I am in the process of building a CMR 90' turntable and a 5 stall roundhouse from Walthers kits. I don't have much room to put in "overrun" tracks (or whatever they are called) opposite each roundhouse stall track, as my TT will be close to the edge in that area. I have seen photos where there aren't such tracks everywhere, which suits me OK, but leads to another question.
If, due to the way the loco approached the TT, the control doghouse is at the opposite end to the track being moved to, how did the operator (90' away) get the alignment right? Was there somebody at the far end shouting "left a bit, er, no, right a bit" or did they put some markers on the TT apron to help.
An additional question - the TT has a concrete pit and lip, and the bridge height of the CMR TT puts the rail height such that my Peco Code 83 track on its ties is the correct height when laid on the pit rim. So - were the approach tracks ever laid like this, or were rails bolted direct to the concrete (in which case, I'd need to pack the lip with a ties-worth of styrene concrete).
All help and suggestions welcomed.
Thanks, Bob
Don't know the first; it's a good question.
I did an image search about the second, and found photos of both ways:
Found this, too:
Ed
FowlmereRRWas there somebody at the far end shouting "left a bit, er, no, right a bit" or did they put some markers on the TT apron to help.
They would use hand signals instead of shouting, unless there was a track they could line up with.
They also had mechanical means of lining up the turntable. They might have alignment fittings between the rails and the indexing pockets in the turntable wall.
FowlmereRRSo - were the approach tracks ever laid like this, or were rails bolted direct to the concrete (in which case, I'd need to pack the lip with a ties-worth of styrene concrete).
The turntable pit might have a wooden rim and the rails were spiked to that wooden beam. So you could remove the last tie and put a wooden rim that the rails would rest on or you could just rest the last tie on the rim and then fill in with extra ties between the tracks to make a "wooden rim".
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I sanded the bottom of the Atlas code 83 ties to fit my CMR turntable. I used a short piece of track for the over run.I custom built the bridge superstructure and control shack and always locate the shack on the approach end of the bridge.I’m a Southern Pacific guy through and through and the SP didn’t have the superstructure on their turntables but when we moved to Bakersfield I fell in love with the Santa Fe turntable here and it had the superstructure.Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California Turned 84 in July, aging is definitely not for wimps.
Thanks all. I think I'll add some wood and see how that looks. Many thanks.
Bob
I occasionally worked on the B&O turntable at Glenwood, Pa. If the turntable track is clear it is easy to line up the far end by sighting along the rails. If I had an engine on the table I could sight the alignment from the cab and give hand signals to the table operator.
Before an engine moved onto the table we would try to position the operator cab end to be at the end from which the engine would leave the table so he could make the alignment on his own.
The Connellsville table had mechanical alignment devices that slid a steel plate between the webs of the rails. These were meant to prevent movement once the rails were aligned, not to actually move the table into alignment.
Mark Vinski