Aligning turntable

I put my bifocals on to align our turntable. 

Been there. Done that. I installed one that was hard to see the lead track as to how it was aligned to the bridge. I ended up installing another turntable on another part of the layout and made sure everything was in full view. Right at the layouts edge.

 My old Diamond Scale is still in use. Added a Millhouse River drive upgrade and it's working well. To see the track alignment better. I ended up adding a light fixture right above the turntable as well as some track lighting. With some good lighting it's a lot easier to see.

 Not sure what you have for a turntable. Whatever your using to power it. Make sure the bridge can crawl. I have controllers from royztrains.com  that I use. There is a knob to control the speed but it will creep very slow when off. A center off toggle switch stops it. If your slightly off. A quick flip of the switch gets it lined up. It runs on 18v track power.

They do sell turntables with built in indexing. Did yours have that option?

Index not an option. This was custom made. 

Can you explain my other problem. One way the lead track lines directly up with table and roundhouse. If I spin it around the tracks no longer align. When one side lines up the other is 1/8" off 

At our train club we installed a piece of polished stainless steel (Like a mirror) mounted at an angle so you can look at the stainless and have a bird's eye view straight down over the tracks.  That works pretty good.

Dave_C posted:

 Not sure what you have for a turntable. Whatever your using to power it. Make sure the bridge can crawl. I have controllers from royztrains.com  that I use. There is a knob to control the speed but it will creep very slow when off. A center off toggle switch stops it. If your slightly off. A quick flip of the switch gets it lined up. It runs on 18v track power.

I use two mom-off-mom switches. One is normal speed and the other has a resistor in series to slow the motor down and make it crawl speed. I use normal speed until it gets close and then switch to crawl to align it.

Indexing kits are available. Port line hobbies stocks one. Even though it is an S gauge site the indexer will work.

Rich

"Can you explain my other problem. One way the lead track lines directly up with table and roundhouse. If I spin it around the tracks no longer align. When one side lines up the other is 1/8" off "

It would seem that you have installed the bridge track slightly off-center on the bridge. (about 1/8th" off).  Very carefully measure the distance from one outside rail to the rim of the pit, and then measure the other outside rail. The two distances should be equal.  Re-attach them so that regardless of the position of the bridge, the track is exactly centered. Then go back and re-align the lead track and the other tracks to get a proper line-up.

When I installed my turntable I didn't yet have a roundhouse. I only laid out one track going towards a future stall. It was laid out as a straight shot from the turntable lead. When I rotated the bridge 180 degrees. Mine to was off a bit. My guess is that most all turntables probably exhibit this seeing they are hand built. No matter how carefully everything is measured or assembled. Something such as the center point pivot only has to be off a fraction. As the bridge gets longer it becomes further off. The other thing is the track laid on the bridge can be slightly off center.

Thanks guys. I spent a lot of time moving tracks and roundhouse around but it appears I got it fixed. 

Speaking of turntables, who still makes them in o-gauge (better yet, o-scale), and where might I purchase one, without spending a fortune?

initagain posted:

Speaking of turntables, who still makes them in o-gauge (better yet, o-scale), and where might I purchase one, without spending a fortune?

Ross Custom Switches and Milhouse River Studieos. Google each company for their turntable offerings.

Hot Water posted:

initagain posted:

Speaking of turntables, who still makes them in o-gauge (better yet, o-scale), and where might I purchase one, without spending a fortune?

Ross Custom Switches and Milhouse River Studieos. Google each company for their turntable offerings.

And both are very expensive, but, not astronomical.

Well, I guess you get what you pay for, when compared to the Atlas turntable.

Thank Hot Water. Yes are tables are not inexpensive but they will last a lifetime and the cost is similar to a premier/ scale steam or brass engine and how many of those do we have on our layouts? Enjoy your evening guys.