Atlas 6999 Turntable & attached tracks design

Have you used your new turn table yet and if you have what are your thoughts about it. How does it compare to the old one

The turntable is 26" wide so you'll need to a an inch+ where it overhangs.  The number of tracks will be limited to 5 because Atlas limits to 15 degrees between whisker tracks.  O54 and O63 .  Here is a proposed layout.

The top half has O63 curve pieces and will require you to cut one section into thirds (7.5 degrees).  Two 1.75" pieces were inserted to achieve equal spacing between the whiskers.  The bottom half used both )54 and O64 and also requires cuts.  If you insert short straights you can adjust the whisker spacing perhaps to enter a engine house,

It's recommend that you don't enter/exit a turntable directly onto s curve because the leading truck may not align and derail.  The larger the curve there is less chance of this happening.

Jan

I strongly recommend against a curve leading into the TT, you'll find that many engines will hit the TT bridge coming out of the curve.  Don't ask me how I know this!

I initially wanted to have my two TT leads (blue tracks) come in across from the longer whiskers, but that forced them to have a curve.  The idea was to part large locomotives directly across that couldn't be rotated on the 24" TT.  The curved leads didn't work, even smaller steamers and three axle diesels hit the TT bridge, so I had to rethink the TT leads to allow for straight entry.

Great thoughts. I totally missed even considering clearance issues!! You’re the man!

@Jan posted:

The turntable is 26" wide so you'll need to a an inch+ where it overhangs.  The number of tracks will be limited to 5 because Atlas limits to 15 degrees between whisker tracks.  O54 and O63 .  Here is a proposed layout.

The top half has O63 curve pieces and will require you to cut one section into thirds (7.5 degrees).  Two 1.75" pieces were inserted to achieve equal spacing between the whiskers.  The bottom half used both )54 and O64 and also requires cuts.  If you insert short straights you can adjust the whisker spacing perhaps to enter a engine house,

It's recommend that you don't enter/exit a turntable directly onto s curve because the leading truck may not align and derail.  The larger the curve there is less chance of this happening.

Jan

Great diagram!! Thanks SO! Are there any issues with hang ups / clearance with the curve and entering the TT bridge relative to the length of engines?

THANKS again!!!

@trainbob posted:

Have you used your new turn table yet and if you have what are your thoughts about it. How does it compare to the old one

Sorry, I don’t own either yet. 🥺

I echo Jan and GRJ.  I started with some 054 curves and some locos had heartburn as GRJ describes.  I don't have 063 so no experience on that.  You can see from these pictures; I ended up reworking my track plans, so I had a 10 inch straight starting every whisker.  If you can dedicate more width, you will be a lot better off with as much straight track to start the whisker as you can afford.

for trainbob, the TT works great.  I modified the control system since the slide switch Atlas supplies is a bit hard to stop the TT in the perfect alignment position. The individual switches on the box are for the whisker and the track on the TT.  The turn switch is a spring-loaded return switch.  I added the small LED light posts with numbers at the end of the whiskers so I could quickly see which whiskers were powered.

I did mine the lazy man's way, I just wired all the whiskers and the TT rotation to three Lionel SC-2 boxes, all of the TT functions are controlled through the TMCC or Legacy remote.

I do have a plan on adding a whisker status shack to let me know which whisker is powered, that's next.  I have the lighting module, just have to come up with a nice looking little building to incorporate it into.  This board will take power from each whisker track feed and light the appropriate bar in the display.

I played with the whisker arrangement some more.  The upper half is O63 while the bottom half is all O54.  O54 and tighter curves will allow you to insert a short straight segment between the turntable and the start of the curve.  Its need and length will depend on your engines.  I chose the length of the lead-in straights to approximately equally space the whisker tracks.

Jan

I recommend mocking it up with the largest engine with the most overhang you ever plan on using on the TT, and then see if you have enough straight track entry to clear the obstructions.  You might be surprised, I was.

I do a lot more planning than building these days. Life has become…complicated…in the last year or so. I’ve redesigned my table. Have some of the work done. Eliminating the 2’ x 6’ narrow area. I still am referring back to this post. Thanks again for all the time spent in replying. I know time is a precious commodity.

Time passes but my train layout has slowly come along. I took your helpful advice and tore down some of my table and redesigned the track. I now have 2 areas available. I’d, like to design a TT (Atlas 6999) area in one and some storage tracks in the other. I’m hoping some of you will have time to offer thoughts on these two uses, layout ideas, etc.

THANKS for any advice you can offer!

I’ve attached a picture laying out the 2 areas sizes. The grey area is where the areas attach to the rest of the layout.

I recommend you try one of the free trials of track planning software, I used AnyRail for my track planning.  You can use 50 pieces, enough to mock up the TT and the whisker tracks.

Great idea if I had a computer. I sold my MAC a while back and there wasn’t anything available for it at that time. Noe I just have my phone and iPad. 😢 Do you know of anything for iPad?

TRAX is a web-based layout planning software.  I only played around with FasTrack.

https://www.traxeditor.com/index.php

Jan

THANKS! I’ll give it a try! 🤓👍