Thanks everyone for your suggestions and research. The March 2017 article is the one I was looking for. However, I will be interested to look at the other articles suggested (there seem to be quite a few) to compare similarities and differences and see what best fits my needs. Thanks again to everyone who replied!
OK, how about this one, from March, 2017.
http://mrarchive.mrr.trains.com/?iid=150053&searchKey=staging%20table#folio=38
Mike.
My You Tube
The whole staging table was built like a separate layout. stood independant of the layout. It had swivle castors on the legs so it could be spun around. it had a couple of shelves on it that could be raised and lowered. Plus each had roller bearing drawer glides so the shelf could be slid right and left. The entire table could be locked to the layoit so it didnt move. unlocking it, you could spin the entire table, lock it in place, raise or lower to the proper shelf, slide to the propper track and roll the train off
i know exactly the article you are talking about. Be dammed if i can remember which issue. The key was an independant table on castors that had sliding shelves
That is what he is reffering too
Wolfie
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
How about this one, December, 2000, a 3 page article by John R. Signor called "Railroading in a Drawer"
http://mrarchive.mrr.trains.com/?iid=95129&searchKey=drawer%20glides#folio=112
I found the one I was thinking of. It's the O scale Chemung Northern, from our April 2012 issue. The staging table isn't as big as I remembered -- only 5 tracks -- but it's definitely the layout I was thinking of. Hopefully it's the layout the OP was thinking of, too. The track plan is also available in our Track Plan Database (available for download to registered magazine subscribers).
http://mrr.trains.com/how-to/track-plan-database/2012/02/chemung-northern-rr
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
I remember the article in question. It wasn't a turntable or a sector plate; rather, it was a sliding staging yard with about 11 tracks on it, mounted on ball-bearing drawer glides. Something like a transfer table. To bring a train onto the layout, you slid the table to the appropriate position, locked it in place, and drove your train onto the layout. The problem is, that was only part of an article about the larger layout, so it wouldn't show up in the index's search keywords, even if I could remember what it was called. I'll have to do some digging. Hopefully my description will help someone else remember where they saw the article.
If I were in the position of needing a "fiddle yard" or off-layout staging I think I would use a method I've seen before — that is — a car ferry semi-permanently mounted to a cart or trolley.
Several cuts of cars, basically a whole train, could be rolled onto the ferry or barge and "floated" over to the other landing. RORO style. You could dress up the barge to make it look similar to a railroad barge and rather than trying to balance a pivoting length of five or six feet, or more, the "barge" could handle multiple tracks side-by-side. A plug-in connector could power the track so locomotives could also be transported. It can be double-ended so the "train" could be turned simply by unloading off the bow or stern as appropriate.
Like Dave, I seem to recall a train-length "turntable" featured in an M-R article but the details are lost in my dusty brain cells.
Only a suggestion.
Regards, Ed
A sector plate is a different animal than a train-turning sized turntable, although some of the sector plate design and installation ideas would certainly seem to apply to a train length turntable. The late Ben King had such a turntable on his layout, but that appeared in MR decades ago so is unlike to be the article the OP is thinking of. And obviously a turntable that can turn an entire train is not a model of a prototype!
I have this hunch the item in question was a sidebar of a larger article, so the index is of little help. I have distant memories of such a side bar years ago in an issue of Model Railroading or Rail Model Journal or one of the other defunct magazines (but see below).
There is a drawing of such a train-turning turntable in the 1996 issue of Model Railroad Planning page 60 (dealing with fiddle yard designs), and a cross reference to an article in the 1995 issue of MRP, page 84, where such a train-turning turntable (five feet) is part of a sophisticated track plan by Doug Gurin.
Were I to build one I'd think about using one of the large and heavy duty "lazy susan" hardware bases, of a sort that you see in some entertainment centers. The disc of, presumably, plywood would be something I'd want precision work on, so a custom cut. And the rest of the plywood square or whatever it is cut from would be good for the parts of the layout that meet that train turntable - close fit. I think I'd punt on trying to wire the thing. What I remember from the article years ago in a magazine was that the designer used parts from two old fasioned "knife switch" circuit breakers to both align the turntable with the feeding tracks but also feed the power to the turntable rails. Clever!
Dave Nelson
I remember a 2 track staging yard that plugged onto the side of the layout. I do not remember it being reversible. I tried looking for it on MRVP and all I can watch is Cody's Office.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Thanks to everyone who responded. A sector plate is a good idea worth considering. However, the article I was thinking of was something a bit different. It looked like a regular small staging yard, except that all of the tracks were not connected by turnouts. You simply connected the track you wanted to run a train onto or off of to the layout. You could turn a train simply by turning the table 180 degrees.
David Popp built one as part of the Olympia series on MRVP.
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
I just did a search of the digital archives, using "sector plates". 43 articles show up, the most recent being December, 2008, the oldest being December 2006.
I would think that it would be an easy build, a staging area, on a seperate table/bench, that could be rolled around, and reversed, hooking back up to the layout, turning the trains.
I don't know if this would require a "return loop" type of control.
IIRC, the coal mining project, Virginian ? a 4'x8', had a seperate staging area, perpindicular to the layout.
That would be called a "sector plate." That might help locate it if anyone knows how to work the digital index.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Hi all,
Does anyone remember in what issue of MR (I think fairly recent) an article about how to build a train turning staging table was in? I remember the table had several storage tracks and butted up to the edge of the layout. It was used sort of like a turntable for whole trains, but you turned the whole table if I remember correctly. Thanks for any suggestions.