Need HELP with turntable wiring and control.

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Just got a turntable and was wonder how the wiring works. I run DCC in HO scale and I need simple instructions. I think I need what is called a reversing switch.(any photos you could share would be great.)

  1. When I hook up the reversing switch, do I manually control the reversing switch & cut the power to the turntable bridge and then manually switch the positive and negative polarity?

  2. I guess there is Auto-reversing switches. how do I hook these up? what products do you recommend?

2

What brand of turntable is it? Some of these have split-ring contacts to power the bridge track, so that auto-reversers or the like are not needed. I’ve got a slightly-modified Atlas turntable, and it requires no special circuitry, toggles or wiring.

3

I have the $40.00 Walthers 90’ Turntable kit and I am rather certain I need the “reversing switch” because it says I need one in the instructions.

I see Tony’s probably has the best auto reversing module PSX-AR. What do you think of Those?

4

I would worry about getting the TT to get working properly first. The Walthers mold is warped and near impossible to get the bridge to operate without binding.

David B

5

I have this turntable and if you haven’t built it, I would return to Walthers unless you want to spend hours to make it work not very well. Mine is barely acceptable after a lot of effort. Too bad, because it builds up into a good looking turntable. Yes, the reversing unit from Tony’s is what you need.

6

Before I finally purchased the Walthers 130’ turntable, I had the older 90’ turntable on my layout.

I gave up trying to operate the motor with the flimsy contacts and just turned it manually using a DPDT switch to reverse polarities when necessary.

Rich

7

Guess I should have checked the forum before I bought the cheaper 90’ turntable, :slight_smile:

I got it working (for the most part) the big gear is not a perfect circle, so about 3% of the big gear misses the smaller drive gear. However, I will still be able to use it.

I guess you get what you pay for.

I will be writing Walthers a letter to let them know of my dissatisfaction in their product.

8

You do get what you pay for, true. However, I wouldn’t be too down on Walthers or the turntable you purchased. It is not a bad looking turntable, especially for the price. And, although the motor is not very reliable, you can rotate the turntable manually, just as was done on the prototype, and install a very inexpensive DPDT switch to flip polarities. That turntable served my purposes well for several years before I replaced it with the Walthers 130’ indexed turntable.

Rich