I have heard of using masking tape, cardboard, paper, etc. for shimming track, but those materials seem too soft for me and will compress over time. I suppose the argument that you will ballast over those materials anyway may solve that issue.
My shimming problem occurs at the lip of my Walther’s Turntable. The bridge track is about 1/32" higher than the approach tracks. So I need to bring the rails up gently to the bridge track. I was going to gradually step the track about from about 12-14" out with styrene sheet, the use thin strips of styrene, the exact width of the rails on the lip area where there is no ballast to cover the shim. I am using code 83 Walthers/Shinnohara. The rails match the bridge rails fine, but the ties have a very slight gap leading in, thus leaving the bare rails a bit too high as well.
What other alternative would you recommend or did you use for your turntable?
I use a combination of wood door jamb shims and cardstock of a couple of thicknesses. Start with the critical end, since that is what you are intent on matching, and use tape or paper or cardstock. They will not compress appreciably. If you are not convinced, use glue, like an epoxy, and support the rails with cardstock on either side of the bead of epoxy. When the epoxy hardens, you remove the unwanted material.
Further from the pit lip, you shim as needed with what you have to get a firmly supported and gentle grade. Later, when you ballast or simply add yard dirt, it will all be rigid and supported nicely, and it will look like it was the real graded trackbed.
Thank you for the advice. This is a very subtle grade change, so I am going to uses some Evergreen Styrene plastic in an appropriate thickness, i.e. .010, .015, .020 etc.
My goal is to accomplish a near perfectly smooth transition from the bridge track to the approach tracks - the tolerance is tight if you want it to work smoothly. My gaps are a 1/16" where the two tracks meet. I want to eliminate any visible bump or vertical movement when those steamers depart from the bridge. If any of you are involved in this aspect of a turntable installation, it is also important to file the proper chamfer on the inside of the railhead to avoid derailments from the wheels getting “picked”.
Having a flawlessly operating turntable on my layout (this is my first) has been one of the most satisfying and interesting features I have ever installed. BTW, the Walther’s Built Up units works beautifully and looks awesome!
For bridge track, you should be lowering the bridge structure to rail height. Even different brands of flex in the same code can vary. I use ME bridge flex track. The prototypical tie thickness demands that the bridge deck is lower. Many places on our layout are hand laid. This actually makes bridge installation better and stroger. The bridge ties are trimmed off to allow the rails to extend past the bridge. Spiking the rails anchors the bridge and keeps alignment. The guard rails are also carried beyond and spiked as well. Also with the rails past the abutments feeder wires can be brought up and soldered.
The only time this doesn’t apply is for ballasted deck bridges or or open deck that you are running the same flex track. I have had to alter abutment height/ bridge shoes whenever a Central Valley or MicroEngineering bridge is used.
Modified ME, this is a curved with the easment turning into a 54" radius, super elevatio
Bogp40, I was referring to the bridge track on my turntable. Unfortunately, it cannot be lowered - it is a pre-built fixed height. The only track that is adjustable are the approach tracks. This is a little different than a bridge installation. Thanks…
Sorry, didn’t catch the turntable part. The turntables we install at the club are all placed in the benchwork with a way to adjust the height just for this reason. Minor adjustment should be done with shimming w/ styrene, cardstock etc as mentioned.
The screw adjusters are @ the four corners the sub framing is circular cut.
The best product for this is Thompson’s Water Putty (I think that is the name of it). It is a yellow powder that mixes to any consistency you want with water. It spreads easily and dries rock hard, doesn’t shrink and can be sanded and drilled. I used it to make the transitions from level to rising track and spiral easements. It can be feathered down to nothing. Start at the rim and just smear it down at about 12 inches. Paint it ballast color and go from there. For the transitions I sliced some cedar shingles into 1/2 inch stips and tacked one down on either side of the track as a form to insure uniformity. In your case, You might use the shingles under the track and then fill in between with the water putty to get a perfect vertical easement.
I use masking tape for all small changes in elevation, adding superelevation, etc. I also use(d) it to bring my servicing tracks up to the level of my turntable. Works fine so far!
I used the styrene .020 and .010 thick to obtain a precision track alignment. The transitions are smooth but the gap, approx. 1/16th between the bridge and approach tracks still causes the unavoidable but normal “clickity-clack” when the wheels cross over.
I wonder what it would have been like to be standing in the yard back in the 1930’s watching and listening to those behemoth steamers on the turntable departing and arriving …
Well,…let’s have a look. Here’s a cute l’il filly entering the bridge. Speakers on, please. [:P] Listen as each wheel clunks over the gap, and you can see them fall 1/2".
My wife and I just watched that in amazement! We said, “That looks like our Trix Mike on our Walther’s 90’ turntable!!!”
Thanks so much for sharing that and taking the time to post it. I learned a lot from that video and it confirmed that my installation is not so bad. Even the gaps are very close to those full scale gaps. After seeing the prototype operate, it makes the models that much more fun to build and operate.
Selector, if more people on this (and other forums) were like you, the hobby would be so much better off. BTW, it is good to see you on that “other manufacturer’s forum” - it needs a lot of help…
I had a similar problem getting the track to match the turntable, not because of rail height, but due to the plywood base not being flat enough. I squeezed out some caulk to form a roadbed where the track would go, and after positioning the track over it, I placed a weight over the rails where they meet the bridge track to hold the alignment while the caulk dried. It looks a little messy right now, but a layer of cinders will take care of that.
Some feel that any cheap ply will work, no need to use a better grade, always say it is overkill.
I sometimes feel like it is preaching about how important the quality and where you but the material is. First off Home Centers carry crap for ply. The only ply that comes close to decent quality is the hardwood ply. That is overkill for decking. The plywood offered at a lumber yard is not the same as the inferior pine ply from HD. Most of the ply, even the 5 ply shows voids and much is ready to delam right off the lift. I absolutey crindge when I’m forced to use a sheet of 1/2" CDX or Plug and sanded underlayment in a pinch when I run short on a job. Check out the stock from a “normal” quality lumber yard. The stock is not apples for apples, and the price is not that much more especially since it is a far better product. The same goes for the pine. Most of the crap pine at HD etc is near firewood compared to what I buy and use. Have been working with wood for 35 years. If some have no issue w/ the home center stuff, knock yourself out. I find that it is usually a case that most don’t know any better.
Some say they don’t have any good lumber yards around, well ask a carpenter where he buys his stock. Any good carpenter would refuse to use thier stuff on any regular basis. If its HD then this guy has no clue either.
I finished laying down 2 approach tracks, 3 roundhouse entry tracks and 2 extra “outdoor” tracks, a total of 7 different pieces shimmed on the lip of the turntable. I used .010 styrene strips cut the width of the rail and glued 'em into place on the lip, just underneath each rail. Took me about 4 hours to measure the track, file the ends and shim everything up properly.
They all matched right up to the bridge track and each was tested with the 2-8-2 dozens of times, heck I had a ton of fun working the turntable - I can’t say enough good things about that Walther’s Built up unit, it just works great. From an operations standpoint, the layout comes alive with a turntable, don’t know how I ever lived without one.
So now that I got all the mechanical aspects of this yard good to go, I’ll wire up all of those “dead” tracks (approach tracks and the bridge are wired) and start putting down some earth and yard mix. The real fun begins…
MastiffDog, you might wish to keep one of the approaches to your TT gapped and serviced electrically through a SPDT. That way, you can use it as a programming track! I wired mine this way:
The centre posts of the SPDT get the leads from the main DCC box. Wired to those centre posts is also the gapped lead to the TT. Wrap both pairs of wires, with the right polarity per wire, around the appropriate posts. So, when your DCC is on, the programming section is always powered…no matter what. However, the outside two posts are wired to the rest of the layout. In other words, the bus comes off those posts and services the track everywhere with feeders…everywhere except the lead to the TT that has its feed on all the time due to those feeders getting power directly and constantly from the centre posts. When I want to programme in Paged Mode, I simple flick the toggle and shut off power to the bus and programme away with the constantly powered, but isolated, section of track that comprises the lead to the TT.
Selector, have you been reading my mind today? I was thinking about that today while I was out doing other things. It is a great idea, however I am intimidated by complicated wiring, but I am definitely going to give it a try, how else can I increase my skills?
I know I saw a wiring diagram somewhere, I’ll do a search and locate it.
