Turntables - associated structures?

Some were electric, hence needing power cables, usually overhead to a gantry on the centre of the table, and a control hut with a tramcar style controller, more often they were vacuum operated with a similar control box, a hose to connect to the loco vac pipe and a vacuum tank. Then there were those with a capstan as you remember, and smaller ones with levers sticking out over the pit rim so they could be pushed round by your railway worker, this type would have a well kept path round the circumference for the pusher to walk on.

Keith Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

Prototype note: shed staff were particularly appreciative of drivers who could accurately centre their locos on the turntable disc as they were easier to turn that way.

-- Brian "Chuff! Chuff! Poot! Poot! A model railway exhibition can do that to a person"

Brian,

Wasn't it more like getting the centre of gravity of the locomotive over the centre of the turntable - which is not necessarily the centre of the loco :-)

Jm.

snipped stuff

AFAIK all Peco makes is an N Gauge turntable, so why not let your 10ft

3in giant turn it then??

David

It seems your knowledge of Peco products does not go far enough, better invest in a catalogue. Keith

Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

After a fruitless Google search, can anyone supply a URL for a photo showing the Peco OO turntable?

-- Cheers Roger T.

of the Great Eastern Railway

Did I say the centre of the loco?

I don't think I did.

Heh! Heh! Heh!

;-)

-- Brian "Don't be afraid of playing the fool, or of letting go, or of not being dignified, or of not being pretty, or of not being conventional, or of thinking that someone will laugh"

Reminds me of an episode of Thomas .... Gordon on the turntable - etc ..

DW

"Steve Jones"

Thanks Steve. Better than what I could find.

I did find the Peco site but it's about as useless as mammary development on a bull.

Hardly any photos of their products.

I'm looking at North Americanising the Peco 'table so I have a few questions.

Is the bridge at least 12" long?

What code rail is on the table, and if it's bigger than code 75, is it easy to remove?

Is the motorising kit worth while?

-- Cheers Roger T.

of the Great Eastern Railway

Useful link:

Governor of Waldovia

Cheers Steve that's not quite what I had in mind sorry for not being clearer. Mine will be moved "mandraulicly" by means of a pulley, what I had in mind it how the real thing turned so I could put up/model any appropriate structures/fixtures to make it look a little more "real".

Thanks all the same though.

I used Altavista, searched for railway turntable using images filter, and clicked on some of the images which came up. I know this is a British practice group, but there is a good pic of a US TT with the centre gantry and a control hut on

May of some use?

ZD

Whilst leaning on the bar Chris Wilson was heard to say.............

You should find something here

I removed a section of the handrail and built an extension on the side of the bridge with some wills chequer plate and plastuct girders, then used the fittings from an Airfix turntable kit.

-- Regards, Pete Rigby

As soon as one knows that one knows nothing, one understands everything! Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

****************************************************************************

"Gregory Procter"

Might be too small. I need to turn at least HO scale 2-8-2s, perhaps even

4-8-2s depending on which operational plan I go with.

Code 100 should be easy enough to strip out.

I agree with the.though it may be minimised by using North American benchwork construction techniques Vs the UK solid baseboard method.

I'm not worried about indexing. The Human Eyeball Mark I is quite suitable as the 'table will be towards the front of the benchwork.

The reason I'm interested in the Peco table is the price. From the photos it doesn't look too bad and I gather the motorising kit is reasonable priced as well. North American 'tables start well into the US$200 range, that's about Can$ 260 or more. If anything, I can always replace or redetail the bridge with components I have from North American plastic turntable kits.

-- Cheers Roger T.

of the Great Eastern Railway

"Governor of Waldovia"

Very useful. May be usable to power a God awful working, but good looking, Walther's turntable kit that's been sitting unassembled, because of it's poor reputation, under my benchwork for a couple of years now.

-- Cheers Roger T.

of the Great Eastern Railway

I found this one, with Google:

I have a Heljan HO TT kit (Item 804) I picked up at a swap meet for CDN$25. The pit is 14" diameter, plenty big enough for a Hornby Duchess. It's supposed to be a US prototype, so it might meet your needs better. I assembled it without the central gantry. It comes without track - you install your own and wire it to slip rings underneath; track can overhang the pit if necessary. It can be manually turned with a capstan and a string loop or rubber band under the baseboard. There is a motor drive kit for it, #942-472 for CDN$30 or so - I saw one at Northstar Hobbies in Mississauga.

The FMR kit which uses a few Meccano pieces and a slow-speed motor seems a bit expensive at £20. If you have any old Meccano, you could probably knock one together with an inexpensive motor - I plan to experiment with a Meccano 3V electric motor that came with a set bought about 1980.

The Hornby R070 powered TT (Hattons £42) is more toylike; it has a plastic cabin concealing the motor. Atlas also does one, but it's only

9" diameter; there is an optional motor drive.

Roger: here are some URLs for the Heljan 98 foot turntable:

(Canadian - $30.20) (above includes photo of box)

Cornerstone has a 90 foot HO turntable for CDN$59.95

Walthers 1 rpm universal turntable drive US$25.48 ($5 off if ordered by midnight Labour Day)