Kitbashing Turntable


Larry

Larry

Long Winded Old Fart
Started to dismember an Atlas & a Walthers Turntable today & make it into one. Here's 3 photo's & I'll have some more tomorrow nite as I go along.
 
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Forgot to add this one. Shows the Walthers TT bridge on the Atlas. It's glued & screwed & the wires are soldered to the Atlas rails & brought up to the top to be attached(soldered) when I add the pair of rails to the base of the bridge.:D
 
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i'd like to learn more about scratch building a turntable. what are the critical aspects of the design and what are the most difficult parts to acquire?
 
Larry said:
Forgot to add this one. Shows the Walthers TT bridge on the Atlas. It's glued & screwed & the wires are soldered to the Atlas rails & brought up to the top to be attached(soldered) when I add the pair of rails to the base of the bridge.:D
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Larry, I sure don't mean to be critical, but isn't using the Atlas turntable mechanism as a basis for a turntable that you will be investing quite some time in making - and requiring at least some decent performance from - a little bit like making a "silk purse from a sow's ear"?
 
Finished up the thing today. You-all were saying that it makes no sense to kitbash 2 turntables. Well, you tell me if this doesn't do the trick. I have no money tied up in either of the tables. I needed a longer one to hold my diesels & the Atlas just didn't fit the bill. I tried to get the Walthers one to work & that was a disaster. here's about 8 more pics. 4 here & 4 on another page.
 
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3 more & then that's it until I get all the tracks redone & wired up. This is a working turntable run by a DC motor that is fed by a cheap train transformer.
 
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I personally think it's fabulous. Serves your purpose, operates, looks good, and basically no cost out of pocket. What could be better. Get the tracks down, weathered up and it will look great. Excellent job. Inever seen anyone use the Atlas junker that well lol
 
dmeephd said:
Larry, I sure don't mean to be critical, but isn't using the Atlas turntable mechanism as a basis for a turntable that you will be investing quite some time in making - and requiring at least some decent performance from - a little bit like making a "silk purse from a sow's ear"?
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Well, it only took me about 3 days to build it & it works great. The Atlas turntable has a great indexing system & is easy to turn w/a small electric motor. If you notice in the photo's the only thing that moves is the Atlas TT & the Walthers parts are there for the looks & the xtra long bridge beam.:)
 
Laidoffsick said:
I personally think it's fabulous. Serves your purpose, operates, looks good, and basically no cost out of pocket. What could be better. Get the tracks down, weathered up and it will look great. Excellent job. Inever seen anyone use the Atlas junker that well lol
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Thanks for those comments. Didn't take a lot of engineering like I thought it would. I've been wanting to do this project for a long time.
 
Larry, I never would have thought of your idea but it makes perfect sense if you have both an Atlas and the old Walthers turntables available. The Atlas ones work great but look terrible. The Walthers model looks great but works terrible. Good job of combining the best of both worlds.
 
dmeephd said:
Larry, I sure don't mean to be critical, but isn't using the Atlas turntable mechanism as a basis for a turntable that you will be investing quite some time in making - and requiring at least some decent performance from - a little bit like making a "silk purse from a sow's ear"?
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A silk purse from a sows ear? Yessir!!

Outstanding work Larry!:D
 
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gregc said:
i'd like to learn more about scratch building a turntable. what are the critical aspects of the design and what are the most difficult parts to acquire?
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The most critical aspect of the design is to make sure the main bearing is perpendicular to the pit's bottom. If this isn't, the bridge may not be level with all tracks coming off of it into the roundhouse. Some years ago, Model Railroader magazine ran a series on scratch building a turntable. I think this was in the late 1980's

I would suggest that you go to Trains.com and search thru their magazine database and see if you can get the back issues with these articles in them.

There are several makers of turntables, and turntable parts/kits. These vary from RTR turntables to complete kits and parts.

If you have one, or access to one, the Walthers catalog is a great source of information, not just whats for sale. If you haven't got one, I would definitely get one.
 
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Carey,
The turntable is flat & Is not giving me any trouble as yet. Both TT's have a center point in their design. When I put the 2 together all I did was glue(w/superglue)the bridge from the Walthers TT to the Atlas TT. Then I drilled 2 small holes & tapped both pieces & installed 2 tiny screws to make sure the glue didn't give way.
Before I started this project I took the Atlas TT apart to see if it was strong enough to hold the bridge off the Walthers TT & it was. When I put it back together I didn't tighten the screw enough, so, the table was wobbley, so, I made a small hole in the track base & tightened the screw w/a small special tool that I made for the Atlas TT.
I know all about the Turntables that are already on the market & I also know what the prices are. Mine was "zero" in cost. Maybe $1.00 for 4 tubes of Superglue & I only used 1 tube, so, it cost me about 25 cents to build. Even if it gives out I have 2 more motors for it & a spare Atlas turntable.
yesterday I laid all of the tracks from the TT to a place where I'm going to scratchbuild a round(square)house. I can use the power connections from the Atlas TT to make the engines move since it is wired together as 1 unit.
 
Thanks for the pix there Larry. What you did was simple, and neat.

I need a small turntable for the terminus of my branchline. But it does still have to be larger than Atlas's TT diameter. A small bridge, and a nice pit sure would fill the bill. Seeing what you did has given me the idea of doing something similar up there. Since all it will befor is turning an engine 180`, I think that I'll just make it an armstrong. Thanx!
 
Larry, nice job of kitbashing two turntables! I like the looks of the finished product. And if it works well, you got a real winner.
 
Thanks Everyone for the great comments. I'm using a small trainset transformer to turn it, that way I can control the voltage. It's hooked to the DC rail connectors. I don't remember if I said that before. LOL
 
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