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jhb171achill

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Anyone know where to buy a decent turntable - needn't be very fancy - of just about enough length to turn a Woolwich (23cm)? The ones on sale mfrom normal suppliers seem to be built to turn an American "Big Boy"; they are prototypically FAR too big for almost all Irish applications, or else cost the price of a decent-sized family car or a holiday home in Kerry.

Thoughts?

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Peco produce a turntable kit (327mm long) is probably the simplest most inexpensive option though large by Irish standards  https://peco-uk.com/products/turntable-well-type . 

Greenwood Model Railway Products and London Road Models produce shorter turntables in the small family car/weekend in Kerry price range.

Greenwood produce  55 & 60ft OO Turntables  https://greenwoodmodelrailwayproducts.co.uk/product-category/oo-gauge/

Mike Edge ran a thread on assembling a Greenwood Turntable. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/146364-michael-edges-workbench/page/27/

I have my heart set on a London Road Models 45' & 50' turntables if I ever get round to building a layout     https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/17974-building-a-london-road-models-50-turntable/

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N-Drive Productions has the former Backwoods Miniatures turntable available for GBP 60 plus post.  It replicates the County Donegal Railways turntable at Killybegs -- made from the underframe of a scrapped locomotive.  Unfortunately, Neville Kent does not have a photo nor mention of it on his current web site, but he quoted me the availability and price last year.  https://www.n-driveproductions.com/  I've uploaded three photographs that I found somewhere, or that he sent me.

CDR_Killybegs_turntable_1.jpg

CDR_Killybegs_turntable_2.jpg

CDR_Killybegs_turntable_3.jpg

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Kitwood Hill models do a range of turntable kits in laser cut p!y. See my workshop thread. They are extremely well thought out and a joy to make. Have built a few over the years and my experiences as follows:

  • Dapol kit: the old Airfix one. Very cheap, but can be made to work with the Freezinghall Models hand cranked or motor kits. Adapted mine to a 42', 7mm scale one by widening the deck. See the Arigna Town thread.
  • Peco: used the N gauge on on Fintonagh, combined with a Freezinghall motor. An issue is that they use dummy wheels on the outer ends of the deck, so all the weight is taken by the centre boss. I added my own brass outer wheels and it works a lot better and is more stable.
  • Southeast Finecast: this is a sort of upgrade to the Dapol- Airfix idea. About £50. Used one on Belmullet for a while. Works best if the outer deck wheels are replaced with small ball bearing races.
  • Kitwood - definitely the best so far.

 Overall, turntables can be a challenge, which is why rtr ones are expensive. All the ones above rely on lining up by eye, but with a hand crank or slow running motor, is easy, assuming you are not feeding a full roundhouse fan. 

 Fitting a TT needs care too. Apart from cutting a hole in the baseboard, there is the wiring to consider and either motor or hand crank mechanism. Ensuring a reliable connection to the deck track can be an issue too. Some, like Peco, use a split circle of pcb, which avoids the need for a reversing switch. Dapol one makes no provision at all. Kitwood version requires a reversing switch but has beefy plunger pickups to transmit power. Freezinghall kits require about 8-10cm space below the baseboard, but other motors I've seen can need up to 15cm.

 All in all, a lot to think about and probably why you don't see that many turntables on layouts.

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Has to be worth it JB, they a such an integral part of (almost) every Irish branch terminus. Can only think of Valencia as doing without. If you don't fancy building one, then Peco's should be ok. Should have said that my experiences are all based on converting them to at least a scale bigger (two in the case of Fintonagh) and am sure the extra weight of locos is a factor.

 Peco also do their own motor now, so we'll worth a look.

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I'm not sure what time period you're modelling, but as a suggestion, you could model a disused turntable, with just the pit remaining. again, I'm not sure if you want it to be functional with the talk of motors i would assume you would, but you could model it as such and then in the future you could come back to the pit and 'Finish' it so you could build the rest of the layout but still have the provisions for your turntable?

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16 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Anyone know where to buy a decent turntable - needn't be very fancy - of just about enough length to turn a Woolwich (23cm)? The ones on sale mfrom normal suppliers seem to be built to turn an American "Big Boy"; they are prototypically FAR too big for almost all Irish applications, or else cost the price of a decent-sized family car or a holiday home in Kerry.

Thoughts?

Purely to wind you up, JB, I have my forty year old Fleischmann turntable at Portadown - TOTALLY WRONG, of course, but, hey, it works! i thought ttc's Peco turntable looked nice.

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Back at Portadown (and its dodgy German turntable) .........1004316718_IMG_1895(1).thumb.jpg.e7a665496a91ba8eff6fed61ae640c88.jpg

The shed foreman decided to get his new shunting engine out to rescue a damsel in distress714296950_IMG_1901(1).thumb.jpg.2c47108323cf281b986357a369ef7c54.jpg

Sorry, I meant a broken-down Single-ended Yankee.

I hope that you've noted that this is a BLUE engine, in keeping with God's Northern Railway?

Edited by leslie10646
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16 minutes ago, leslie10646 said:

Back at Portadown (and its dodgy German turntable) .........1004316718_IMG_1895(1).thumb.jpg.e7a665496a91ba8eff6fed61ae640c88.jpg

The shed foreman decided to get his new shunting engine out to rescue a damsel in distress714296950_IMG_1901(1).thumb.jpg.2c47108323cf281b986357a369ef7c54.jpg

Sorry, I meant a broken-down Single-ended Yankee.

I hope that you've noted that this is a BLUE engine, in keeping with God's Northern Railway?

If you’re legally blind and squint, It looks a bit like a Jeep in GNR blue!

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For turntables in fiddle yards i use a lazy susan with a lump of ply on top simple and cost effective,as far as the Peco turntables go both their N and HOm ones as well as Petes killybegs turn table all use the same N gauge pit.I've not found building  turntables that difficult its just a question of having a go,currently 2 of my layouts have turntables Arigna and Courtmacsherry ironically Arignas is much the larger of the two.Andy.

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The Peco HOm turntable is a bit on the short side for small tender locos and a tad long for C&L & T&D locos!

IMG_2020.jpg.24b40d21699bc9e6bd155d51d5fe06de.jpg

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The table is hand operated with Meccano gearing track alignment by eye and squeaks.

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For turning Large Scale locos I use a piece of hardwood as a deck and its worked effectively for 10 years fine for smaller locos like 2-8-0s and 4-6-0s but a bit short for the 2-8-2s that work the heaviest trains.

The particle/chipboard pit was recycled from a workbench and nice and scruffy.

Track alignment and table locking is brass tubing soldered to the rail web and a removable pin.

IMG_2016.jpg.2b24293abf8c332914097793bdfdd395.jpg

IMG_2017.jpg.b817a5b3caa321d3b33f30ded4903ed7.jpg

IMG_2018.jpg.e0b105bdc2eea508ab13e4cf129d3024.jpg

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18 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

What's a "lazy susan"? (Excuse my ignorance!)

There are images and sizes in this website of the basic component. This is a US site but they must also be available on your side of the pond.

https://www.rockler.com/low-profile-lazy-susans?country=US&sid=V91040&promo=shopping&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=PL&gclid=CjwKCAjwh5qLBhALEiwAioods4ySSYAlUZ0JXBwN80EstH6RypPFyK7_wqgWZh8YUcRBN65i0LNyZhoCPG4QAvD_BwE

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22 hours ago, Ironroad said:

@jhb171achill, I have a Rockler Woodworking shop near me here in Chicago and would be happy to send you one or two of the lazy susan mechanisms at cost, if you'd like.  U.S. postage to Ireland by slow boat parcel rate should still be affordable.  I need to buy a few kits from Des Sullivan in Ennis, so maybe we could work out you holding the cash and sending it to Des when I'm ready to order.

 

 

Edited by NorthWallDocker
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2 hours ago, NorthWallDocker said:

@jhb171achill, I have a Rockler Woodworking shop near me here in Chicago and would be happy to send you one or two of the lazy susan mechanisms at cost, if you'd like.  U.S. postage to Ireland by slow boat parcel rate should still be affordable.  I need to buy a few kits from Des Sullivan in Ennis, so maybe we could work out you holding the cash and sending it to Des when I'm ready to order.

 

 

Superb, Northwalldocker, very many thanks in advance. I’m away for a few days, will PM you when I’m back!

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  • 1 month later...

It must have had some kind of stone base for the king pin in the centre and the rail for the wheels at the deck ends but I would have thought the turntable would have been built prior to the mass use of concrete. It looks like the pit has accumulated a fair bit of surplus ballast and weeds over the years. Have you sorted out the dreaded curling transfers yet? Its getting near my birthday/Christmas.

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