Armstrong turntable

Two of my TT's are powered but to be honest with you my other three are operated by Manuel Armstrong simply due to the drive not being hooked up.  TT's are pure function for me having to service several stub end branch lines.

As far as modeling a true Armstrong TT that usually involves rather small TT's and small period engines.  I believe the late great Ed Reutling had a Armstrong TT.

Manual TT's still need a good indexing lock for roll on / roll off.  A simple mechanical rail end lock can work well.

@Tom Tee posted:

Two of my TT's are powered but to be honest with you my other three are operated by Manuel Armstrong simply due to the drive not being hooked up.  TT's are pure function for me having to service several stub end branch lines.

As far as modeling a true Armstrong TT that usually involves rather small TT's and small period engines.  I believe the late great Ed Reutling had a Armstrong TT.

Manual TT's still need a good indexing lock for roll on / roll off.  A simple mechanical rail end lock can work well.

The CNW turned Pacific's on Armstrong TT's In northern WI,  and that not a small engine. 2 men did the job.

Edwin Alexander’s Civil War Railroads & Models book has plans for a “Armstrong” turntable in O Scale in it: https://www.amazon.com/Civil-R...xander/dp/B000MVU11K

Bernard Kempinski’s superlative USMRR blog also covers a couple different types of Armstrong turntables in his blog, including one based on Edwin’s plans.: https://usmrr.blogspot.com/search/label/Turntable

I have noticed that most hand operated turntables have large handspikes on the ends of the table to make it easier to turn, and I wonder if adding functional versions of these to a model would also make it work better as well?

My town had an 80 ft Armstrong  TT at the end of the yard.  I have a dim recollection of my father taking me to watch the engine being turned.

Re: "Manual TT's still need a good indexing lock for roll on / roll off.  A simple mechanical rail end lock can work well."

After watching a fellow club member deal with indexing problems on his motorized TT, I built my Armstrong-driven TT using Dobsonian telescope construction techniques.  Once rotated into position, it stays put.  No lock needed.  The TT is a module so simplicity of transport, setup, and operation was paramount.  Details can be found here.

Turntable Operated by Hand  --

My layout turntable has be operated by hand, remotely, for 44 years and cost $10 to build.

The turntable rotates on a 6 inch diameter (8" might be better for a larger TT) Lazy Susan, metal turntable ball bearing unit and rotation is by a hand crank driving a pulley beneath the turntable using a spare or used clothes dryer drum belt.  I purchased the 6 inch diameter lazy Susan turntable ball bearing unit, for about $5, at a hardware store.  I had a spare dryer belt as I lived overseas and appliance parts are hard to get.  Track alignment is the realistic, "line it by eyeball" method and roundhouse  track selection is by a rotary switch.  A momentary push button switch is used to activate the selected RH track and the TT track.  A light in the TT shack comes on with the activation of the TT track and indicates power is on.  The turntable has a pit as that is more realistic and better looking in my view.  It would have been easier to surface mount a Lazy Susan bearing on the train table like the Lionel TT, but seeing it made a pit a must have.

Location of the control panel and the turntable, with hand crank, should be fairly close to each other for two reasons.  One is the use of a clothes dryer belt will require it to be close.  The other is it is helpful for the engineer to be close at hand to correct derailments and to see the turntable as eyesight is used to align the TT and the tracks.

The homemade turntable can be belt driven with a hand crank like mine or can have an old battery driven screw driver as power and the TT can be located anywhere.  More details later in this post.

Picture of TT with TT crank (red knob) and Control Panel -  Picture shows the track with crane car and caboose align with the TT and the off track

Full details on how to build and operate this turntable are at the following OGR post below, Page 1, post 9.

https://ogrforum.com/...ra-027-layout?page=1

Charlie

@Frank Mulligan posted:

Has anyone built an armstrong turntable?  Years ago when I lived in New Egypt NJ one could go behind a local hardware store and still see the pit of one from the old Pemberton & Hightstown Railroad.  I'd like to incorporate one into my future 19th century layout.

New Egypt was also the one-time headquarters for Union Transportation which leased the last active PRR steam locomotive, the B6sb #5244, circa 1959.

Tom