To those of you who have installed a Walthers turntable, I have a question about the service tracks. I have set the turntable in my layout as Walthers instructed. With the lip of the turntable sitting on my layout, when the roadbed meets the lip of the turntable, the roadbed and the track are a considerable distance above the lip of the turntable, therefore not meeting the track on the bridge. How have you lowered the roadbed and tracks so that the tracks sit on the lip of the turntable?
Thanks,
Jack
I didn't lower the tracks. I raised the turntable. I used the same cork roadbed for the tracks and simply made a ring of it around the opening in the plywood for the turntable.
Mike
Mike, I have been thinking of doing that. Thanks for the comment.
I am not sure if this response will help or not, but here goes.
I used Walthers track for the service tracks as they are the same as the bridge track so they match up perfectly.
Don't use cork around the TT, just place track on the sub roadbed remove the ties that go over the lip.
If you look at the ends of the bridge track they are tapered, do the same with all your service tracks. A couple of passes with a file should do it.
Don't be afraid to make slight adjustments to make things fit. A little sanding or filing is often required in this hobby. Just take your time, one pass with a file may be enough.
My sub road bed is foam and it is easy to take a millimetre off here and there when needed. Different brands of track can have different tie thickness so you may need to adjust for that. There again using Walthers track up against the bridge was good for that reason.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
starman ..., when the roadbed meets the lip of the turntable, the roadbed and the track are a considerable distance above the lip of the turntable, therefore not meeting the track on the bridge... Jack
..., when the roadbed meets the lip of the turntable, the roadbed and the track are a considerable distance above the lip of the turntable, therefore not meeting the track on the bridge...
You aren't going to use roadbed up to the apron of the pit. Or if you do, you'll sand it aggessively to form a descending ramp, or you'll cease using it about eight inches from the pit and let the rails meet the apron at grade. What I do is to remove three ties at the pit end, lay the service/radial track rails directly over the 'apron' of the pit. No roadbed, but I fill under the tracks with gravel in scale, or ballast.
If there is still a sizeable disparity in height, either drop the turntable pit (if that makes sense and isn't going to be a whole lot of bother), Use or use a file/thin grinding stone on a Dremel to grind shallow parallel grooves into the styrene apron. Do this very carefully, only a single,gently kissing pass at a time to see how much damage you are doing. Then, glue the rail ends in place with a goop of some kind, Parbond or whatever. NOTE: dress up those rail ends first with a needle file. You are beveling them inward to match the ends of the bridge tracks so that they don't snag wheel flanges.
Second note: do not place any of those rails within about 1 cm of the optical eye if the TT has such a thing embedded in the pit wall.