Help, Need Turntable Advice/Pics?

If you are only interested in the Bridge Portion and not the rest of the Turntable, the only answer I can think of straight away is the Bridge will determine how much space you will need for it.

I use a Atlas O Turntable, it easily requires around 26 inches plus space to allow straight track to and from the actual bridge itself.

There are a number of Turntable vendors who will make smaller or even larger tt's up to 3 feet in length. You can easily consume a large part of a room today with that.

The detail on my Atlas O turn table is pretty sparse in detail. It does have a shack on one end where a figure sits inside to operate it. The entire bridge is actually part of the disk that rotates in it. I bought the table for function rather than appearance. One of these is quite enough for me.

Sorry if I didn't make myself clear.  I am interested in the whole turntable as a complete kit, but want some nice detail in the bridge portion.  Didn't know if they came that way or I need to do the detail.

Knock your socks off.  Click on the underlined phrases to link.  Then get out your check book.

Millhouse River Studio

Ross Custom Switches.

HERE'S A FEW HOPE THIS HELPS      THIS IS A MILL HOUSE RIVER TT

THANKS,ALEX

Thats really nice Alex, the Millhouse turtable are nice.  Love the wooden deck detail.  Did you build the roundhouse or did you purchase it?  How do I know what degree to get so the roundhouse is at same angle as track ?  I'm trying to get at least 10 tracks off the table.  Any idea what size I need?

Sean check my older thread out here's the link

https://ogrforum.com/d...ent/4949358369879642

Sean I built the roundhouse myself, I used a MTH 2 stall engine shed and turned it into a roundhouse. To get the angle first you start with one track at 90 degrees

then you put your next track about 1 inch away from the first one and make sure the front face of the track is flush with the turntable. But if you buy a roundhouse kit you can use that to figure out your spacing. Hope I explained it correctly.

Just let me know if you need help.

Thanks, Alex

Korber round house, bowser turntable. MTH smoke unit in house. Don

Great Pictures everyone!! 

Don...simply put..WOW!!!!

Alan

A few other questions.  How does the power and legacy signal get to the bridge section?  It looks like this moves so slow indexing is not needed.  Also what did you use as cinders in the pit?

Sean indexing is not needed at all with this turn table just purchase a HO1300

RAIL POWER TRANSFORMER. it will crawl. As for hooking up the the bridge its the same way you would hook up you roundhouse tracks. You need a terminal block and you need seperate on off switches to turn the roundhouse tracks and your TT track on and off. AS for the cinders scenic express sells cinders mine are black and gray.

Alex

Millhouse 24" with some added railing detail.  Before installation.  It's powered through a DC Commander board which worked out real well.  Programmed to 100 speed steps this baby will crawl using the Cab1/2.

As you can see it's heavy duty.  Let's put it this way-it ain't cheap.

Here's a pic of a friends Ross Turtable with 2 Ross Roundhouse kits with a total of 12 stalls.  The roundhouse is deep enough to house a big boys.

I am currently putting in a 32 inch Bowser I bought several years ago.  When I bought it I bought the bridge detail kit it looks pretty good will post pics when I get a chance.  I bought the Atlas O RH and have calculated that I need to chop off about 2 1/2 inches off the apron to make it work I ll post pics when I get it all figured out.

Jon

William 1:  Beautiful detail and paint work.  

Sean, one advantage to the Ross TT is that you do not have to cut a circle into your benchwork, e.g. as the 33" TT comes assembled in a 39" square 3/4" wood assembly.

Also you can run it very slow so an indexing kit is not needed.  I have one and it runs like silk.

Jack 

Wow I love that Roundhouse, thats exactly what I am looking for.  Is that a model kit or prebuilt?

Thanks for all the info guys.  I think Im either going with Millhouse or Ross.  Once I get it installed is there a way to control it with the Cab2?  I saw Mike Reagons video yesterday he posted on controlling turntables with the Cab2, but he didn't go into much detail on the actual wiring of the electronics.  I can do anything if I have instructions, but not too familiar with designing circuits. 

The Millhouse I built uses track power through a DC Commander board, which gives you the ability to operate it with the Cab2.  As I mentioned, programmed to 100 speed steps it crawls. Use the red knob for power, the direction button to change direction of spin, call it up as an ENG.  Works great. 

The Millhouse comes as a craftsman type kit, some assembly required. 

Sean,

Mine also is a Millhouse River Studio TT, 34-inch. I can't say enough good things about this turntable. When I installed mine, I hinged it so it doubles as a hatch; a very nice, big hatch! It takes me a couple of minutes to undue the eight thumb screws, and then I carefully allow the TT to swing down. When opened, it is supported by the hinge plus a chain on each side.

Here are some pics (click to enlarge) 

Good luck and let us know how you are coming along.

Alex

William 1,

I too have the Millhouse TT and I think it is incredible.  I want to control it with the Cab 2 but I thought I had to buy the TMCC Accessory Motor Commander to control it. 

What DC Commander board did you use?  It it this board from ERR Co?

thanks a lot!

Yes PRR, that's it.  It is the board that powers DC motored engines in TMCC.  The turntable runs on DC power.  This board converts AC track power to DC power.  Your turntable is now accessible on the CAB2 just as any TMCC engine is.  You can use the open ports meant for lights on an engine for lights on the layout or something else.

Atlas O roundhouse to go with turntable.  Both TT & RH are installed on a layout I built.  I haven't got any pics of them in place yet.  The owner has health issues and I haven't been back to finish the scene.  Good model.  Very well designed and easy to build.  I tried to dress it up a little when finishing the brickwork.  I like how it came out.  It mates with a 24" TT, you may be going bigger.

William....wonderful job on the Atlas roundhouse...your brickwork treatment is very nice!!

Alan

Sean - The 12 stall roundhouse is made from 2 six-stall roundhouse kits produced by Ross Switches.  It's based on the 7.5 degree indexing of his turntable.  It takes up a lot of space.  Tho I haven't measured it, the chord length at the rear (point to point) is about 8 feet.  Back end of roundhouse is about 52 inches from the edge of the turn table pit.  Lead-in tracks are about 50 inches long.  Two downsides to the Ross turntable is that it would have been nice to have been 34 inches rather than 33 inches and the plywood base being square doesn't allow for convenient  hingeing for access since the lead-in tracks are also mounted to it.  The indexing works well and is right on.  Easy to punch in a number and let it go.

Is there any place I can see pictures or detailed descriptions?  The Ross website is kinda poor.

Sean - I hope to show the construction of the Ross roundhouses on the forum,  just have to get up the courage.  Have lots of pix during construction.  Unfortunately Ross doesn't really provide a lot of detail on the roundhouse.  Plus, it took Ross at least two years to deliver the roundhouse kits and it is a pricey kit.  There weren't any instructions provided with the two kits.  It was pretty straight forward.  All parts are CNC machined and fit well, sometimes too well requiring some friendly presuasion.  As I mentioned earlier, it's a large structure and will easily fit Big Boys in any of the bays.  I think it's even fit the John Henry that Joe has tho it won't fit on the turntable.  Here's another pic of the area around the roundhouse.

Sean-  What size turntable & roundhouse are you considering?

Well I have a lot of the big engines that only run on 072 or higher so I'm thinking its gotta be a 34" turntable or whatever is close to that.  Question is can I use any roundhouse or does the diameter of the TT affect the roundhouse I can use?

Yeah Sean, that's why I was asking.  You probably want a fair amount of stalls too, no?  It would be handy to match the arc of the TT with the RH.  Plan B would be to use flextrack and curve them to fit.

You are going to need a fair amount of real estate.  Maybe 4X6-7' ?  

Yeah real estate is not an issue as my entire basement is used for my layout.  I would want at least 12 stalls.  Only issue is my whole layout is FastTrack so no flex there.  So that's why I asked.  Maybe I'll have to make my own roundhouse to match?  I guess once I decide on a Millhouse or Ross TT I can see what to use.

Sean you need to consider the angle that the TT will stop at. The Ross uses 7.5 degree stops and it would be wise to consider matching the RH stall angles to the TT angles to have straight track going into the RH at the center of each stall. Otherwise youe track is off center of the stalls and not a straight line to the TT.

I have some pictures of a Ross RH that is not mine but a member shared with me. Hopethey will help.

Sean, run your Fastrack into the turntable.  The tracks into the stalls don't need to be Fastrack.  In fact, it will look better with Ross or equal into the roundhouse.  Some roundhouses have a base, and it makes it easier to match rail heights without the Fastrack roadbed underneath.  Even if, a railroad isn't running a raised ballasted track into the roundhouse.  That shouldn't be an issue.

I wonder if I can use the Ross roundhouse with the mill house turntable.  I love that Ross roundhouse and the fact they come as 6 stall each one.  Anyone know if they will work together without having to use flexible track?  

Sean - No reasson the Mill House TT won't work with the Ross RH.  Believe the Mill House is 34 inch dia.  The Ross TT is 33.  At the 33 dia. and 7.5 degree spacing, the track ties leading into the RH nearly touch.  Increasing the diameter of the RH would only cause the ties to be seperated slightly more.  With the leads into the RH straight, the distance from the center of the TT to the back end of the RH is constant.  For the Ross RH this distance is about 69 inches.

The base of the Ross RH is designed to use Ross or Gargraves (or even Atlas or MTH ScaleTrax).  The base planking fits very tight against the outside of the rails.  The total height of the base is 7/16 inch.  Fast Track may work but would require raising the entire RH (probably not a good idea and may be more trouble than it's worth).  Best idea is to have Fast Track to the TT and Ross/Gargraves for the RH.

The geometry of the Ross RH makes it easy to add another kit next to the first by just eliminating the adjacent wall and butting the bases together.

That's what I would do.  If I were you.

Here is the turntable I built from scratch along with the roundhouse I made.

I'm in the early stages, but I bought the AAA Turntable. It was a little more expensive but I liked the fact that it was motorized by the trucks, and not turned by the center shaft. I also have a lot of detail that i got with it that hasn't been installed yet.