I wanted to ask the opinion of the forum members about motorizing a Peco HO Turntable kit. The kit is (I assume) British, and the only motorizing information I have found involve British hobby shops/parts. Here is a link to instructions on how to use one of the motorizing kits available in the UK:
http://www.hmrg.co.uk/techtops/ttable/turntable.htm
Here is a link to the "OO" motorizing kit from a shop in the UK:
http://www.modelrailshop.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Turntables___Drive_Kits__all_scales__65.html#aTTD00
Anybody have any ideas on where I could get something similar to this in the states? Walthers makes the drive unit for their turntable (http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-1050), but going by the pictures I would still need some kind of shaft and gear assembly to use this motor.
Any ideas? I don't want this to be too complicated, but with turntables it always seems to be unless you pay $$$ for one of the Walthers RTR units.
I know what you mean.I scratch built one a few years ago, and still don't have it motorized. I would even consider a hand crank, but can't even find the proper bevel gears.
I did find some promising gears at an R/C hobby store. They were on the 25 cent table,soI bought all that looked useable, but still haven't put anything together. There's even micro roller bearings for some of them. If they were retail, they would have been $8 each.
I also bought a 1 RPM motor off ebay,but still need to fabricate something for that.
Additionally I have the Walthers non indexing 90', which truthfully scares me durability wise, and I don't think I care for the drive either. At least from the diagram.
But wait, there's more...I have a Bowser 18" model, which looks very durable, again though,don't care for the suggested drive system which involves either a big rubber band on a giant wood wheel below the pit, or a spring loaded, motor driven tire against the same giant wheel.
I was thinking about fabricating a mount for the 1 RPM motor to either directly drive the center shaft, or maybe do a single gear set between the two. Either way seems like work.
Get ahold of almost any 12V motor, hook it up to a decoder if you're on DCC or a power pack if you're not. Go to the LHS and check out the helicopter gears and pick out a set that'll work. I have used the largest gear I could find and put that on the TT shaft and a small one on the motor,and Bobs yer uncle.Yeah it takes a little fiddling but thats the fun of it. Another good motor and gear system to use is the Diamond Scale motor and TT bearings along with the big R/C helicopter gear. If you use DCC you can run the motor dead slow and not really need indexing. BILL
I'm not even real sure what to use for a TT shaft, as the kit didn't come with one. Maybe Brass Rod? I'm don't know if my small LHS even has helicopter gears, but I can check. At this point I might just have to buy this motorizing kit from the UK and have it shipped over here.
I was forced to become some what well schooled in this subject, on my old layout I had a diamond scale turntable and build several for friends. I also built what I feel was a very fine kit was a CMR turntable and roundhouse for the club. I am also a little familiar with your Peco t/t. I would suggest contacting Peco directly to see if a motoring unit is still available.
All that being said the Diamond Scale t/t indexing system and motoring unit were lets say barely out of the stone-age. had zero reliability and was just a complete nightmare. The Bower system is nice but it isn't lets say for the lower budget pocketbook.
With either Dallee or the NYRS you can put together something that will work and work very well but by the time you add up the cost of the components and your time to install them and set the whole thing up you may come to the same conclusion I did and find it to be cheaper in the long run to buy a Walthers t/t with the indexing and drive system installed. I know more and more guys switching over to the Walthers unit for that exact reason so this is not something I can take credit for. Also from what I recall there is or was a German company Frizinghall that made a motoring kit for the Peco t/t
http://www.nyrs.com/
http://www.dallee.com/Turntable.htm
http://www.modelrailroader.net/ho_turntables.php
I wasn't recommending the whole Diamond scale TT system. I agree that its sorta tough to set up having done one. I was just recommending their motor and gear set, and also their TT bearings. An appropriate size block of wood for the TT, carefully drill a 1/4"or 5/16" hole exactly in the center and exactly square,press fit an appropriate size rod into and secure it with CA and you have a turntable. You then decorate it with whatever style bridge works you like. On the Table end of it. mark out the diameter of the TT and cut a hole in the plywood. I like to use anothe piece of Ply under the table to deepen the hole and then a peice of ply for the bottom. Find the exact center and locate your center bearing, install the bearing and tet the TT for clearances. You can detail the pit however you like. I used a ring rail for transferrring current to the TT but you can use othe methods if you like. Then set up your TT motor eithr using the aforementioned gears or make a 4" pulley from a piece of 1/4" aircraft ply and use a large "O" ring for a belt to a twelve volt motor. Old copiers are a good source of gears ,belts and pulleys.
Yeah it takes some fiddling and may use up 8-10 hours of time, or you can spend the $300 and get a Walthers rig with all the Bells and whistles. I find these kind of projects challenging and rewarding. 50 years ago thats how it was all done,but nowadays you can buy the product finished. BILL
I actually already have the Peco kit, and have built it. It is a very nice model, and manually it seems to work well. I consider it a good middle ground between the so-so Atlas and 90' Walthers kit TTs and the Walthers built-up. It just seems to be a little more DIY than I would like when it comes to going beyond spinning it by hand. I have contacted Frizinghall models about ordering their motor kit from the U.S. Really, if I could use the Walthers drive unit and a shaft with a gear attached to it I would.
You could always use the Walthers generic drive unit the same one used to automate their oil rig if I am not mistaken but the drawback of that unit is the way they bring power from the bridge to the unit. It's via two thin copper strips and the gear mechanism is just this side of pure junk. Walthers sent me 3 of them before I gave up. There has to be some place online to buy small gears to make your own set up.
Bill you can buy the Walthers 130' for $260 from Cherry Creek Hobbies. I'm from the school now why make it when I can usually buy a better thing already done, well most of the time anyway.
The problems I had with my TT (Heljan) was that the bearing was just not good enough. My solution was a bearing from a PC hard drive. The table was mounted to the shaft and the bearing body was mounted to a huge T bracket from the lumber yard. The bracket has to be big enough to span the TT pit. The T bracket was bolted under the table with bolts with two nuts each at each end of the bracket. This made it possible to adjust the table level in all directions. The bearing was mounted at the center of the bracket.The shaft at the bottom was fitted with the largest gear I could find to match a small motor reduction unit that I had from some other junked gear. With this wired to a DPDT switch the action was slow enough to align the table with the track. The only other problem I encountered was the difficulty in mounting the TT table on the bearing shaft to align with opposing tracks. I could get two to line up but when the table was turned 180 the tracks would not line up. My patience ran out and to this day the table will only line up at on setting.
Good luck with your project.
Cliff
Cliff there was an article I believe in MR or maybe Railroad Model Craftsmen about a guy who scratch built a turn table or maybe kit bashed it form several kits but he overcame the center bearing problem by using a pretty large phono jack, the banana type I believe they call it. The male end was mounted to the bottom of the bridge and the female end was mounted in the pit. It solved tow of his problems a sure fire method of sending power to the bridge and it was lager enough to support the bridge enough so that it didn't teeter if the locomotive wasn't centered directly on the bridge.
I went to an estate sale a few years back, the guys wife had passed away and he was forced by his rotten kids to move into an assisted living community. So while walking around with my wife I saw a bunch of model railroad stuff off in the corner. Of course I had to go be nosy, the old guy told me sorry that stuff isn't for sale I'm hoping they'll let me build a small layout in the clubhouse where I'm going.
So we get to chatting and he shows me a completely hand made turntable he built form scratch and he used the hub form a bicycle wheel to support the bridge. A pretty ingenious idea. He said yeah it worked very well for the last 55 years so it should be good for a few more.