Turntable Control

[RF&Prr]

 There are several commonly used methods to control turntables with pros and cons to each.

1-  Simple hand control or physically moving the table yourself

2-  A standard controller that comes with the turntable (like the walthers)

3-  An aftermarket controller such as New York Railway Supply's  PTCII

 That I know of, only the third option, the PTCII, will give you simple "one-button push"  track alignments.   If cost is not an issue, then I would highly recommend the PTCII with the keypad option.

RF&PRR

[Sierra Man]

 I have the 90 footer, non indexing. I just use an old MRC 2400 power pack. Hooked the speed dial to turn the table and a Digitrax AR1 to control polarity. It works great for me.

[gatefive]

John: Walthers makes a 9-' and 130' indexing turntable. The 90' should fit in the space you have for your manual/motor driven non indexing table. I just finished installing one and had it working within a couple of hours including wiring up the lead and storage tracks. there have been several articles about using a decoder to trigger the clockwise or counterclockwise control button. Try a Google search. I had a hard time finding the 90' table and got it on ebay from a company in Canada. It was the Heljen version which is identical to the Walthers and the price was right. Dick Arrow Creek and Western Reno, NV

[seaside]

I have a 90' Walthers turntable powered by Walthers simple motor and gearbox.  I have been trying to control the turntable and a turntable sound module with a stationary decoder but realize now that it may be much easier to just add controls to my fascia mounted control panel and bypass the decoder.

My initial thoughts are to wire a reverse polarity switch with a potentiometer on the control panel such that I can control the speed and direction of rotation, but I'm curious about alternatives.

Ideally, I'd like to just push a button and have the turntable align itself with a specified siding.  I'm not concerned so much about cost, but don't want to do a lot of machining of parts.  Is there a commercially available "system"?

How do you control your turntable?

John