I am getting ready to install and wire my Atlas TT. My layout subroadbed consists of 1 inch pink foam laid over 1/2 inch plywood. Obviously the screws that come with the TT to attach it to the layout are not long enough to penetrate the foam all the way to the plywood. Has anyone else had this problem and how did you deal with the situation?
Bear "It's all about having fun."
Bearman,
Just put down a light bead of DAP "Alex" caulk around the base section, and it will hold just fine... and yet if you ever need to remove the unit, it will "Pop" right up. That's what I used on my "bashed" Atlas turntable.
'Hope this helps.... Bob
Since it's only an inch of foam, screws long enough to reach should not be hard to find. You could do it that way. Bob's suggestion is a good one, too.
Bob,
Nice Atlas TT bash! Mine's just an ugly conversion to HOn3, so I decided to hide it:
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
I would also head down to the Local HARDWARE Store and get some longer screws. A turntable will experience various forces from rotation, and you want it to be solidly mounted. Consider using something like Aileen's Tacky Glue (craft store product) for installation. It holds pretty well, but can be easily removed at any time. Once you've got the turntable installed and tested, then you can complete the mounting with screws.
Here's my humble Atlas turntable, converted to a pit:
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Could not find screws that were long enough. And, if the hardware store I went to doesn't carry them then no one does. But, they did have some bolts which will work.
Should be good and solid with bolts.
The key to this will be getting the holes located properly. With fasteners that long, they need to be correctly drilled or their length might set up a binding situation.
If this doesn't look right, I did have another idea. You could cut a solid filler (3/4" plywood or ?) somewhat bigger that the TT, attach it on top of the chosen spot, and then fasten the TT to it. Sort of creating a large, flat riser.
That is a mighty nice turntable. That by chance wouldn't be the "Corkscrew Turntable" on the way to Ironton, would it??
Nope, it's Animas Forks
It is based loosely on the Corkscrew Gulch TT. I didn't have the space to do that, but found a place to put something similar. There's a lot of that on my layout, close to real, but subtly altered to fit my situation. It's less onerous than modeling down to the exact hour depicted, but retains the important ingredient of making things look plausible. I'm just finishing another project like that and will post something up on that soon.
Mike, what you say about space is exactly true. In reality there is no prototypical layout because of space. But regardless, the turntable with the wooden cover looks great and a good addition to the layout. There’s also a lot of history and physical reasoning that went into putting a turntable at that elevation, at Animas Forks. Having to back a train down hill and the chance of a breakaway - runaway car was very much a possibility. There is so much associated with that era, on that line, such as snow sheds, the reason for the loop entering into Eureka, and much more.
There was a rumor that the Corkscrew Gulch TT was relocated to Animas Forks. Not true, since the CG TT was wood, while the AF TT was iron or steel. In fact, some years ago, I visited the site of the CG TT and saw the last bits of iron and wood associated with the turntable pivot assembly. Since then, even that's disappeared. At AF, there are old pics that show the TT and it's definitely metal, not wood. So just a rumor.
But I figured it was good enough to use that rumor to suggest that the TT snowshed was moved to AF instead. Besides, having the snowshed means I don't have to fake up the Atlas TT. Out of sight, out of mind...
Except for that raucous noise the infernal thing makes when running! Everyone in the layout room knows when you go to turn a loco at AF. I'm actually thinking of lining the snowshed with Dynamat or something similar. Car audio installers use it for sound deadening, peel and stick.
I'm also thinking of running a LED off track power in the top to help you see inside. There's a slot at the top of each wall facing the aisle a couple out of the roof on the side facing away to provide light. But it's still a little hard to see where the loco is. But it works and works well, just needs a few more tweaks. The whole thing lifts off, so it's never in the way if you need to check on something.
Oh yeah, one more thing. It was cheap to build. I used coffee stirrers, which are like $3 for a pack of 250 or something at craft stores. They make good stock for snowsheds (got one planned just before entering AF), but are pretty oversize for most things in HO. So that's why it's similar, as if you look at photos, the coffee stirrers are oversize compared to the prototype. However, that would be a whole lot of stripwood to do to scale. I'm happy with it's appearance (needs weathering and detailing, though), so I'm glad I went cheap and saved the high-end wood for more delicate projects.
That’s ashame to hear that the Corkscrew Turntable might not be there. I, like you, a few years ago hiked back to the old turntable and it was just as you described it. I came in at the Joker Tunnel Boarding House, found where the track bed had been and followed it back to the turntable. Found quite a few railroad spikes along the way.
The Animas Forks turntable was actually a 50' turntable that was first installed at Marshall Pass on the Denver and Rio Grande mainline between Denver and Salt Lake City. That had originally been a Mears toll road at one time, so the D&RG were happy to work with him. The turntable arrived in Animas Forks October 1904.
SilvertonRR That’s ashame to hear that the Corkscrew Turntable might not be there. I, like you, a few years ago hiked back to the old turntable and it was just as you described it. SNIP
That’s ashame to hear that the Corkscrew Turntable might not be there. I, like you, a few years ago hiked back to the old turntable and it was just as you described it.
SNIP
I hope that the few pieces of the CG TT left were picked up by the local historical society. Large parts of that area were in dispute -- too long to go into here -- but a deal was finally struck to preserve the old structures, etc by designating it as some sort of special historical mining preservation area.
You don't need to fasten it down. The motor attaches to the turntable, it's basically all one unit. The turntable moving one way isn't going to try to force the rest of the assembly to turn the other way.
If you lay a battery powered wall clock down on your layout, it doesn't try to turn the opposite way from the clock hands. It just sits there and the clock hands keep moving.