Turntable question

[jcgisel]

I'm thinking off putting in a tuntable next to my station. I am wondering if this is done in modern times because I'm loosely modelling Los Angeles. Also if this sounds like good idea, what would be the best one to get. I got a piece off junk one made by heljan and i never put it on a layout because it was made so poorly. I just saw a flieshman turntable for around $400 bucks. Was really impressed with quality,but scared of the price. What do you guys think.

[Fergmiester]

The first picture is the turntable at Halifax Station. It hasn't been in operation for several years but at one time was used to swing Logos and cars frequently. distance to the platform is about 100'.



I also had issue spending $$$ on a turntable so I built one from scratch, which if you include cost of motor, decoder, Auto reverser and all other parts was about $120 CDN.

And it works like a charm.

Fergie

[jwmurrayjr]

Fergie,

Can you post a "list of materials" for your TT. It looks great. Include any special tools if you would.

Thanks,

[jcgisel]

WOW Fergie! That is really nice.Not sure if I have the talent to scratchbuild something that nice. I hoping on getting a really nice kit that has a motor and locks the track in the positions.

[Milwhiawatha]

I have the Walthers 90' piece of junk was made by Heljan still using it by a cement company I have but its not motorized as of yet/ Bor my main layout I have the 120' modern turntable by walthers. 220.00us roughly comes built, DCC ready all wiring but not for track power you got to run your own wire from the power pack tot he turntable via there hook up its really awsome. Its indexed and easy to use. For the money I think it was well worth it.

[ngartshore350]

jcgisel

I have a Fleishmann Turntable in HO and it runs like a dream! I think Walthers make one now, not sure of the cost through?!

NG

[MisterBeasley]

The Atlas turntable is very cheap, even with the motor kit, and very small. It will turn one diesel, but even a modest steam engine and tender would be too big. It is also a "wood platform" model, not a pit turntable. It mates perfectly with the Atlas roundhouse kit. Some people have used it as the base for a pit turntable by building their own raised bridge and "dropping" the mechanism below the layout level. (That's in the long-term plan, but right now mine is surface-mounted.)

This turntable has good "indexing" included, which means that it stops at each track for a while before continuing. It's also pre-wired, and doesn't even require a reverser if you're using DCC.

You can go to a full-price LHS and buy the turntable, motor drive and the roundhouse kit for under a hundred bucks, and still have change in your pocket. You can shop around and do even better. However, it's only a 9-inch diameter, which comes out to about 66 scale feet. If you are really looking for a nice prototype model, or you need to turn big locomotives, this one isn't for you. However, if you just want any turntable, or your space is very limited, then this one is at least worth looking at.

[Anonymous]

Walthers 130' TT TT sells for about $300 and is prebuilt. Bowser TT sells a turntable, depending on the size, for around $250 -$260 without the indexing. Diamond Scale has one of the best looking TT, but it's a craftmans kit and if you are not carful in asembling it, it too can be a piece of junk.
The Atlas TT is the lowest cost alternative and you may be able to find one at a discount at a train show or eBay. I started out with one and they run reliably but noisy.

If you think you aren't good at scratch buiding, is it because you haven't tried? It takes practice. Try a few simple projects or small craftsmans kits. Once you built a few things, then your confidence grows.
The reason for scratch building is to make something that isn't available or to make something no one else has. You don't have to spend a lot of money either.

I built a Heljan TT and it works fine. If you are not careful in the assembly, then yes it is junk. The instructions are a little more than an exploded view and I deviated from the instructions by throwing away the part with the gear on it and made my own driveshaft so I can remove my bridge. I also modified the electrical pick up for the bridge track. The drive coupling is a home made version of THIS

One very important step in the assembly is the lower bearing plate. The bridge hight has to be just right. The trucks on the ends of the bridge should ride very lightly on the pit rail, most of the weight should be carried by the bearing. The Heljan kit has a lower bearing plate that glues into the center hole of the pit. That has to be positioned just right (I found that out too late and had to use a .010 shim from a generator pully on an old VW bug to raise the bearing). The bridge is attached to the upper bearing plate and my drive shaft is attached to that. The shaft has to be centered perfectly. I did that by slipping a brass tube through the factory hole, to use as a locating tool and slid the new drive shaft over that. Once the driveshaft was attached, the tool is removed.

I also mounted the electrical pick up differently. I seperated the two wipers and mounted them on the ends of square brass tubing and attached to the wooden base.. They wipe the brass rings which are mounted on the drive shaft and connected to the bridge rails. I made the driveshaft out of brass tubing and insulated it from the power pick up rings with heat shrink tubing. The rings are made from brass tubing. The connection of the motor side of the driveshaft was made from of the guts out a Eurostyle strip connector. On the other end of the connector I made a "T" from round brass rod which fits into a slot cut into the driveshaft. The polarity is corrected by a MRC power reversing module.




If you want the bridge to turn smoothly, you have to be very careful with how the bridge rides on the bearing. The trucks on the end of the bridge must be free wheeling and aligned correctly. Build the basic bridge, without gluing down the track, and dry assemble the bridge / pit / drive parts (without glue) to see how everything fits in the pit. Note the rail hight too. Take into acount the weight of the locomotive and the sag of the plastic pit too. Plastic pits flex and will sag a just a wee bit. It can benifit from bracing or support.

In fact you might want to build a stand or jig to hold the pit up while you work on it. Just cut a hole in a piece of plywood and put short legs under it.

If you plan on building a roundhouse too, both turntable and roundhouse should be built on the same platform or base. The turntable comes first, then the round house base and tracks. Makes track alignment easier than to try to put a turntable in after the roundhouse is built.

[jecorbett]

I was in Port Jervis a few years ago and they still had the turntable pit there and it was very close to the station. Port Jervis was the end of the line for commuter service to and from New York.

[ereimer]

the walthers 130' turntable gets good reviews here and elsewhere . as mentioned above it's motorized , indexed and ready to go out of the box . it's pretty huge though . the good news is that walthers is releasing their 90' turntable in a ready built version the same as the 130' . same price too , so one hopes they will have fixed all the problems with the kit version . their website says march 28 2006 is the expected arrival date

[jcgisel]

Thanks for all the responses, I' m going to have to check out the walthers turntable. How does it compare to the flieshmann? [8D]

[jcgisel]

gsetter
looks good with the heljan kit. when I put mine together I tried to follow the directions and I could not get the pieces to fit together as per the directions.Looks like you had the same problem, but overcame it. I haven't done anything with it,and now that I saw the flieshman TT at the hobbyshop, I've made up my mind that I want to get one with indexing. I still will save the heljan and maybe try to play with it to make it work.

[tomikawaTT]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MisterBeasley

The Atlas turntable is very cheap, even with the motor kit, and very small. It will turn one diesel, but even a modest steam engine and tender would be too big. It is also a "wood platform" model, not a pit turntable. It mates perfectly with the Atlas roundhouse kit. Some people have used it as the base for a pit turntable by building their own raised bridge and "dropping" the mechanism below the layout level. (That's in the long-term plan, but right now mine is surface-mounted.)

This turntable has good "indexing" included, which means that it stops at each track for a while before continuing. It's also pre-wired, and doesn't even require a reverser if you're using DCC.

If you drop the Atlas turntable to the bottom of the pit, you can mount a new bridge of any length, even the 135-footer needed to turn a Big Boy. The only problem is that pre-indexed geneva motion. In addition to the stop-go-stop-go table movement, the locations of approach tracks will be rather limited and, with a longer bridge and normal roundhouse setback, half to 2/3rds of your roundhouse tracks will be cosmetic.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jcgisel

gsetter
looks good with the heljan kit. when I put mine together I tried to follow the directions and I could not get the pieces to fit together as per the directions.Looks like you had the same problem, but overcame it. I haven't done anything with it,and now that I saw the flieshman TT at the hobbyshop, I've made up my mind that I want to get one with indexing. I still will save the heljan and maybe try to play with it to make it work.

Those instructions aren't much help, are they? What messed up my mind is they put other pieces in there that aren't for the kit!
If you have't assembled it and have all the pieces, put it up for sale. What can you do with two TTs? They take up a lot of space.


I have the impression you are not in the USA. Fleischmann is an import here so it's not well known or sold because of exchange rates, duties and taxes are added on. The reverse is true for other countries importing the Walthers TT.

[Fergmiester]

Lis of materials as requested:

Bridge:

Bass Wood 1/16th" x 4" x 18" (Makes the the Box)
Styrene sheet 1/32" thick (Covers over the box)
Assorted styrene girders "L", "I" and "T" (size depending on whether this is for heavy or light weight use.
The Arch can also be made from either Styrene or wood depending on style

Bass wood planks by NWSL

The Railing is made from 1/32nd" brass rod
Stanchins are made by Billings Boats
Folcrum is a 1.5" three pole jack from Radio Shack
Gears are from a R/C Racer transmission
Motor is from http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/DCM-245/search/6_RPM_GEARHEAD_MOTOR_.html

The Pit:

Two crocheting hoops (pit wall)
3/4" plywood circle for base
cork for rail bed
and chopped up flex track for rail

And lots and lots of C/A glue



Fergie

[Milwhiawatha]

For walthers 130' Turntable check out ebay thats where I picked mine up for 220.00

[jcgisel]

I'm from California, there is a hobby shop by LAX that I think everyone ought to check out if they have chance. I found it a year ago and its called Allied,located in Culver City. My wife calls it train heven! It is all trains and is huge. Everyone that works there knows stuff about this hobby,and thats were I saw the flieshmann TT. It was on a display track, and i was surpised just how well it worked.

[colvinbackshop]

"jcgisel" wrote:
"I'm thinking off putting in a turntable next to my station. I am wondering if this is done in modern times because I'm loosely modeling Los Angeles".
After reading all the response, thus far, we haven't addressed this question other than "Fergmiester" and he stated that the table in Halifax was no longer in use.
Yes turntables were located close to stations at times, but I have questions:
First, what are "modern times"? I ask this because, for the most part RR's haven't used a turntable much since the demise of steam.
Secondly, if we're talking "real" modern times, are you looking at building an "old" table that is no longer in use?
Moving on to the issue of which turntable: I have to agree with "MisterBeasley" totally regarding the small Atlas turntable. They really do work great and cost is NOT a concern! Even mounted "as is" there were prototypes of this nature...And, to make it into a pit type, MRR published an article by Bob Foltz in the February 2002 issue on tweaking one of babies into a pretty realistic looking pit type. I've done that myself and I'm now trying to figure out if I can use the Atlas mechanism as a pit floor, build a slightly longer (11") super structure on it, mount it in a larger pit and accomplish good results.

[Fergmiester]

This is the TT located at Farview, located approx. 3 miles from the Station.





It is still in use but from what I'm told the the Passenger trains turn around by using the loop located at the adjacent Container Pier at Halterm.

Fergie

[jcgisel]

I'm modelling basically today mostly amtrack and the metrolink. I want to use a modern tt that would still function today for an engine servicing facility with the benefit of turning my engines around to run my trains engine first. I know that they can run in push or pull operation, but I like having the engine first. I also have a fiew frieght trains that I would like to turn around.

[richhotrain]

The Walthers 90' turntable due out at the end of March is N scale.

Only the 130' turntable is HO scale.

The older 90' turntable is HO scale, but it is not indexed and does not hold a candle, mechanically, to the 130' indexed version.

If you model N scale, the upcoming 90' turntable is indexed and should perform comparably to the 130' HO scale version which operates superbly.

[richhotrain]

The Walthers 90' turntable due out at the end of March is N scale.

Only the 130' turntable is HO scale.

The older 90' turntable is HO scale, but it is not indexed and does not hold a candle, mechanically, to the 130' indexed version.

If you model N scale, the upcoming 90' turntable is indexed and should perform comparably to the 130' HO scale version which operates superbly.

[moparman48]

I have two Flieshman turn tables, bought one in the U.S. and the other one in Germany, both in the early '80s. they worked beautiful for a while, however, in less than a year the control switch quit on both of them and the motor burned up on one. I have spoken with other people that have the Flieshmans and they have the same problem.
I haven't been able to find replacemant parts or anyone who can fix them, so for over 20 years I have had two beautiful turn tables that are MANUAL and a pain to use so the just sit on the yard looking pretty.

[ereimer]

QUOTE: Originally posted by richhotrain

The Walthers 90' turntable due out at the end of March is N scale.

Only the 130' turntable is HO scale.

i'm just going by this ...
http://walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-2840

edit: i just did a search for N scale turntables and walthers doeesn't even list a 90' model