues. Sounds good to me.
Every turntable I have see run with an indexing system has been frustrating. Everyone I have seen that was lined up by eye has worked very well.
Mine will use eyeball indexing!
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Thanks ckape:
The video shows that the Walthers 130' turntables can probably be made to operate smoothly. This is a Walthers 90' turntable built from a kit which works great! The 90' kits are garbage, but with a little ingenuity they can be made to operate smoothly and reliably. Here's mine in action:
I replaced the pit rail wheels with some spare brass wheels leftover from a Grandt Line box cab kit, and I added brass bearings to the main shaft. The biggest issue was cleaning the flash from the large drive gear. That took a lot of time and patience, and I had to do it a couple of times before I got the gear totally clean.
Our club layout has 2 turntables, the first versioon of the Walthers 130' with indexing, and the other one is I think a Dimond Scales model someone built, about 110' based on how the larger locos look on it, which is driven by a rather crude motor with a rubber roller and spring, controlled with an old home built transistor throttle.
Which one actually gets used during shows and always works? If you said the one with the crude DC drive, you would be the winner. The Walthers one to my knowledge has NEVER worked. I spent significant time one day messing with it trying to get it to work, to no avail. Same with the Walthers transfer table in the engine facility. I managed to get a littel motion out of the transfer table but it would never run from one end to the other or home itself to allow programming. I gave up. My new layout will have a turntable, it will be either a Diamond Scale or CMR, with a simple non-indexed drive. It will be right near the front like the one is on the club layout so it will be super easy to line by eye instead of relying on some precision mechanical and electronic components to for repeatable automatic stops. Trying to build a drive with practically no backlash attached to wood framing which WILL move with environmental changes - no thanks.
According to http://steamlocomotive.com/misc/largest.php the locomotives longer than 130' with tender are the Big Boy, C&O's M1 turbine, N&W's Jawn Henry turbine, and PRR S1.
The big turbines are probably a lost cause to fit on a turntable, but digging into the specs for the Big Boy and the S1 the actual wheelbases with tenders are 117'7" and 123'9" respectively. Even with longer than prototypical engines due to extra drawbar space, 130' should be enough to turn them, although they would still overhang the ends.
Here's a video I just found of a Big Boy fitting on a Walthers 130' turntable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoyvaI7xk_E
You can find gear reduction 12 volt motors pretty cheap. For example
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-14RPM-2-Wires-Electric-Geared-Box-Reduction-Motor-US-SELLER-/263145794668
This is a surplus electronics store I used to buy mail-order from
Allelectronicshttp://www.allelectronics.com/category/400/motors/1.html