Hi There
I Might get the new Bachman Turntable for my On30 trains .
Do you own one. ? Are you using HO or On30 engines with it?
Do YOU USE DC or DCC for the turntable ?
Did you use atlas track or Micro Engineering track to connect to it ?
Thanks in Advance !
Have a Great Train Week !
Well, I was just on their site, and they don’t list an On30 turntable on it. Is this the one you mean?:
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=3627
If so, it looks like a slightly improved version of the old Atlas turntable - it has a shallow pit, and a semblance of a bridge, but it looks to have the same kind of drive for it :stop-and-go-and-stop at each position. Not what I’d recommend for the money ($160? Really?).
I’ve got a couple of those old Atlas tables in boxes somewhere. I could have sworn the bridges were bigger than 10". I just looked at my old Mantua Mikados (Version 2), and they won’t fit 10", but I thought they were okay on the old Atlas units.
I thought the 0n30 line had one for Thomas at one time, all I can find now is the H0 version suitable for smaller 0n30 locos.
Yikes! Ten whole inches? In HO? Who could have approved this project and its investment?
Crandell
Ten inches? If my math is right that comes up to seventy-two and a half scale feet. My antique 0-6-0 and tender would fit on it with five or six feet to spare but my Niagara definitely wouldn’t unless it went across without it’s tender. It would be all right for many of the older diesels as even an E unit would fit but how many of us use a turntable for diesels?
If you go to the Bachmann Trains web site and read the description of the turntable, it lists the bridge as being 10 inches in length with 16 pre-programmed stop positions. Primarily intended for use with Bachmann EZ-Track.
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=3627
MSRP is $160.
It apparently has a Geneva movement like the old Atlas turntable where it stops at each position for a short duration as it rotates. The top of the bridge rail is probably the same height as a piece of Bachmann EZ-track, which means the pit would be extremely shallow.
The bridge on the old Atlas is actually 9", I contacted Atlas to check if there was anything on the Horizon in the way of a new turntabe and was told no, that the old turntable is selling fine, thank you. So there was no reason to implement another HO turntable.
The bridge on the old Atlas is actually 9", I contacted Atlas to check if there was anything on the Horizon in the way of a new turntabe and was told no, that the old turntable is selling fine, thank you. So there was no reason to implement another HO turntable.
I was looking forward to the Bachmann turntable, until I found out the bridge size. Bit the bullet and bought a new Walthers 90’
Thanks for all your info & ideas !
The turntable will be to small for the On30 trains.
Atlas makes a 24" turntable for O scale. Replace the track with HO and you have a table that should handle just about any HO locomotive and On30 as well.
Enjoy
Paul
Use an O gauge turntable for HO and you would have an unprototypically wide deck…
It could be a two lane! [:-^][:-^]
Well the whole way the Atlas turntables are designed doesn’t exactly match most prototypes. But you could rebuild the deck by moving the side walls in a little bit.
Enjoy
Paul
WRGMILW
If the Bachmann unit is anything like the Atlas turntable you might be disappointed.
When I first got into HO trains a few years ago I said to myself that I must have a turntable on my layout, so one of my first purchases was the Atlas turntable. It seemed like a bargain at the time because there wasn’t too much else available, and the prices were pretty high.
I quickly discovered that the Atlas unit was too short for my plans, and that the noise level from the totally unprototypical movement of the table was intolerable. In the hopes of saving my investment I did some major modifications, namely making it into a pit turntable with a 3 inch longer bridge. I naively hoped that the additional materials would muffle the gear noise. Not so!
Sorry that I don’t have any direct experience with the Bachmann unit to share with you, but with the questions raised by other posters I have to admit that I am sceptical of the Bachmann unit.
Dave