I have been recently working on assembling my walthers 90 foot turntable. When I first put it together, the motor wouldn't turn the bridge and would just skip. I found that the ends of the bridge were rubbing against the pit wall in some spots so I filed the ends down until the bridge spun freely by hand. I put it back togther again making sure all the screws were tight. Now it will spin without a locomotive on it but it will start skipping again in some spots when I put a locomotive on it. Has anyone had this issue before?
Lone Geep
\
which model?
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
Yes, I have, and so did many others report this unfortunate experience over the past 15 years. However, I had understood that Walthers had issued a newer version of that kit and that it had been improved substantially. Could it be that you have somehow acquired a 15 year old kit?!?
The pivot post on my version did not sit well in the bearing at the bottom of the pit. I had to place a large 2" steel washer between the bearing and the big gear, greased with white grease, so that the gear would stably rotate around a stable post. Also, I used the motorizing kit which made it much more complicated and necessary for the post to be stable. I recall having to shim behind the motor housing in order to get the mechanism to mesh with the large gear. It worked, but only until the end of the bridge ground against the not-round pit wall.
I have the early version of the 130’ TT. Spent two years trying to get it to index consistently all to no avail. Mine would not skip with locomotives on the bridge....opposite of your issue. Maximum frustration level reached a couple years ago and I tore the whole thing out. Now resides in shipping container under bench work. Prefer not to dwell on several hundred dollars wasted along with many hours of frustration....moved on. Had numerous issues with rolling stock kits and locomotives through the years also. Other than building kits, I avoid their offerings. Best of luck
I spent all my time, money, and effort into finding two old Bowser turntables to use on my final layout.
.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
EMDSD40 I have the early version of the 130’ TT. Spent two years trying to get it to index consistently all to no avail. Mine would not skip with locomotives on the bridge....opposite of your issue. Maximum frustration level reached a couple years ago and I tore the whole thing out.
I have the early version of the 130’ TT. Spent two years trying to get it to index consistently all to no avail. Mine would not skip with locomotives on the bridge....opposite of your issue. Maximum frustration level reached a couple years ago and I tore the whole thing out.
Rich
Alton Junction
Selector: my kit came with the washer but i cant seem to get the contact rings far enough up the shaft so that the shaft sits touches the bottom of the cover. I'm also dissappointed that there is no easy way to mount the motor to the bottom of the pit instead of the cover so I can see how it is meshing with the big gear.
Also: this is not one that has an index feature so I'm not having problems with that. its just that when I put a locomotive in the bridge, the motor gear will slip at certain places.
I purchased three of these 90 footers and all went back to Walthers. 4 months later ther were returned with same issues, so with the help of some of my electrically gifted friends converted all to DC with an MRC powerpack hanging on the fascia directly in front of TT. They now perform quite well and eyeball alignment is more fun then cursing at the thing when the indexing goes out of whack. Asthetic and design wise, they are just fine and add quite a bit to my pike.
Great care building benchwork , TT installation, and track alignment was used and reliable operation was not in the cards. Manual alignment was not possible due to positioning on the layout. Now retired, I toyed with the idea of trying to re-install but chose to forget it. TT and two 3-stall roundhouse kits now reside under benchwork. When I get tired of looking at it, out the door they go.
You just reminded me of a second major problem with that kit: the copper wipers that are supposed to lie against the two metal rings on the shaft under tension....don't. I had to add a styrene spacer washer that I made from a kit wall under each ring so that the wipers would not slip below those washers.
As for meshing the two gears, motor drive and the large ring gear, you have to fiddle. You'll do less of it if you get the shaft to stop wobbling. One the bridge rotates freely and the shaft ceases to wobble, the meshing become easier. The problem with all those spacers is that it shifts the large ring gear up or down relative to the designed position, and that is where you have the skipping...the meshing becomes iffy as the shaft wobbles imprecisely.
I shipped the kit to another modeller here, explaining what I had done and that it was a bust largely. I never did learn if he was able to fix it and to use it himself.
The 'built-up' indexed kit worked perfectly for me from Day 1. I haven't had it on a layout since 2012, but my plan is to insert it and the roundhouse soon. I expect to have to clean it, and to relube it, but there's no reason why it won't work.
Howard Zaneso with the help of some of my electrically gifted friends converted all to DC with an MRC powerpack hanging on the fascia directly in front of TT.
I don't want to put words in Howard's mouth, but his layout is still DCC. Having seen his layout, and I also decided to power my CMR turntable with my old MRC powerpack. Track power is DCC.
It is highly controllable and reversible. It's not automatic, i.e.. push a button to have it stop at stall 3, but good enough for me.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Hi Lone Geep,
I have one of the early 90' Walthers turntables, and I was able to get it to work quite well but it required some modifications. Here is the thread showing what I did:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/261225.aspx
If your gears are not meshing properly I would first check that the motor is located properly on its mounting pins. My gears were in the right position but the amount of flash and debris in the teeth was a huge problem before I cleaned it all out. Cutting the slot in the motor cover allowed me to see exactly where the problems were.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
So after a few more hours of tinkering and testing, I found that the large gear was not completely round to the point that it would not meshe with the motor gear all the way around. I then glued it to the bottom of the pit with a piece of styrene for a spacer and brought the motor gear up right at the low spot on the big gear. lo and behold it was able to turn round and round with a locomotive on top, no skipping or anything! I also added four styrene spacers between the bottom of the big gear and the pit to prevent it from tilting.
Awhile ago I was finally able to get it to spin properly and problem free. now the problem has shifted to keeping both of the rails powered since the table will tilt and cause the brass wipers to come out of contact with the rings. I tried gluing a piece of styrene to hold the wipers against the rings but it still didn;t work when the table shifted. so I added some more styrene to keep take up the space but that has brought on a lean on the bridge. Any other things I should try? This table has been one headache after the next....
I adjusted the shape of the wipers so that they put more pressure on the rings. The first thing I did was to take the flat wipers and bend them into a 'V' lengthwise with the bottom of the 'V' towards the rings. That made the wipers much more rigid so I could bend them to make firmer contact and they held their shape and position. Sorry, I don't have a picture.
One of the other changes I made was to add a brass bushing where the bridge comes in contact with the pit. It's made out of a piece of brass tube. The original plastic bushing had to be filed down a bit. IIRC the brass bushing just happened to fit into the hole in the pit. I could be wrong on that. The bridge does not wobble at all but it still turns freely.
Here is a picture:
Don't give up yet! Consider this a challenge!! Of course, if all else fails you can beat the thing to pieces with a hammer to get your frustrations out, and then go buy a decent turntable!
After posting again, I had a brainwave. get a longer strip of brass and curl the one end around the ring. I ran over the hobby shop after work this evening and tried it out. It works most of the time but I was able to bring my locos out of the roundhouse on to the turntable spin them around and run them back in without using the 0-5-0. There are a few times it didnt work but I just moved the table more and then brought it back and then the engine moved no problem so I'm happy with it for now!
I solved the contact problem by soldering a 3/8 inch piece of braided solder remover on each of the brass strips and curving them slightly around around the verticle axle. No problems in three years, I think the braided material acts as a cleaning/polishing material.
It ain't perfect, but it works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jENvKzBCxvs
lone geep It ain't perfect, but it works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jENvKzBCxvs
I would have given it a 10, but then you might not believe me.
Good job !
lone geepIt ain't perfect, but it works.
That's all that matters!
CP locomotives eh!?