Which Turntable is Best?

How flexible is the indexing on the big one - that is, is 60 positions a memory capacity, or is something like a preset for every 6 degrees?

It would be nice if they had a non-indexed version available for a lesser price. A slow-speed nudge switch would do the job for any turntable not back in a corner and hard to see.

Or you could use an old power pack. I built my own turntable and pit but use an old Atlas to turn it. Even though the Atlas will index the indexed locations are too far apart. With the throttle I can line up the tracks placed anywhere around real easy. So easy that self indexing is no real advantage. Of course the TT location is right by the table edge so it will be very easy to see everything. But then I don't think I would ever place a TT of any kind where I could not reach it and see everything. That could be worse than getting to a hard to reach turn out. Bruce

Referring to the 130' turntable:

With this length, is there value in that you could use the table with a switching engine to place individual rolling stock on various spurs: a car cleaning track, a RIP track, a car painting track, etc.]?

Was this ever done on the prototype?

If so, the 130' length could allow for some nice opportunities to add out buildings and specialization tracks off the turntable.

The idea of using a turntable for moving stuff around has never been done on the prototye that I know of. then again, there was a human powered railroad in the Philipines where men did the moving of the cars while women were the helper engines on the grades. They even ran passenger service! The problem with using a turntable is that the length is really too short to do any real movement of cars (the looon turntables were pretty much an artifact of the ''30s and later) and were expensive to build and maintain relative to smaller turntables. The NYC went to great lengths to not expand their turntables for their larger power (large overhangs on the rear of centipede tenders and jacking up the rear of tenders are two that came to mind) due to the addeed expense of the new turntables. They even went to the expense of beefing up the pit wheels so that the locos could be put on the turntable unbalanced (a loco should be balanced on the turntable with the center bearing type so that the load on the wheels at the end of the turntable aren't overstressed) whenevre possible.

-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?

The sure way to insure that the TT is indexed propeerly is to have a motor under the table that pushes out an arrow shaped pin into a socket under the rails that puts the table into the exact right position. Don't use a solenoid as this may make the table jerk strongly if the index was off a big.

-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?

I use an Atlas to run my HO TT and it works great. I got it used for about $5 over 20 years ago and slightly modified it for a covered TT on my old Sn3 layout. It was used on the mainline somewhat like the Corkscrew Gulch TT so it got a workout. Never had a problem with it. And it kept on working even after being in storage for about 13 years. Its not exactly the best looking TT out there and it makes a racket but it works perfectly. Its a reliable device to use to operate a better looking scratch built or kit TT with a pit as quite a few people have. Bruce

After the roundhouse was removed from CN's Calder (Now Walker) Yard in Edmonton the turntable was retained. One long stall of the former roundhouse was retained and used as a paint shop. In fact all of the CN units that got the CN Yellow & Red "Great Slave Lake Division" paint job (where yellow replaced the black and the lettering was black not #11 grey) were painted there. The paint shop has been closed for a while now though.

Throughput of a turntable is not fast enough for switching cars in & out of a car cleaning track or RIP track. A 130' table is only three

40' box cars after all. However some cars must be loaded or unloaded from end doors or only on one side. Likewise early piggyback cars with 'circus loading' often had to be turned at their destination. All these would need a turntable if there is no wye.

It was quite common in Brtain, but the turntable would be a "wagon turntable" that wasn't intended for locos, and because European freight cars are so small, the turntable was tiny. Here's a British manufacturer's website that has an illustration of a model with some descriptive text:

Interesting little item! I'd suspect that it was really quite rare as the loco couldn't get to the car after it was turned so manpower would be needed to move the car off of the turntable. I'll noe that turning cars for loading or other direction problems really isn't in the purvue of my comments as the turning of the older piggyback cars as well as previous stuff like observation cars and so forth are well known. Usually such turns were done with wyes rather than turntables but the turntable would be used if the wye really wasn't available. I've known places whre the railroad would rather move a car 10 miles to turn on a wye rather than a mile to turn it on a turntable.

-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?

Also another site which shows some views of an actual wagon turntable which lasted, in use, well into the 20th century

About half way down in the pictures of Jubilee Class 45572 and Patriot Class 45506, and the best view at the bottom in the picture of Hall Class 4929.

Jim.

Dear Sir:

Why can't the loco get to the car?

1. Loco pushes car back onto turntable, uncouples, and moves back off.
2. Table switches ends.
3. Loco couples to other end, pulls car off.

And if you have a low-budget shortline there is always the trick of putting your car-repair stall directly across from the TT lead, isn't there? Didn't the Ma and Pa do this?

I could also conceivably see a low-budget railroad or small shop putting a small stub track across from a stall that was to be used for repairs of cars or dead equipment. Move good loco to stub track, turn car, then push it off the bridge.

Cordially yours, Gerard P.

I don't know if RRs ever used them at their terminals, but how about those capstans used at some industrial sidings, moving cars with a sturdy line instead of a small tug? It would just take an electric motor or a small steam donkey in really older times.

Bob, wagon turntables were once very common in the UK, Europe, Japan, Australia, and anywhere else that used small, 4-wheel wagons. The loco didn't need to get to the car after it was turned, since wagons could be moved by man-power, horse-power, or a rope and capstan. Most that I've seen turned the wagon through 90 degrees.

Yeah, small cars tend to make for such things being practible. We Americans got rid of cars that small back in the 1840s so such an idea really doesn't work as well. I sort of remember seeing a little turntabble in a car show that could handle the trucks but that was a long time ago that I saw it. Also the general room that is available to the American practive says that such things really aren't needed to move cars to different directions. In places like you mentioned, the room needed to do "proper" trackwork often wasn't available so little turntables that could rotate a car to a new track (there's not much of a need to turn a little goods wagon 180 degrees as they would be loaded or unloaded from either direction - passenger cars would tend to stay in cuts and be turned as a cut if needed by a wye) without needing a crew of guys to move the car. Also remember that the empty weight of US cars is on the order of a fully loaded wagon elsewhere, if not even heavier.

-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?

Keep in mind that in North America, the railway usually came first and the industry was built around it.

In many, many parts of Europe, the industry was there first and the railway(s) had to be built around the industry. Hence the need for wagon turntables so that the railway could reach the pre-existing buildings. Not always the case as the railways themselves often used wagon turntables in their shops etc..

-- Cheers Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

Being from Australia this topic interested me, for a couple of reasons.

1: Walthers TT: I got caught with one of the 90 footers as well. It looks the part, & almost identical to out NSW 90ft tables. Problems with it included, flimsy weak plastic, jerky rotation, & very ambiquous instructions on how to power the thing.

I checked out the new powered 130ft table, totally unprototypical for our conditions, but for the price of $400.00, I chose a locally produced one that measured in at a scale 125ft. Again not prototypical but makde of pressed metal, brass & some urethane. The reason why the table was built oversize was for those who model U.S railroads, but also for those who have various versions of our garrats. While they were 100" wheel base they were ove 106 length over buffers, & in the model form some came in at a scale 115 wheel base, so the 125 was a compromise. it comes with a belt ddrive & pin indexing, the problem with this is that it stops at each road, but at the price & the utter strength of the table it is the best option, although expensive.

I also checked out the people who advertise in MR turntables made to order. With exchange rate too expensive, beside they never answered 3 emails of mine.

2: We had a common use of the turntables in depots with roundhouses beside just for entering, storage & departing engines. Often engines in repairs were required to be moved, or the engine & tender seperated to different roads or, a dead engine to be turned & put back into the same or another road for additional work.

This required the positioning of in steam engines on the different roads across the table. An engine would thus pull the dead one on to the bridge, where the engine was chocked & set, the engine in steam would move off the bridge, & stable. The required turning would take place, with an engine positioned opposite the locations where it was required to be put, then the engine would be pushed & positioned in its new position.

This also occured in some depots where wagone repair facilites were available, & the above events took place with wagon moves.

Colin Hussey