Building the Walwynn and Western layout

[waltr]

Looking back at the third picture in Post #36 of the inside of the turn-table pit. It is flat and just the MDF wood base. All turn tables I've seen in pictures have the pit slope towards the center. This area could be concrete, gravel or even grass.
I want a sloped gravel with grass/weeds so need to fill to center of the pit.

1st pic- shows some fill using 'light weight joint compound'. This is just a rough fill.
Also the "ring rail' is glued in. This operation went very well by following the instructions. I pre-curved the rail, ME weathered Code 70, by running it through my fingers so it has a slightly larger radius than required. Then deceased the radius for about 3 inch at one end so it exactly matched the tie notches (see picture in post #36). I cut off about an inch of this end that didn't take the proper curve. Then spotted CA glue on about a dozen ties and laid in the rail. Once the glue set pulled the unglued rail towards the center and applied CA to the next dozen rails and set the rail against the tie notches. Keep going around until the last dozen ties are un-glued. Placed the rail in position and marked where the rail over lapped then cut with rail cutters. Finally applied glue to the last ties and finished setting the rail in place.

2nd pic- shows the second fill layer being smoothed using contour template cut from a piece of cardboard. This will not be perfectly smooth but that will work out since I'll be covering the surface with gravel and weeds.

3rd pic- is the bottom of the turn table with the gears, shafts, coupler and motor. Under the turn table is the sub-roadbed and the turn-table will be installed just at the right hand edge of the picture.

4th is a side view of the motor/gears. The motor drive a worm which turns a 50 tooth worm gear. The motor is a small gear motor from Pololu Robotics
http://www.pololu.com/catalog/category/51

[waltr]

The plaster slope in the center bottom of the turntable is finished. It was a bit too high about half way from the edge to the center. Some circular sanding with 100 grit fixed this so that there is enough clearance between the bottom the the bridge to the turntable floor.
I gave it a quick wash with Burnt Umber/Raw Umber/Ultramarine just so the white does not show when the gravel is laid.
The pit wall still needs stain and weathering.

The turntable bridge and ring rail ties have been stained and the dollies fitted and adjusted so the bridge is level as it rides on the ring rail.

The girdle has been high-lighted with some burnt sienna to show as rusted areas. There is still a bit of touch up needed (mainly to cover where the glue spots didn't take the paint stain) and detailed weathering.

[wilson44512]

Coming along very nicely. I wish i had the skills to build from scratch. OH and the money lol

[waltr]

Hi all,
Just a quick post an progress which is almost none since the last post.
It has been a busy autumn.
I have been running the trains on the half layout occasionally and done a few very minor tweaks of track work. All the trains have been running great and without any derailment issues on the hand-laid turnouts and track.

Last night I made the motor mounting bracket for the turn-table drive. I want to finish and mount the turn-table before continuing to lay track on the other half of the layout.
Now that winter is setting in (had 4 inches of snow yesterday) I'll be spending some time on the layout. So stay tuned for updates and more pictures.

[HOexplorer]

Good progress. I wish I had a brain to be able to motorize a turntable. Keep up the good work. Jim

[waltr]

Thanks Jim. I'll be studying the details again in your Pinnacle Creek thread when I get closer to doing the scenery.

I has been a way since I updated this thread. The latest progress was to build a mount for the turntable. My first idea was to sit the turn table on the 2" base layer of foam with it shimmed to match rail heights. The problem I foresaw is that the turntable would be embedded into the foam and would be impossible to remove and work on.
The recommended mounting of this turn table is to cut a round hole through the plywood sub-base. Then insert the turn table from underneath the plywood with screws in the corners. But since I used 2" thick foam instead of 3/4" plywood this wasn't possible.
The solution was to built a box with corner flanges that sits into the foam. The box has a 12 1/4 " square opening underneath so the turn table can be insert from below.
Attached at the pictures of how this was done.

The next step is to caulk the box into place. Then caulk down the foam for the track and sand in the grades.

[Photogdad]

Its lloking good there. Looking forward to seeing it completed.

[waltr]

Thanks Charles. Progress is slow but moving along.