N scale turntable recommendations

I need to build an engineyard and plan on installing a turntable. Are the Atlas and Walthers turntables acceptable? Any other recommendations? This is a N scale layout. Doug

Reply to
Doug
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Try the CMR turntable, much better than the current Walthers and Atlas offerings. You could wait till next year, apparently Walthers will be producing a fully indexed 135' n-scale unit.

CMR =

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Regards

Phill

Reply to
Phill

The Atlas turntable is a modification of their HO turntable which sort of represents a 65' decked TT. These were prototypically used in areas that had heavy snowfalls but in an era when 65' was enough for a full size loco. A fully decked TT of 120' becomes impractical to build. In the Atlas's favour the TT works very well, something that can't be said of most other brands. Arnold (defunct) and Fleischmann make extremely good quality TTs that work very well. The price is high but they work and keep working!

Regards, Greg.P.

Reply to
Greg Procter

Doug, Greg is exactly right that the Atlas TT works very well. Its hard to beat something that works exactly right and will for many many years. If you are wanting to keep costs low and want a 100% reliable and realistic TT you could use either an Atlas N or HO turntable as the drive for a very realistic scratch built bridge and pit of any size you want. I did this with an old HO Atlas to make a larger TT with a pit for my layout. Its an easy project with no real scratch building experience needed. I mentioned it here on RMR a while back.Quite a few people wanted to see the contraption so I wrote up some construction notes to go along with some pictures I took of it. I'd be happy to email them to you too if it might be of some interest. Bruce

Reply to
Bruce Favinger

Just a short comment - earlier Atlas HO TTs have 12 stopping positions, later ones have 24. It would make a big difference in N scale :-)

Reply to
Greg Procter

Reply to
harrym

Greg, My TT is a very old HO unit. I use an even older power pack to run it. With a throttle the Atlas TT can be run very slow in between indexed positions so its easy to line it up by sight so long as your TT location is close enough to see it well. I understand the newer Atlas TTs have a different motor as well as more index locations you mentioned. Are they still loud? Mine makes a lot of noise even though its encased and below the table top. Bruce

Reply to
Bruce Favinger

There's my problem - my TT is not close enough! ;-)

Any time you put a motor and gears in a plastic frame and put a plastic clip on housing over it you are going to get LOUD. Atlas originally used what I think was a standard Roco motor but has since gone to a cheaper, lower quality motor which at least makes the old type seem quiet!

If you want quiet you need to mount the mechanisim on the baseboard framing where it can't vibrate and drive the TT mechanisim with a belt and 1:1 pulleys.

Regards, Greg.P.

Reply to
Greg Procter

Take a look at 'On30 Tracks'

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where I cover the process of building a tiny (76mm dia) bridge and pit on an Atlas N-Gauge turntable.

Jeff Law New Zealand

Reply to
Jeff Law

Nice one Jeff! The only limitation I can see is that there's a limit to how close you can go to the edge of the baseboard! (270mm/2 - 76mm/2 = 97mm) The Geneva movement effect will be quite minimal in appearance at that length and scale!

Regards, Greg.P. Takaka.

Jeff Law wrote:

Reply to
Greg Procter

Greg,

That is a very good point that you make.

I also have a half-built HOn30 micro-layout (Maikaro Lumber Co) that I want a tiny turntable thereon, but this method won't work.

Therefore, I plan to build it on a stepper-motor, controlled by a PIC micro-controller.

Jeff Law New Zealand

Reply to
Jeff Law

I'd like to see that, or how it turns out! I'm into old-time European HO and a relatively common layout was the circa 4m wagon TT (that's 46mm) with 4 or 8 positions. The obvious site is against low relief industrial buildings/the backscene so there's no space for the Atlas TT underneath and alignment by sight is hardly practical.

Regards, Greg.P.

Reply to
Greg Procter

Jeff That's a very clever little TT. I think I try that to spin my Porters. Bruce

Reply to
Bruce Favinger

Thanks Jeff; great job! I don't need a small TT but the mechanism approach looks useful.

Reply to
kt0t

I wouldn't use the Walthers table and motor. I built a 4'x4' section for my n scale layout using it in conjunction with a 30 stall round house. Impossible to line up the table by eye with each lead in track to the roundhouse due to the large distance. On a small setup, the Walthers might be ok, but for a large setup, something with indexing is definitely required.

Jeff

Reply to
1shado1

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