As some of you know I have installed the Walthers HO Scale 130 ft turntable which will service a 12 stall roundhouse, 4 garden tracks, and a couple misc tracks like this:
I have some questions about SOP for tracks in Roundhouses:
1) Would it be advisable to install some sort of bumper/stop at the end of the tracks to prevent heavy/strong locomotives from blasting through the back wall? I foresee moving a locomotive from the turntable into the roundhouse and getting momentarily distracted "Squirrel!" and having a Trix Big Boy go right through the back wall. :)
2) I have soldered feeders and fed them through the benchwork for all the tracks in the Roundhouse. I would like to be able to manually enable/disable track power for each service track. My plan is the run all the 22ga BLACK feeders direct to the track power bus (black) and to run the 22ga RED feeders to a 12 position terminal block and then run 18ga wires to one side of STSP switches on a fascia control panel and run 18GA from the other side of the switch to the track power bus. Is this a reasonable plan?
3) Which turntable control panel layout do you prefer? The blue square represents the Walthers turntable control box.
Panel A is layed out to represent how the tracks are arranged around the turntable and it includes the turntable 'id' numbers for the three inbound/outbound approach tracks. Panel A is also rather large (about 13" x 13") so it would stick down below the fascia pretty far (unless I come up with a hinged mount that would allow it to project out somewhat horizontally from the front of the fascia).
Panel B is much more compact but a user would have to KNOW (or figure out) which service track ID corresponds to which track on the layout. And it does not show the turntable track IDs for the three approach tracks.
Panel A
Panel B
Thanks for any advice/comments.
Doug
Modeling an HO gauge freelance version of the Union Pacific Oregon Short Line and the Utah Railway around 1957 in a world where Pirates from the Great Salt Lake founded Ogden, UT.
- Photo album of layout construction -
1. The same thing happened ont he real thing occasionally - although generally it was something like a leaky throttle and the loco crept into the wall instead of blasting through.
2. SHould work.
Walthers has what they call the "advanced control module" which is an alternate control for the turntable (in place of the blue box) and which can also do other things like drive relays to disconnect power from the stall tracks, except for the one currently lined. It would allow you to have a button for each stall, just press the button and the table will line to that stall and the track power will turn on. It does require a bit of work to configure but the very thing - relay control of the track power - is well documented.
You don;t have to use such large toggles, smaller ones will work and can easily handle the current - it will only ever be 1 loco at a time. Even if you have to go down to #20 wire to attach to the toggle - unless you are putting the turntable control panel halfway across the room, it won't be enough drop to matter when just running one loco.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
1) If there are no plans for detailing the interior, then a simple bumpstop made from a small piece of closed cell foam should suffice for a bumper.
2) Any reason not to use a rotary switch? 16-pole rotary switches are available. They prevent any power from going to any track except the one it designates. Power for the leads coulde accounted for elsewhere. The powerplant could have seperate switch controlling it's power.
3) I like Panel A better. Always best to use some graphical elements in the display if any visiting crew will use it regularly
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Onewolf I foresee moving a locomotive from the turntable into the roundhouse and getting momentarily distracted "Squirrel!"
Oh, that would never happen — would it?
Runthrough by Edmund, on Flickr
mlehman2) Any reason not to use a rotary switch? 16-pole rotary switches are available.
That's the route I took and never regretted it
IMG_4967_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
IMG_4962_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
The photo shows my "old" roundhouse. I'm presently "upgrading" to the Walthers Modern roundhouse like yours, OneWolf.
Regards, Ed
I use rotary switches to control all of the storages tracks around my two turntable locations, and first feed the power to them through a simple On/Off switch. This ensures that nothing in the roundhouse or on the table tracks moves while the rotary switch is being set to the desired track...
Wayne