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Does this have fixed entry track locations?
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Assuming it doesn’t, does that mean it is pretty much free spinning without any drive mechanism unless you buy a motorizing unit?
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How is the track power fed to the bridge?
Thx,
KL
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The 3171 is not “indexed”.
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Yes. There is a motor unit available.
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There are “wipers” and brass rings on the shaft that feed the bridge rails.
This TT can be very problematic but many folks get them to work OK. I have one that works pretty well (DCC controlled.) The main problem (for me) is to get the bridge to rotate smoothly.
This TT will be a test for most people. It is not a smooth operator, by any means, although some have been lucky. I was not, and had to add substantial shimming under the large washer mounted on the shaft, directly between the washer and the pit bottom. Otherwise, the bridge rocked and rotated poorly. I also had to do some modifications to the motor mounting and to the wiper system that presses against the two brass rings that bring power to the bridge. If you are fairly handy, and persistent, the TT does turn out nicely once it is painted and made reliable.
I guess you could say that determination will be rewarded.
I built a Heljan TT which is similar to the Walthers kit and uses the same drive. If you are not careful in the assembly, then yes it is junk. The instructions are a little more than an exploded view and I deviated from the instructions by throwing away the part with the gear on it and made my own driveshaft so I can remove my bridge. I also modified the electrical pick up for the bridge track. The drive coupling is a home made version of THIS
One very important step in the assembly is the lower bearing plate. The bridge hight has to be just right. The trucks on the ends of the bridge should ride very lightly on the pit rail, most of the weight should be carried by the bearing. The Heljan kit has a lower bearing plate that glues into the center hole of the pit. That has to be positioned just right (I found that out too late and had to use a .010 shim from a generator pully on an old VW bug to raise the bearing). The bridge is attached to the upper bearing plate and my drive shaft is attached to that. The shaft has to be centered perfectly. I did that by slipping a brass tube through the factory hole, to use as a locating tool and slid the new drive shaft over that. Once the driveshaft was attached, the tool is removed.
I also mounted the electrical pick up differently. I seperated the two wipers and mounted them on the ends of square brass tubing and attached to the wooden base… They wipe the brass rings which are mounted on the drive shaft and connected to the bridge rails. I made the driveshaft out of brass tubing and insulated it from the power pick up rings with heat shrink tubing. The rings are made from brass tubing. The connection of the motor side of the driveshaft was made from of the guts out a Eurostyle strip connector. On the other end of the connector I made a “T” from r
With all tis said does anyone have an easy to install - good working TT that
they know of??
Jim
It is my expierience that a TT is probably the most unforgiving piece of equipment you can put on a model railroad. I have added Walther’s 130’ TT in the last year and it is a fairly straight forward install. The problem I run into with it is that the pit area around the ring rail must be kept immaculate which is very difficult to do. If a tiny piece of ballast or other debris gets into the cog teeth that the bridge rides on, it will grind to a halt. Some of these pieces are so small you can barely see them but will stop the bridge movement cold. If I could do it over again, I would go with medium WS ballast around the pit rather than the fine ballast because it would not get in between the cog teeth and would be easy to clean out.
Thanks for the info. Upon further review, a TT just isn’t right for a modern switching RR, even one built on the remnants of a fallen flag, so problem solved, sort of. . .
KL
I think Walther’s is re-issueing the 90’ TT with the same drive as the 130’