Anybody know who makes a good turntable?
Checkout www.aaaturntables.com Two weeks ago I installed a 130 foot HO turntable that RJ had put together for my layout. The installation was fairly straightforward and the table functions flawlessly. Mine is set up for 10 degree indexing. You can do your own detailing or opt for their detail package. - Mike
For American/Canadian railroads, Walthers, Central Valley Models, and Diamond Scale, I believe are the ones making the larger versions that are indexable and fully electronic. I have the HO 90’ version from Walthers and like it very much.
-Crandell
One that looks good or works good? How long? Try Walthers?
Pete
I would like it to look good, and work great, but I’m on a tight budget. Congrats on your grand daughter!!
Even the cheapie Walthers can work great depending on your skill level. People were saying how bad the put together yourself Walthers 90’ was because among other things, it would scrape on some of the wall and when I built mine I found out that the locating pins had a lot of slop in them and if you don’t center them exactly you had a problem, and even though the project is not finished yet (been doing lots of upgrades like woodgraining the ties in the pit etc.) all the problems mentioned to me turned out to be the consumers fault!
does it come with its own drive motor?
You can get it that way, I have read of others that used other motors in direct mount through the bottom, depends again on your skill level.
Anybody any experience with the HO Hejlan 804. I have a 9 stall Heljan roundhouse, and the walthers 90 wouldn’t line up. Apparently the Walthers motorizing kit for their N scale works with it. Any assistance is appreciated.
You could very probably get the Walthers 90’er to fit, but it would mean making ‘specialwork’ hand laid track, with lots of frogs, crossing over each other. Sorry, no experience with the Heljan item.
-Crandell
You need to be more specific about the problem, do you mean the turntable is too big and if so by how much (if it is just a little you can cut the ties till the various pieces of track almost touch, have also seen a slight curving to line up properly, on mine I am fine but I only have 4" of space before the doors).
The “tight budget” provision is the kicker here. The Walthers built up turntables with the motor drive and programmable indexing work great (I have the 130 foot one in HO), but the retail price is over $300. The Atlas 9 inch (scale about 60 feet) with the motor drive can be had for about $65.00 retail. Most F units and GP units will fit, as well as small steamers. I also have one of these set up as my switcher turntable/roundhouse. Both of these are sensitive to dirt and grit, so you need to keep the area clean for reliable operation.
The Walters 90 is too small a diameter to match the roundhouse, just wouldn’t line up- at least for me
Can’t be too small to line up, mathematically impossible (too big is a problem).
I have had a Fleischmann, and used a ROCO turntable in HO, and I can only say; WOW! Talk about quality for the money! Easy to use and foolproof.
Hi,
All the turntables mentionned are good ones; just take care of the old Walthers turntable.
About makers not mentionned take a look at www.custommodelrailroads.com and the Peco website they both make good turntable.
Control of a turntable could be a nightmare because of some bad indexing; remenber an error of no more than 1 mm can cause a derailment.
Report say that the new Walthers turntable control work good but had some lack sometimes.
The diamond scale indexing is difficult to adjust.
There are some devices like crank belt and homemade sensor you can find on the forum or in the MR old articles library.
Quite expensive, the price of a good steam loco, www.nyrs.com offer the best indexing system on the market suitable for any turntable.
Some manufacturers give a link to their site; the basis of their system is a step by step motor whith an electronic control which give extremely precise positionning of the bridge.
Good luck.
Marc
No question Walthers hands down is the best for the money. I am refereed to as the turntable king at the club as I have probably build just about every turntable out there.
www.aaaturntables.com is out of business form what I understand, as well with Diamond scale, it was bought by someone after the owner passed away, CMR makes turntables, Central Valley Models makes bridges never has made a turntable. CMR turntables ar very well built and designed but have to be assembled so your modeling abilities need to be a little more then average. plus you will need a dive system and an indexing system so that drives the cost way up. The only advantage CMR has over Walthers is they make one 135’ so unless your into really big steam like big boys etc. it’s not worth it for the average modeler. As far as the Atlas tutntable goes it’s toy quality and noisey as all heck. $300 is straight list on the Walthers you can pick it up for a lot less Chery Creak Hobbies sells it for $238.00 you cut the hole in your bench work wiring it up whihc is very very simple and your in business. The most difficult thing about the Walthers T/T is programing the indexing system. Which will take you all of 10 minutes.
http://cchobbies.com/hoscale/structures/walthersturntable.htm
Don´t you need a masters degree for that? [:D]
Cheap and functional doesn´t always coincide, especially when it comes to Turntables. If you want it to work without worries, buy the ready-made ones!
If AAATurntables is out of business you could have fooled me! They still answer the phone, email, cash checks and send out a great product. I used to have an old Bowser 18 inch turntable which was clunky by comparison. - Mike
Since you have built most, any more ideas on the Walthers build it youself.