HO gauge turntables

Good reliable turntables are expensive and require someone with better then average building skills to put together.

Larry at

Fleischman has a fully assembled turntable of about 110' in length. It looks pretty good and is indexed at 7.5 degrees.

I've not heard of anyone gettng the Walther's turntable kit (90') to actually work with the mechanism supplied. Many have used the Atlas turntable mechanism to operate the Walther's turntable bridge by various lashup techniques.

You could scratch build one using a Hankscraft slow motion, high torque motor, but that is not for beginners. I have both the Fleishman (not installed, a present :) and an old Walther's kit which I prototyped an Atlas lashup with. The Walther's looks better with my painting and detailing; the Fleishman will likely work better, and with care, I should be able to detail it to look more American.

I'm also considering using the Walther's 90' pit and bridge and turn it with a Hankscraft motor and figure out some clever indexing scheme. We'll see when I get to it.

Ed.

in article snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com, Okiechoochoo at snipped-for-privacy@cox.net wrote on 10/7/03 2:05 PM:

In the current (November '03) issue of Model Railroader, Walthers has an ad for a new 120' turntable that is powered and indexed. It lists for $299.95. I imagine it would be best to hear independent reviews of it before making a commitment. If MR reviews it, they will probably think it's the greatest ever made. Many of Walthers other "operating" items have been less than spectacular. Their basic ideas seem to be OK, but it often appears that their products are never actually tested in real life situations before being released to the unsuspecting public.

Good luck!

Bob Boudreau Canada

The Fleischmann turntable is excellent quality and works extremely well. The only complaints I know of are from people who have disassembled the mechanisim and broken the very fine varnish insulated connecting wires. ie read the instructions _before_ dismantling.

Regards, Greg.P.

"Edward A. Oates" wrote:

=>What are the best options for building and reliable operation for =>turntables around 120' in length for HO scale.

Hand operated is most reliable, unless you are willing to spend loadsadough, and with most kits a lot of time , too. I've built a couple of turntables from scatch, both hand operated . The trickiest part was centering the shaft/bridge in the pit. A kit would simplify that part of it. Hand operation with hand crank, cord and pulleys is less obtrusive than the Big Finger From the Sky, but just as reliable. :-) Some people have used the Atlas turntable powered but mounted underneath the layout as the drive mechanism, and reported good results, but I have no personal knowledge of that method.

The other posters make worthwhile points, too. IOW, you will have a fun time digesting all the info an making a decision. Hah! :-)

I have a 134' Diamond Scale table installed on my RR. It was a "character builder". No scale drawings, turns into a file and fit, file and fit, file and fit, file and fit exercise. The truck castings are terrible, and I had a devil of a time getting them to line up acceptably. Threw the gearbox I purchased in the garbage, never worked right. After it bound up and fried a decoder (I have the turntable controlled with DCC), I retrofitted a Handscrank motor from a Switchmaster kit onto the table for a drive. The only thing I saved was the universal joint, which, luckily, was the right size for the Handscrank shaft.

The table looks great, runs great, and the tracks line up, most of the time, when the moon is in the proper phase. Stuff moves, kinda like the real thing. I didn't go with indexing, I wanted to replicate reality and have to line the thing up by eye.

I wish that the Walthers table would have been around when I was turntable shopping, I would have gladly been a guinea pig for building and installing it. It HAS to be easier than the Diamond Scale. For that matter, with the exception of my Diamond Scale coal tower, and diamond scale sand towers, I would have bought all the Walthers stuff for my terminal. The stuff looked fantastic at the Hobby show in Chicago a couple of weeks back.

I have also been looking at the CMR tables, which advertise in MR. I haven't been able to find anybody that has experience with one yet. It sounds like a nice package. But I'm kinda apprehensive plunking down green sight unseen. At least with the Diamond Scale, I had a rough idea of what I was getting into before I bought it. But it isn't an experience I care to repeat if better options are out there, and I may build a 90' or 105' table for my second yard. regards, Jerry

CMR site for those interested.

The Fleischmann t.t. that I have is one foot in bridge length, which is equivalent to 87 scale feet. Is there now a longer one available? Most European locos are not more than 90 feet o.a. lgth., so a 110 footer would not be required there. Regards, Bill.

I've installed a Walther's turntable and motor and have it running. There are lots of problems, almost too many to list.

most important is to have the opening a very loose fit. I cut my original to the exact radius specified, and 'squeezed' the bowl into it. Not a good idea. The bridge will bind. Make sure that there is a good 1/16 to 1/8 slop. The bowl must be perfectly flat, else the motor will not engage. This will create problems with installing tracks. I have found that the locomotives I have will cross a gap of

1/8 or more with little problem. I did not try to sink the rim of the bowl, so I had to create ramps for the tracks leading into the turntable.

The brass brushes which wipe against the shaft and connect to the rails are at best tricky. The washer on the shaft which is supposed to separate them has an outside radius which is too small. I couldn't find a suitable insulated washer, so i trimmed the wiper blades so that they diverge and insulated most of the length with masking tape.

The wires which connect the rails to the slip rings must be soldered very carefully, and all of the stuff slid onto the shaft must be pushed firmly against the bottom of the bowl.

I recall having problems with the shaft's fitting sloppily into the bottom of the bowl, but I don't remember specifics. Whatever, the shaft assembly must be assembled carefully, else the motor gear will not engage.

The railings alongside the rails do not fit the holes in the bridge. I've not tried to assemble the superstructure. I've no idea how to 'index' the table, and aligning the tracks is a problem. I use the power supply from the bachmann "layfaette" set because it has a center off, forward reverse lever. Tricky to use.

It took days and says of puttinh together, taking apart, putting together before i had it running. If I do have the elevation of the track ends and the alignment exact, my locomotives do O.K. But the slightest mis-alignments will cause problems. I've not been able to get 'guard rails' installed correctly.

I think the difference between the cost of the kit and the cost of the assembled turntable indicates the difficulty of assembly.

Mr. Pearce is correct. My metric (310mm) to English was in error. Must be a senior moment.

Ed.

in article 3f8678d6$0$4791$ snipped-for-privacy@news.optusnet.com.au, William Pearce at ben snipped-for-privacy@optusnet.com.au wrote on 10/10/03 2:16 AM:

You can tell this kit is really bad because MR didn't review it. Of course, I didn't realise this until after I went out and purchased the piece of crap.

-- Cheers Roger T.

of the Great Eastern Railway