Let's talk turntables

[PRRT1MAN]

With all the comments on the different turntables nobody has even mentiond the Bowser table?  I have one that I modified with a diamond scale motorizing unit and indexing unit and I am very pleased so far....

 

Sam

[gandydancer19]

Well, if you really wanted to use a turntable, what I would do is design a trackplan for a steam era roundhouse and turntable in your space.  Then see how it may have been changed by the RR for the diesel era.  Then put the diesel plan on top of the steam plan and install the turntable.  Then I would model the foundation lines of where the steam era buildings would be after they were taken down.  Lay the track for the diesel facility, but let the remains of the steam buildings foundations show.  I think that would make for an interesting scene.

[Packer]

BN had quite a few of them left over from the railroads before the merger. Same with wooden bridges. I personnaly like turntables but may settle for a transfer table. Granted all of this is several years away, when I get my own place and have room for a model RR; I just have equipment.

[gandydancer19]

As I understand it, turntables are a steam era thing. When the railroads dieselized, they used the existing turntables if needed, or took them out. I am not aware of any railroad building a new turntable for diesels. If they needed to turn one, they usually ran to the nearest wye. Maybe someone knows something I don't.

[selector]

I believe that Walthers markets what is known as a "transfer table" that would be appropriate as a modern replacement for a round turntable.  Try a search for that term at Walthers and see if that gives you goose bumps.

[Packer]

My next layout is pretty far away, but I'm wondering what turntable to use for a diesel facility.

I'm looking for something that can handle SD40-2s or U36Cs, as those would probably be the largest power on my layout. Maybe an F-unit AB set, but not likely for that one. I'm guessing the Atlas one will work, but my existing SD45s are pushing 9 inches. Any ideas on what would work that is out there now?

I've seen a few of the Walther's ones and the 90-footer looks like it'll work for F-unit AB sets, but it'd be close. Altough I may be better off with a transfer table. (The transfer table I could probably build myself, tunrtables are a lot harder)

[jcopilot]

OK, Hal, thanks a lot. I really appreciate the time it took you to put together your response. Now I'll have a guide to avoid the pitfalls.

Thanks again,
jcopilot

[gandydancer19]

For a very simple and reliable turntable you can build yourself, try the following:

Since the pit seems to be the hardest part to get cut right, you can use a wood speaker ring for the spacer. And maybe for the ring-rail support too. You can get them here in quite a few sizes at a reasonable cost:  http://www.able-audio.com/products.php

For the bridge, use a block of wood. Paint it black and glue on some bridge sides and track. Make a top deck of stripwood glued around the track.

For the center pivot, use a quarter inch phone plug. Put the jack in the center of the pit. Wire the track rails to the phone plug, and wire up the jack to track power.

For the ring-rail, take some flex track and cut it in half down the center though the tie strip and lay it around the pit wall in a circle.

You may have to build a small metal plate and use some small screws to hold wheels on the ends of the bridge to ride on the ring-rail.

OK, so you have to push it around by hand, but at least it's cheap and sturdy. To make it move under power is going to require more tools and know-how. Of course if you do a web search you will find different ways of doing it.

Is this what you did?  If so can you please post a picture or two?  I'd like to see what you did and how it came out!

No.  These are actually a collection of individual tips  I found through the years about different parts for solving different problems when building a turntable.  However, I have used the block of wood tip for a previous turntable I built and also for making deck girder bridges.  But on the same note, If I decide to build a turntable for my new layout now under construction, I will build it this way.  I might even find a way to motorize it by connecting a gear or pulley to the phone plug.

[lvanhen]

I understand that the Walthers 90' turntable in kit form is questionable at best from what I have read in these forums.  I'd rather a kit than spend the $200 for the fully assemble with a motor.  I like building and a motor is not really necessary for me.

So what IS a good kit form of a 90 foot turntable?  What have you had luck with?

I BELIEVE ther is sonfusion here.

ThE Atlas TT IS 9", not 90 'feet ', and getting any steam engine & temder to fit on it is big problem - unless you plan to unplug them each and every time - or are you envisioning   A STABLE of Russian Decapods?

Gee Don, my 4-4-0's fit OK (2 Bachmann's & 1 Rivarossi)

[Don Gibson]

I understand that the Walthers 90' turntable in kit form is questionable at best from what I have read in these forums.  I'd rather a kit than spend the $200 for the fully assemble with a motor.  I like building and a motor is not really necessary for me.

So what IS a good kit form of a 90 foot turntable?  What have you had luck with?

I BELIEVE therw is some confusion here.

ThE Atlas TT IS 9", not 90 'feet ', and getting any steam engine & temder to fit on it is big problem - unless you plan to unplug them each and every time - or are you envisioning   A STABLE of Russian Decapods?

[donhalshanks]

The four forum threads I give below describe most of the problems people have had with the Walthers 90' TT kit.  The solutions from the reponders I note in each thread, really helped me get a good working TT on the first try.  I tried to follow their advice to the letter, and it works.

http://cs.trains.com/forums/1070886/ShowPost.aspx

"Selector"'s advice is right on target.

http://cs.trains.com/forums/791093/ShowPost.aspx

"Selector"'s advice again is on target.

http://cs.trains.com/forums/964590/ShowPost.aspx

Again, "Selector"'s response works.

http://cs.trains.com/forums/1/434744/ShowPost.aspx#434744

The two responses of "nixa1", and again "Selector" are most helpful

My kit was 933-3135 bought about a year and half ago, and seemed to have had some corrections made by Walthers.  Maybe they were listening to "Selector".  It had a washer to put between the wiper bushings to keep the wipers on the bushings and separate.  It had screw holes in the motor housing counter sunk.... and I did not have the problem occur where the spur gear wouldn't mesh, and stay meshed, with the large gear wheel.

After reading the above threads here are some notes about what I did.  The first thing I did was to cut the hole (after laying the access tracks to align to the center) for the turn table pit.  I glued weights under the bridge.  I put the pit into the hole I had cut. I stuck the bridge spindle in the pit and spun it for the fit.  It did hang up some, so I filed the edges of the bridge that were catching until I could spin it without any hangups.  I also placed the bridge deck on the bridge, and checked to be sure it didn't hang up ( which it didn't).

I then did everything else at the work bench.  I painted and weathered the  pit.  As advised, I glued styrene pieces around the bottom side of the pit hole, to stop any latter wobble.  As suggested, I worked very carefully and took my time, and pretty much followed the printed instructions exactly in assembling the underside of the pit.... brackets, bushings, shafts, wires, motor install, gear assembly, and motor cover.  Fortunately, and maybe because of Walther fixes, I did not have to shim or countersink to get a good fit with the gears.

I glued the hand railing to sides of the deck and the cab shack to the deck, before gluing the deck to the bridge.  I think this made it easier.  Then I glued on the deck.  Putting some supports under the bottom sides of the pit, I bench tested the TT.  I hooked up my wires to power sources and viola!, the dang thing worked right the first time.  I too found, that running at about 6 volts was the right speed, 12 volts was too fast.  

Then I finished all the topside stuff, power arch, etc.  In truth, the one real  unhappy problem I had was getting the rail glued to the deck, and in guage.  I hand lay all my track, so wasn't use to gluing rail.  My first attempt using just a little CA glue, didn't work, and I had to reglue.  I went back and reglued, using a more liberal coat of CA and holding the track down with pressure longer, pushing down on my four 3-point track guages.... and that worked.  If doing it again, I think I would glue the rail to the deck before gluing the deck to the bridge.  Then solder the track wires (but maybe the solder gun would loosen the track glue?).

The last step of course, was to insert the turn table into the layout, attach permanent wires with the switches, etc. and connect to a control panel.

I hope this has been helpful, and sorry I was late in answering.  I'm not too good with pasting addressses, so if the above threads won't link directly, you may have to copy and paste the URL into your brwser.

Hal 

  

[donhalshanks]

Sorry, I was tied up for awhile and couldn't answer.  I'll get back back to you in a little bit with the forum references that helped me a lot.

Hal

[jcopilot]

Close to being finished with the Walther's TT kit, because neither could I afford the higher priced ones.  And you know, I found by following all the advice given in the several threads in this forum on how to make the kit work..... it really did on my first try.  As others suggested, I used styrene spacers glued to underside of pit to reduce wiggle, made sure a washer separated the wiper bushings, and got the motor cover to fit tightly on the spindle.  It weathered beautifully and looks great.  Sure, a little noisy, but that's OK.

Hal, you have me curious - is there a topic in the forum on the Walthers 90' TT kit? I'd love to look it over (and print it out)... If you have a link, could you PM me with it? Thanks!

Jim in Cape Girardeau

 

Hal - are you still out there? I'm curious too. I have 3 of the Walthers TT kits and I'm just starting to work on them. How about posting a link to whatever advice you found? Please?

jcopilot

Hal! Hal! Where are you, Hal? Where did you find the useful information on the TTs? Come back, Hal.
Haaaaallllllllllll!!!!!

[sparkyjay31]

For a very simple and reliable turntable you can build yourself, try the following:

Since the pit seems to be the hardest part to get cut right, you can use a wood speaker ring for the spacer. And maybe for the ring-rail support too. You can get them here in quite a few sizes at a reasonable cost:  http://www.able-audio.com/products.php

For the bridge, use a block of wood. Paint it black and glue on some bridge sides and track. Make a top deck of stripwood glued around the track.

For the center pivot, use a quarter inch phone plug. Put the jack in the center of the pit. Wire the track rails to the phone plug, and wire up the jack to track power.

For the ring-rail, take some flex track and cut it in half down the center though the tie strip and lay it around the pit wall in a circle.

You may have to build a small metal plate and use some small screws to hold wheels on the ends of the bridge to ride on the ring-rail.

OK, so you have to push it around by hand, but at least it's cheap and sturdy. To make it move under power is going to require more tools and know-how. Of course if you do a web search you will find different ways of doing it.

Is this what you did?  If so can you please post a picture or two?  I'd like to see what you did and how it came out!

[Meyblc]

Walthers may have changed their product now and maybe it's new and improved (and won't come out of the box warped) but this is my problem with Walthers...

For YEARS Walthers made the 90' turntable kit with a pit that could not be used as it came out of the box. They knew this and never offered to recall the product or send customers a replacement part. I know that the warped pit can be used after some extensive alterations. By the way, none of these methods were ever mentioned in the instructions or on their web site.

My issue is Trust. Why should I now buy another turntable from Walthers after having wasted my hard earned money on a product that few people have ever been able operate as intended?

Just my 2 cents

Michael

[loathar]

I'll throw this in since I'm planning on buying a Walthers 90' kit. Most people seemed to complain that the pit was warped and/or the bridge mounting hole was not centered or defective on the older kit runs. I asked Walthers about this and they told me these issues were corrected on the kits two runs ago. (take that for what it's worth)
I'd much rather have to make a couple tweaks on an already designed kit than design one from scratch...

[gandydancer19]

For a very simple and reliable turntable you can build yourself, try the following:

Since the pit seems to be the hardest part to get cut right, you can use a wood speaker ring for the spacer. And maybe for the ring-rail support too. You can get them here in quite a few sizes at a reasonable cost:  http://www.able-audio.com/products.php

For the bridge, use a block of wood. Paint it black and glue on some bridge sides and track. Make a top deck of stripwood glued around the track.

For the center pivot, use a quarter inch phone plug. Put the jack in the center of the pit. Wire the track rails to the phone plug, and wire up the jack to track power.

For the ring-rail, take some flex track and cut it in half down the center though the tie strip and lay it around the pit wall in a circle.

You may have to build a small metal plate and use some small screws to hold wheels on the ends of the bridge to ride on the ring-rail.

OK, so you have to push it around by hand, but at least it's cheap and sturdy. To make it move under power is going to require more tools and know-how. Of course if you do a web search you will find different ways of doing it.

[oleirish]

I'am in "N" scale at the present,I bought the walthers 130' compleate,indexin powered,and QUITE it works supper and good indexing.

My problem is the round house.the conerstone round house I have is for the 135',don't fit!

atlas round house don't fit(to narrow).So Iam going to have to scrach build one, to buy an 6 0r even an 12 stall round house It is hard to find an 130' round house may be some one can help me here?The catalog show round house kits,but does not tell what turn table they are for?

 

JIM

[Meyblc]

"I wonder how many people buy the Walther's non motorized unit and use it for a frisbee.  I wouldn't be surprised if only 3 out of 10 purchasers get it to work correctly.  Ok, 4 of 10.  The best thing I've done so far, at Selectors urging, was to save up and get the motorized indexed unit."

 

Mine would not fly well as a frisbee.....it was to warped!!!

[rogertra]

Now granted, the indexed model isn't cheap but being that, on my layout, it is used so much and is the centerpiece of that area, it's one of the best things I've bought in this hobby.  If I had to give up 3 dcc sound engines or the turntable and couldn't buy more of either, the engines would just have to go.

But I hate to talk anyone into getting one because you'll want to kiss me and I'm not into guys. 

Jarrell

Jarrel.

 Truer words were never spoken.

[jcopilot]

Close to being finished with the Walther's TT kit, because neither could I afford the higher priced ones.  And you know, I found by following all the advice given in the several threads in this forum on how to make the kit work..... it really did on my first try.  As others suggested, I used styrene spacers glued to underside of pit to reduce wiggle, made sure a washer separated the wiper bushings, and got the motor cover to fit tightly on the spindle.  It weathered beautifully and looks great.  Sure, a little noisy, but that's OK.

Hal, you have me curious - is there a topic in the forum on the Walthers 90' TT kit? I'd love to look it over (and print it out)... If you have a link, could you PM me with it? Thanks!

Jim in Cape Girardeau

 

Hal - are you still out there? I'm curious too. I have 3 of the Walthers TT kits and I'm just starting to work on them. How about posting a link to whatever advice you found? Please?

jcopilot

[jacon12]

I wonder how many people buy the Walther's non motorized unit and use it for a frisbee.  I wouldn't be surprised if only 3 out of 10 purchasers get it to work correctly.  Ok, 4 of 10.  The best thing I've done so far, at Selectors urging, was to save up and get the motorized indexed unit. 

Thank you Crandell, thank you thank you thank you thank you!

Now granted, the indexed model isn't cheap but being that, on my layout, it is used so much and is the centerpiece of that area, it's one of the best things I've bought in this hobby.  If I had to give up 3 dcc sound engines or the turntable and couldn't buy more of either, the engines would just have to go.

But I hate to talk anyone into getting one because you'll want to kiss me and I'm not into guys. 

Jarrell

[selector]

Don, good for you!  I found that even one nearby sound/DCC engine tended to mask any gear or motor noise on my first TT.  If you are in DC and have no sound, maybe a BLI Blueline DC engine is in order since they have BLI's sound decoder. 

I used an unused DC power pack and hooked the motor to the DC outputs.  When needing to turn the bridge, a slow dial-up of voltage got the bridge turning at realistic (slowish) speed and it was a pleasure.

-Crandell

Try this link for some discussion a while back: http://cs.trains.com/forums/1215694/ShowPost.aspx

 

[sparkyjay31]

Close to being finished with the Walther's TT kit, because neither could I afford the higher priced ones.  And you know, I found by following all the advice given in the several threads in this forum on how to make the kit work..... it really did on my first try.  As others suggested, I used styrene spacers glued to underside of pit to reduce wiggle, made sure a washer separated the wiper bushings, and got the motor cover to fit tightly on the spindle.  It weathered beautifully and looks great.  Sure, a little noisy, but that's OK.

Hal, you have me curious - is there a topic in the forum on the Walthers 90' TT kit? I'd love to look it over (and print it out)... If you have a link, could you PM me with it? Thanks!

Jim in Cape Girardeau

 

Me too...I could only find Walthers bashing, not really a solution.

[JimRCGMO]

Close to being finished with the Walther's TT kit, because neither could I afford the higher priced ones.  And you know, I found by following all the advice given in the several threads in this forum on how to make the kit work..... it really did on my first try.  As others suggested, I used styrene spacers glued to underside of pit to reduce wiggle, made sure a washer separated the wiper bushings, and got the motor cover to fit tightly on the spindle.  It weathered beautifully and looks great.  Sure, a little noisy, but that's OK.

Hal, you have me curious - is there a topic in the forum on the Walthers 90' TT kit? I'd love to look it over (and print it out)... If you have a link, could you PM me with it? Thanks!

Jim in Cape Girardeau

 

[donhalshanks]

Close to being finished with the Walther's TT kit, because neither could I afford the higher priced ones.  And you know, I found by following all the advice given in the several threads in this forum on how to make the kit work..... it really did on my first try.  As others suggested, I used styrene spacers glued to underside of pit to reduce wiggle, made sure a washer separated the wiper bushings, and got the motor cover to fit tightly on the spindle.  It weathered beautifully and looks great.  Sure, a little noisy, but that's OK.

Hal 

 

[jrbernier]

  Diamond Scale has very nice turntable kits - including a 90' one.  They are not cheap - About $150 for a non-powered 'kit'.  I have a 90' one with power that I bought assembled at a Train Show for $50!  It runs great, so I know they are very good if you spend the time to build it correctly.  I wanted a second turntable, and I bought the Walthers one for $200 - assembled/indexes/the 'works'.  Looking at the two models, I can see the value of that expensive Walthers RTR turntable(my time/frustration...).

 

Jim Bernier

[sparkyjay31]

I understand that the Walthers 90' turntable in kit form is questionable at best from what I have read in these forums.  I'd rather a kit than spend the $200 for the fully assemble with a motor.  I like building and a motor is not really necessary for me.

So what IS a good kit form of a 90 foot turntable?  What have you had luck with?