Hi everyone. Just a couple of questions regarding the non motorized walthers 90ft turntable. I am considering a turntable for a new layout expansion and the 90 ft came up. I don't have the budget for the DCC version so thats that. Anyway, if I get it, I will add the drive unit to the turntable. So 1- is the drive unit noisy- Like an atlas tt or just a low hum? 2- how difficult is it to get the bridge lined up with the tracks? 1=easy peasy or 10=stupidly hard please end this pain. 3- would it be possible to add a stationary decoder (realatively cheap one) to control the drive unit with? 4- do you need an auto reverser for the TT?
any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
JJF
Prototypically modeling the Great Northern in Minnesota with just a hint of freelancing.
Yesterday is History.
Tomorrow is a Mystery.
But today is a Gift, that is why it is called the Present.
To get it to work right, you need serius skills. Got my RTR for $50 on e-bay.
You can turn an Atlas into a pit type with a little work.
I have the DCC 90' and when you are programming it you have to line it up by sight. I have reprogrammed it a few times when I have changed the track around and have not had an issue lining things up by eye at all.
The end of the bridge track comes tapered and if you taper the parking track it becomes quite forgiving of none perfect alignment.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I think you have the 90' turntable kit from Walthers, right?
My best advice - SELL IT. It is a royal pain-in-the-patuti to build, and I know of very few people who have ever made it function smoothly. Really.
There are other options out there - one inexpensive one is the Atlas turntable. You'd be better off spending your time making it look more realistic than in trying to get the Walthers kit to work reliably.
There's also Diamond Scale Products' turntables. The HO 90' one is about $100 cheaper than the Walthers DCC one. You have to pay extra for motorizing and such, but from what I've heard and seen they're top-notch.
Any chance you can save up for a bit to get the Walthers DCC turntable (you don't have to use it with DCC, by the way)? You might be able to find one for around $200, if you're patient and keep looking.
On the other hand, if you do invest the time and effort to get the kit working well, you'll have some serious bragging rights.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
JDawgJust a couple of questions regarding the non motorized walthers 90ft turntable.
Hi Jdawg,
As you may have guessed already, the Walthers 90' turntable kit is not great as it comes out of the box. However, it can be made into a smooth runner with a little effort. Here is a thread that I posted a few years ago about how to make one work nicely:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/261225.aspx
As far as noise goes, at low speeds it is not too bad. At high speeds it is positively nasty! High speeds are not prototypical, so if you run it slow it will be fine.
I can't respond as far as DCC control and automatic indexing is concerned. Mine was run off of an old DC train set power pack. Lining it up was easy.
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Like I said, real skills.
rrebell You can turn an Atlas into a pit type with a little work.
Make that a lot of work. I did one. It still looks and works great, but it was not easy. If you're willing to live with the pit floor moving with the base, it's a lot easier.
My Atlas is quieter than most because the motor is recessed in foam. And, of course, the HO version is still only 9 inches long. You could make the bridge a bit longer, but the motor housing would get in the way pretty quickly.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I purchased the non-motorized kit for the 90' TT in 2005 and managed to sort-of almost get it to work about half-sweep. I motorized mine, and while there was no real problem with the motorizing kit as it is sold, it doesn't fit well when you attempt to install it. You DO need a lot of determination, time, and perseverence under your belt if you want that kit to do anything like you have imagined it should do.
However, I seem to recall that Walthers has re-issued the kit for do-it-yourselfers who don't want the fancy indexed/DCC versions that cost three or four times as much. I believe they re-did the tooling for the pit because that was the chief cause of grumbling. In the original kit's case, the pivot for the bridge does not go together per the instructions, and if you do it as they say, the pit will wobble as it spins. I had to use a 2" steel washer tight up under the pit to act as a bushing.
If you decide to grit your teeth and have at this thing, I wish you the best of Irish luck ('cuz my Scots kind didn't do so well), and you should go easy on yourself and think things through. Dry fit everything, test for proper function...BEFORE you glue anything. Be prepared to use some ingenuity to tighten things, to smooth things, and to get the mechanism to work reliably in both directions.
Luck had nothing to do with it. Everyone knows, Scots make the best engineers.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Saw one instalation that had a pit attatched to the Atlas turntable and it had the bridge attached to the moving part of the turntable though the hole in theb pit, looked and worked like a true pit type but had real reliability.
rrebell Saw one instalation that had a pit attatched to the Atlas turntable and it had the bridge attached to the moving part of the turntable though the hole in theb pit, looked and worked like a true pit type but had real reliability.
It might have been mine. Since the Atlas is a deck turntable, the entire deck base rotates, so I had to raise the pit floor a bit above the rim for clearance. But yes, I mounted the bridge through a hole in the center of the pit and powered the track through the same hole, so I retained the direction-switching capability.
The center support for the bridge was not strong enough to support any uneven weight distribution from a locomotive, so I had to provide end bogies and a functional pit rail besides.
Honestly, if I had it to do again, I would go with a complete DCC turntable kit. Most of my steamers are too long for the Atlas.
rrinker Luck had nothing to do with it. Everyone knows, Scots make the best engineers. --Randy
Rich
Alton Junction
Haven't seen many cars come out of Scotland, but then again, haven't seen many warp drive engineers who were German...
rrinker Haven't seen many cars come out of Scotland, but then again, haven't seen many warp drive engineers who were German... --Randy
You've got that right laddie.
Ok, thanks everyone. I guess I'll scratch the walthers idea. What about a Peko LK 55? How does this compare? Would it be worth my time and money?
Here is an Atlas turntable with a pit added. The floor of the pit sits above the original turntable floor and does not rotate.
The pit has been made as large as possible due to the limitations of the motor placement.