I would like to hear some opinions on the Heljan Turntable Kit, item 322-804 in the Walthers catalog. It is described as a "manual" turntable. Has anyone ever motorized one of these kits? How well does it work as a manual turntable? Is it difficult to line up the different tracks when rotating it manually? Does it look good/realistic? I had originally looked at the 90' Walthers Turntable Kit but a lot of people said there were problems with it and at this time it is not even available. So, anyone out there who can fill me in on the pros and cons of this turntable, please chime in.
thanks
wdcrvr
I bought it about 15 years ago. At the time Walthers made a motorizing kit, which I purchased too. The design of the motorizing kit was poor, and the turntable was not very realistic, for example rivets way oversized. I was very unhappy with it. Of course they may have changed the kit in 15 years, but it looks similar to me in the Walthers catalog. If it is, I'd say forget it.
Being the clubs resident turntable and roundhouse expert (not by choice mind you) I have built probably every turntable on the market from The El Cheapo Walthers kit to Diamond Scale with their hydrocal pits to CMR's (Custom Model Railroads) kit starting off with the biggest pieces of dung the market ever saw to one probably the best "kit" to date. I exclude the Walthers ready to run turntables which I won tow of because they are built ups but are the best bang for your buck no questions asked. When it comes to turntables you spend cheap you get cheap bottom line. If you require a "smaller" T/T then the Walthers 90' I have seen some really neat scratch built models of small branch line turntables. One rather inventive individual used a phono jack to act as both his pivot as well as a way to transfer power up to the tracks on the bridge.
Motorizing it is only part of the battle you then have to have an indexing system, in short a system to tell the bridge exactly where to stop for every track that meets the pit.not an inexpensive venture nor is it a simple task to install and calibrate one.Not to mention you have to have some sort of polarity switching mechanism either electronic or a series of switches to reverse polarity of the bridge track so when you get past the 180 degree point your locomotive doesn't run backward.
With a "manual" turntable you eliminate all that cost and hassle by using the 0-5-0 aka your hand to line up the bridge track with the desired track. Take the advice for what it's worth but do some research before you throw away $40 or $50 on a waste of time & plastic
I'm currently building a CMR 90' turntable. As one at the opposite end of the spectrum from Allegheny2-6-6-6, I can recommend it highly. It takes patience and care to build (it's a mechanical device after all), but I believe it's well conceived and engineered. And Jeff at CMR offers excellent after-sale support if, like I, you encounter speed bumps or have "best way to do it" questions along the way.
I agree wholeheartedly with Allegheny2-6-6-6 (may I call you "Alleg?")--you get what you pay for. However pricey one considers it, I believe it offers good value and am confident I'll have a reliable and good looking turntable at the end of the day.
Rick Krall
@ Rick Krall
You probably seen this before:
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And to answer the question about TT:s, I have the Walthers 90´indexed TT, and I´m very happy with that.
I had the Peco HO-OO before, and it was VERY good! There is a motorizing kit available for that as well.
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A past acquaintence of mine, from Granby, Ct, used a bombsight motor as an indexer. I am not sure how he set it up, but it did work-and work well! he told me he bought it war surplus... My thought is to use a motor I have sitting around, from a machine that employed it as a stepper motor. The motor voltage is about 28VDC; which isn't too much of a problem to get around. The indexing feature is what I am looking at, a feature that I can develop from the stepper system.
My turntable is a Walthers 90' unit. I have reworked it cosmetically, and plan to use some sort of metal bearing assembly, into which the shaft will turn; hopefully taking up any slop that now exists.
EF-3yellowjacket
I'll equivocally state I can't answer your specific question on the Heljan Turntable. I can relate that the 90' Walthers turntables had some issues in the Kit version but that most people seem happy with the Builtup version.
I have the 130' Builtup and I'll admit, for the money (and -0- time involved), it was nice. However, I still have my original scratchbuilt turntable as a "to-do" project for a number of different reasons.
I think if you are looking to develop your skills at building, troubleshooting, electro-mechanical creativity, or proto-type kitbashing/scratchbuilding, go for it if you know walking in that you are in for a lot of time and a fair bit of cash.
Alleghany is right on that you get what you pay. The flip side to that is you can't pay enough for experience.
Their HO turntables are much better than their N but the motorizing kit is a joke. Trust me, any turntable (commercial) can be made to work great but some take a whole lot more tinkering than others. Some of the best I have seen are highly modified Atlas turntables but of course you would not know it's origins unless you looked under the hood. I even built an N scale Heljan once modified to HO.
I had one of the Heljan kits and after carefully looking it over, decided it wasn't worth trying to make it work. I planned to build my own using a Dalee indexing system (about $70,if they are still made?) but got a good deal on the Walthers 130' rtr unit. I think the Walthers is probably one of the best buys for the money when it comes to turntables. The biggest issue wiith a tt is the indexing and Walthers has made it pretty good.
Like one of the others posted, if you feel up to a challenge, try the Heljan or Walthers kits.
- *Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!