So you are saying that Howard lines them up by eye, rather than some sort of indexing?
I built my own first turntable I installed on my Atlas plan 'Central Midland' layout. At first I was just going to apply a manual rotation gear and flexible shaft to it, but decided to motorize it just to see if i could. I used a big gear reduction motor and ran it with a varible-speed DC transformer. Worked just fine, but still had a little problem getting tracks lined up precisely as you need to view them all from several angles.
My turntable was not quite long enough to fit my Big boy, so I just provided a straight thru storage track for that particular engine.
BTW I am again considering the simplicity of a manually operated turntable on my new layout, particularly as it will be on a lower shelf/deck pretty close to the edge of the blob that will house it.....ahhh simplicity
Brian
My Layout Plan
Interesting new Plan Consideration
Dave,
After following your earlier TT thread, all I can say here is that you are the right guy to be taking care of this for the club
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
Howard Zane has at least 4 turntables I can say at least 2 are walthers a 90 and 130' He runs them all with MRC DC throttles and it's no problem at all to line up the rails. Maybe it's not the most elegant solution, but it's plug and play and the power packs are cheap enough on ebay
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I will briefly pass along my experience with the Walthers 130' model #2850 turntable. Spent two years trying to get this to index reliably, and not skip teeth in a 2-3 inch area of the gear track. Extreme care building level benchwork to the point of using lasers to get everything just right and this TT would not work reliably. This was to be an addition to a large layout, 900' plus of track that has been installed for nearly 30 years. Maximum frustration level was reached December 2016......TT removed, benchwork completely removed, and two partially built roundhouse structures put back in boxes along with TT. Nearly $600 and countless hours of work for nothing. I've chalked it up too experience and moved on. TT and structures now reside under the benchwork, final disposition undecided. As a sidebar concerning Walthers.......received 7 SD70ace diesels for Christmas last year and had to repair everyone of them, preorded 2 ES44AC diesels January 2016 and still waiting for a couple of average DC locomotives that are now expected November 2017??? Emailed Walthers to express my dissatisfaction. Received reply stating my concerns will be forwarded to the appropriate people several months ago and it ended there. This has been my actual experience.......draw your own conclusions and choose wisely before purchasing there products.
The Big Boy has a max. wheelbase of 123'-6.5'' but that might differ from the model's measures.
So it will fit on a 130 ft turntable but you have to watch for the overhang as it is 132 ft long.Regards, Volker
Edit: Custom Model Railroads offers a 135' turntable plus motor kit. Indexing isn't included I think.
I'm almost sure the larger Walthers one will fit the Big Boy. I have one still unused but I hope so as I plan on using it on my new layout.
I believe I heard some rumors that the early DCC model of these had some track alignment problems (electrical or programing?), but I don't think they had any mechanical programs?
Diamond Scale also offers turntables maxing out at 135'. Haven't built a big one, although I'm very happy with my 75' one which has been in service more than a decade now.
I suspect that a 135' will work with Big Boys. The idea that 140' is needed may have to do with measuring overall length, when it's really the wheelbase that is the determining factor and somewhat less than the overal length.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Hi gang:
As many of you are aware, my club (Barrie Allandale Railroad Modellers) is in the process of designing and building a new permanent layout. We have decided to include a turntable and we want it to be able to accommodate the really big steam locomotives.
I have a few questions:
- One of the club members has suggested that we need a 140' turntable. Does it have to be that big to accommodate a UP Big Boy (4-8-8-4?).
- I know that Walthers offers 130' turntables but I have also read that they aren't that great. I know the Walthers 90' kits were pretty bad - I built one, but I made a whole bunch of changes so mine runs like a top. I paid peanuts for the 90' kit. I don't want to spend $350+ for an assembled version if I have to rebuild it from the start.
- I know that CMR offers turntable kits up to 135'. Their prices seem to be reasonable. Any experience with them?
Does anybody else make kits or plans for a large HO scale turntable?
Thanks,
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!