I recently purchased the above kit and before starting the assembly I discovered that there appears to be a few parts that no mention is made of in the assembly instructions. They are numbered 23, 24, 25 and 27 so I would assume that they are related to the motor/drive section of the kit. I am more used to parts missing rather than having too many.
Any advice before I glue it all together would be greatfully accepted - rather than to find I have to dismantle it to put them in the right place - if there is one.
I'm supposed to respect my elders, but its getting harder and harder for me to find any now.
The kit was known to have problems...the older one from 11+ years ago. I hope you don't have that version. The pit was often out of round, and the bottom bearing for the turntable was terrible if it could be assembled at all and inserted into its receptacle. I think Walther's redid that kit recently, but I am not positive.
Dry fit all major components and attempt to get them to work partially assembled. Look for poor fit and wobbles, or binding as the bridge moves around the inner pit wall along the rail.
It has been a few years, but I think the kit comes with motor mounting brackets and a large ring gear. It also has two brass rings to be wiped by two copper wipers, also included.
I just built my 15 yr old kit this spring. I don't recall extra parts, but I can see if I still have the box when I get home from work to double check. A couple things I recall: 1. You will have to separate the handrails into two sections for each side. They don't match up to the supports on half the turntable otherwise. 2. The instructions said to mount a part (motor brace?) under the control shed as one of the last steps once assembly is far enough along you can no longer see the mounting holes. Good luck with that. Put it in place early, or leave it off as I did. 3. The wipers for electrical contacts are abysmal. After fighting them for a time, I stripped a fair amount of solid 20 awg wire and wrapped them tightly around each of the brass bushings. No trouble with it since, and that is with sound equiped locos!
Mike
Pretty much every Walthers kit I've ever built has extra parts. It's cheaper for them to produce "generic" sprues with many parts for many kits than to make special sprues for each and every kit. Some of the window sprues I've found in boxes had more extra parts than windows I actually used.
I like to think of them as Walthers way of supporting scratchbuilding and kitbashing. Use them in good health.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Thank you Selector,
From what you say I suspect that Walthers have redone the kit. The pit seems to be quite rigid and not deformed in any way that I can determine and the bearing you speak of fits perfectly.
I take your advice about dry fitting and testing before actually applying the 'glue.'
Thank you Water Level Route,
I'm glad you pointed out the fact that the handrails don't line up with the supports on the deck. I would have been puzzled when I got to attaching them otherwise. Forewarned is forearmed.
Walthers must have changed the assembly instructions too as the braces under the control shed are mentioned 5th in a series of 20 assembly instructions.
As for the wipers, I guess I'll have to wait until I arrive at that point in the assembly procedure.
Thank you MisterBeasley,
I like the idea that Walthers supply extra parts as you say. That relieves my mind as I'd hate to find that they were integral parts that were vital for the correct operation of the TT.
The extra parts are for the motor, and if you, at some point in the furture, want to motorise it, save those parts. For now, though, you can proceed with assembly, and simply skip the steps referring to those parts.I am currently working on installing one of those turntables and I'm not overly impressed by it. Mine isn't motorised, but doesn't work as well as the manually-operated one which I built from a block of wood, some flextrack, and parts from a couple of Atlas girder bridges:
Wayne
I have both the TT kit and the motor and in neither set of assembly instructions are the parts even mentioned Wayne. I only know their numbers because they are embossed on the sprue. I've kept them to one side on the offchance that I might get some 'heavenly inspiration' of where to use them. Failing that, I might use my imagination to put them to some purpose.
You're right - I just now re-checked the instruction sheet for the turntable, and there's no reference to those three parts. Perhaps they were for any earlier version? Always good to save extra parts, though - you never know when they'll be useful for something.
If they would just use the same wipeing system as the RTR, they would be good, very hard to get the wipeing system they include to work right even with parts changes like stiffer brass.