This is my story of the above referenced kit. I ordered, received and assembled it before I learned from various posts that the kit was was a disaster. After assembly I had a number of problems (bridge not turning properly, bridge wobbling, hard to keep power on the turntable track, etc.), I installed and removed the turntable a number of times and spent hours trying to get it to operate properly with minimum success. Finally, I took the unit to a local machinist (one of those guys who can fix anything); he looked it over, made certain corrections and it is now once again installed and works quite well. I am quite satisfied the way it operates and I can move 7 locos on to tracks - some to a round house, some to a 2 engine stall and some to open tracks adjacent to the roundhouse. The kit was a disappointment in that it did not measure up to the usual Walther kits I have on my layout, but I did hate to simply abandon it; thus calling on the local fix-it man. Anyone else have any stories re this kit?
Yep, I just started on mine. I think it’s a bit better quality than the horror stories I’ve been hearing. I was expecting a lot more problems. The pit does have one bad spot on the wall where the bridge scraped, but filing the ends of the bridge cured that. My biggest gripe is the crappy wheels you get. Too much flash on them and it’s near impossible to get them true and round. I’m not going to use the track power rings and wipers that came with it. I’ll just run two wires out the bottom and make sure they don’t get too twisted up.
I’m about half way done with it and really can’t complain for $35 with S&H since I can’t afford $200-$500 for a better RTR one. I can see where you wouldn’t want to use one for a club layout, but I’m pretty happy.
I would recommend really taking your time when it comes to getting the bridge true and smooth. If you over file something you can easily ruin the mechanism and make it sloppy.
Anyone have any ideas for better wheels for this kit? (they’re my biggest problem)
Find (or scratchbuild) one and cast the rest out of resin.
could always make brass ones out of brass rod.
You guys got me thinking now. They’re almost the size of N scale freight car wheels. Hmmm…
Keep talking guys. I have mine still in the box and cannot wait to get started… That being said, I like the discussion so far!
After dealing with one for over a month before finally giving up, I think the above quote can’t be over stated.
JaRRell
I found the bridge rocking was caused by the bridge center post bottoming out on the motor housing cover underneath. Filing the bottom of the post down stopped that and allowed it to ride on the rails like it should. Use extreme caution when cleaning up the 2 black center pivot bearings. You don’t want to enlarge the holes at all. (or the center pit hole)
On a side question, The sprue that contains the large drive gear has 6 parts that aren’t shown in the instructions. #'s 23-27. Anyone have any idea what these are for?? They look like they have something to do with the drive motor.[%-)]
The post recommending making brass wheels is right on. I did this plus set up a reversing module on the power leads and using an old power unit that I had kicking around to power the table seperately, and it works very well. The old power unit gives me forward and reverse instantly. The one small problem that I’m still working on is alignment to holding tracks. It can be done with carefull “jogging” but I would like something more positive. Maybe a pin lock of some sort. Still working on that.
Loathar, more description please…or show us.
I spent a lot of time trying get the bridge right. After I was sure it wasn’t rubbing anywhere, I glued on the large gear. Guess what? It now rubs in other places. I let it sit in the hole in the layout and discovered that the pit seems to change shape almost daily. The electrical system is a horror that I modified in several ways. So, now it is almost acceptable. What will be a continuing hassle is that there is so much lash in the gearing that it is almost impossible to hold alignment on a track. It is too bad because the kit builds up into a good looking model and it is so close to being a good value.
My feelings precisely. I actually got it to work extremely well over about 90 degrees…dead quiet and accurately, even very smoothly. But not without a lot of head scratching. It wasn’t the first kit I’d ever put together, and I am highly literate, so I feel the defect was in the production and not with me.
Now, with the built-up model, I can actually enjoy the use of a turntable.
-Crandell
I love it!!! Just did a search for the kit. A hit came up at Amazon.com ( i didn’'t know amazon had train kits). In the sponsered links, one came up for The Ultimate Turntable Store. Unbeatable Knowledge And Service. Order From The Turntable Experts!
This is a link to the needle doctor…a store that sells “record players”. Sorry, it made me laugh.
Great looking kit, too bad everybody is having so much trouble with it.
Here’s those parts I’m talking about.
It doesn’t show or say anything about them in the instructions.[sigh]
Loathar, those don’t ring a bell in the slightest. I think they were mistakenly added to your kit.
-Crandell
Loathar: I had the same parts in my kit - who knows what they are for as the instructions do not show the parts.
I built the 90’ turntable and had great success on the first try, but only because I followed hints given by several posts in this forum. In this thread
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/136530.aspx?PageIndex=2
is my reply to others who expressed problems. It refers to four forum threads which describe fixes while building the kit. Summary: worked very carefully to follow the printed instructions. I glued the styrene strips to underside of pit as suggested, which apparently eliminated the wobble. Made sure a larger washer separated the two wipers as suggested, so short wouldn’t occur later. And my kit had apparently had an upgrade so I didn’t have to countersink the cover screw seats as suggested. I was careful to cut the pit hole in my layout as the first thing, I put the pit in the hole, and slipped the bridge into the pivot hole, and made sure it could pivot all the way around without binding. I had to file some of the ends of the bridge where it touched while rotating. I then removed the pit and built everything at the work bench, including testing with power. I mounted the deck and guard rails on the bridge before installing the bidge and motor, etc. Seemed easier. Next time, I would fix the rails to the bridge deck before installing the bridge also. I found getting the rail in guage on the deck was the hardest part of the whole kit if done after installing bridge and motor.
I did not have $$ for more expensive turntable, and I found this kit to be just fine. I waethers up nice as well.
Hal
Hey Trainman, Thanks for the link. I was finally able to track down a replacement turntable for my father. Serendipity strikes again.
You can assemble those mystery parts and set it on a spot near the roundhouse and wait for people to ask… whatisthatthingsittingthere?
There was a turntable thread made on these forums recently that had wheels from rolling stock turned into each other and made to ride on the pit rail. Kalmbach replaced these forums and I dont have a hope of finding that one thread.
After looking carefully at the “extra” parts, I’m fairly certain that those are frame pieces for a gearbox. IIRC, the original design of the TT included gears, but they were unreliable at best, so the gears were ultimately left out of the kit and all mention of the gearbox was removed from the instructions. The parts are still there because it would have cost a lot more to retool the mold for that particular sprue of parts than to have a few cents worth of extra plastic in the kit.