NP2626Any roundhouse should line up with any turntable.
While often correct, that unfortunately is not typically true with the Atlas turntable the Original Poster owns, since its indexed locations are absolutely fixed by a Geneva-style mechanism and are farther apart than many roundhouse models (except Atlas' roundhouse).
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
The Heljan kit is the same as the Walthers Union City roundhouse. Not to be confused with the Walthers "Modern" roundhouse.
The old Union City Turntable kit also traces its origins to the Heljan, and the 'dark ages' of N scale. It's details are horribly clunky, it operates as well as a clogged drain, and is a colossal waste of time and money.
The Atlas roundhouse is nice, and does go with the Atlas turntable, but that's also not a very good solution.
Your best bet is to wait (along with the rest of us) for Walther's Cornerstone DCC equipped turntable to get here. This was announced a couple of years ago, but has yet to arrive on these shores. It's pricey, to be sure, but it looks a whole lot better, it comes as a "built up" so it's fairly precise in its operation, and is just overall a better quality product. It's based on the 130' turntable they released a couple of years ago, with the only change being on-board DCC.
The biggest problem with the Atlas roundhouse, is it's pre-set track locations. They're pretty far apart, which makes it difficult to fudge.
I used the foundations from the Heljan kit to build my 20 stall roundhouse (the walls are way too European looking for my purposes) and I'm using it with the older built-up kit.
You just have to establish the center of the turntable as the center of a group of concentric circles, then the tracks radiate out from that center. If you have to kink the tracks, you don't have the roundhouse in the right place.
Hope this helps...
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
to the forums!
This can be a common and frustrating problem.
Well, have you tried adjusting the distance the roundhouse is from the turn table {TT}?
Usually a TT and a roundhouse of differing brands may nto "play well together".
Also, Atlas has an N scale roundhouse I bet will work very well with their Atlas TT.
It is available here:
http://www.wholesaletrains.com/Detail.asp?ID=20014833
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Any roundhouse should line up with any turntable. A turntable is really only a pivot point and as long as the diameter of the turntable isn't larger than the inside diameter of the roundhouse there will be a point where the aligments will workout! The alignment can be found by moving the roundhouse closer; or, farther away from the turntable.
It is concentric circles that use the pivot point of the turntable as their center. The outer rim of the turntable is one circle, the inner and outer walls of the roundhouse are the other concentric circles. The only real problem might be, if stalls of the roundhouse aren't true radials from the same piviot point.
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
I don't know about Heljan, but if you have an N-scale Walthers round house, then get the Walthers N-scale turntable. They align perfectly and were designed to do so.
Rich
Alton Junction
What turntable is compatable with a n-scale Heljan, and Walthers roundhouse. I have an Atlas, but nothing lines up.
Thank you,
J.White
(herrinchoker)