I want to put the bite on the kids to get me a turntable for Christmas, instead of ties…(just kidding). I see Atlas, Walthers, Cornerstone and CMR, and at least another which is way pricey. I do want it motorized and indexed. Obviously I want it accurate. I hope to use DCC and Railroad & Co, in conjunstion with it.
Any comments/suggestions on what I should ask for?
Thank you!
Unless Walthers has made significant improvements to their turntables, they are extremely noisy, wobbly, and are not indexing. Atlas turntables are self-indexing, but are also noisy and do not look very realistic, so they require a lot of touch-up or modification. One idea I have read about is to sink an Atlas turntable and then mount a more realistic looking bridge on top of it. The top of the Atlas can then be weathered to look like the bottom of a turntable pit.
I purchased a Walthers turntable and have had nothing but problems with it. I am not impressed with Walthers products. I don’t think they are worth the price they demand.
I may try Cacole’s suggestion.
Look at the Heljan 14" turntable. The Atlas turntable has a very lurchy indexing. There is a low rpm motor that mounts to the Heljan. I have seen this type motor used on an Nn3 turntable and only using eyeball indexing works quite well.
Just a thought
Harold
Diamond scale Models makes several models. They also make an indexing kit and a hand crank assembly. Not cheap and not shake the box, but good quality and realistic.
http://www.diamond-scale.com/Products/products__turntables.htm
Guy
My dealer went to a showing in Milwaukee last week where a Walther rep demonstrated the new 130’ turntable which is now allegedly due out on Jan 28 2005). I say allegedly because it is a year overdue. The turntable is motorized and fully indexed.
According to my dealer, the demo worked flawlessly and the rep told him that they have demonstrated the demo hundreds of times recently without any failures. The turntable will cost $300 and will require a separate DC power pack to operate it.
Re the Atlas conversion you should go to http://uk.geocities.com/barry_pate/html/turntable.html
It looks like a nice conversion that I am thinking of trying myself
Alex.
The trouble with the Atlas is that it stops and pauses at every position in a most unrealistic way.
You might also consider the Fleischmann turntable. Not cheap - the only cheap turntable that works, is the Atlas one - but nicely executed, and the price includes an indexing system.
You need to find out how much they can afford first. $28 or $300-big difference. I personally would choose a good looking turntable and operate it manually. After all, how much use is it really going to get? I think most are for appearance anyway. Just my opinion, though.
haven’t seen Rex on here lately so I’ll comment for him.
He’s just got a 16.5" turntable from http://www.custommodelrailroads.com/index.html and motor from http://www.berkshirejunction.com/ the motor does .45rpm doesn’t index tho
Ken
I just picked up the Atlas turntable and plan I modifying it as suggested by ozziladd. For $25 how could you go wrong. If it doesn’t work, at least it was good training for assemblying one of the more expensive models.
Manual turntable operation:
I would like to operate a turntable manually because it will be for turning engines in a “fiddle yard” rather than meant to be prototypical. What do I need to know about its operation that I don’t put engines on the ground? Are there some rugged buy non-prototypical turntable designs for this applications?
If you want it for a fiddle yard and it won’t be seen try getting a rubbermiad lazy susan for a kitchen cabinet. It is only a couple of bucks and uses ball bearings in plastic tracks. You can glue a piece of plywood on top to hold you track. It could do what you want cheaply and easily. My personal preference on engine terminals is to avoid them. Having made one that could handle a Big Boy I found the entire engine terminal took up far too much space. Interesting - yes. Worth the real estate - not in my opinion. I know I am in the minority here but I prefer off line terminals and use staging loops to turn stuff now.
For rugged non-prototypcial I would buy the Atlas TT with the motorizing kit. All you need is an extra powerpack and two track wires. On ebay you can get the two of them for less than $25
[:(] I’m a fairly good model builder, but I bought a Custom Model Railroads turntable kit and while it looks great in the picture, I can’t put the kit together. It has about a million pieces (Ok, maybe just a couple hundred) and the skill level exceeds my abilites. The lesson is, make sure you get something you will ultimately be able to use. $350 later, I’ve got a box of acrylic parts that I’ll probably never be able to use. Be willing to sacrifice realism for something that you can use. Riverosi used to make a great pre-assembed N gauge turntable I used years back when I modeled in N. Not sure it’s still available.
Wow, I’m just getting back into this. My trains have been in the attic for 35 years. I bought an Atlas turntable back when JFK was in the White House. It hasn’t changed significantly, if the pictures are any guide. I really think the conversion of the Atlas to a pit turntable is a great idea. The big drawback I remember is the small diameter, only large enough for a single engine, and certainly not for a steam engine with tender. My solution then was to always park the Mikado directly across from the track out to the main line, so it didn’t require rotation. Any comments on larger-diameter turntables?
Forget about the Walthers or the Heljan as they are about the same and are nothing but junk. They don’t even make good Frisbee’s.
The Diamond Scale Turntables are great and they have a very nice manual operation.
I’ve seen these in use several times and they are very nice.
Good luck,
gtirr
I just completed a Custom Model Railroads 135’ turntable model. It is a more advanced kit, but not that hard of a kit. I did not buy a motorizing/indexing add-on as I plan on powering mine manually. Abbieleibowitz, contact me if you would like some help with your kit. I’m no expert, but I think I could help you get your turntable assembled.
I bought a Walthers turntable years ago and my opinion would be: So-So.
It looks nice and wasn’t too hard to assemble and it matched the Walthers roundhouse that I received as a gift shortly after.
Unfortunately, it seems to be somewhat wobbly and even with my pulse throttle switched in to power the turntable it requires a very delicate touch to align properly. I also have had continuous problems with the contacts supplying power to the rails.
Overall in the future I think I would go for something simpler, reliable, less expensive even if it was less realistic looking, or hide something like a lazy Susan offstage somehwere. A nice-working turntable is fun to show to visitors, but it’s been frustrating to fine-tune such a model to be mechanically reliable.
Sinking an Atlas turntable and mounting a bridge structure on it sounds like a good compromise as long as it could handle the length of a steam loco with tender.
Charles
Hillsburgh On