turntables

Dick,  - I've owned and operated all three turntables you've mentioned, and most recently one from Millhouse River Studios.  The cost of the later is quite high, but in the case of O scale turntables prototype appearance and operational reliability comes at a price.   I offer a word of caution on the AtlasO turntable.  in addition to its appearance issues - the motorized rubber belt drive is a weak point.  I've been through several belts on the one I have serving a hidden staging area.  The Diamond Scale table looks quite nice but they are hard to find.  I picked up mine from an estate sale.  It came with a very well made below the benchwork hand crank drive.  For reason of alignment visibility (and old eyes) I chose to power it with a digital indexing drive from New York Railway Supply.  

Diamond Scale, a bit rare, is still available, Larger ones,  30", were a two piece hydro-cal, cast in place, pit assembly, which, IMO, made it more difficult to install. These two piece pit assemblies are no longer available.  The second hand Diamond Scale I have, a One piece, 27" pit assembly,  was poorly assembled. Once in place on my layout, one of the first things I did, was remove and re-install the pit rail.  Then a lot of work with the bridge, and bridge boggies, to get it to operate smooth-ly.  

One of the great features of Al's TT is the mounting/adjustment to track height, tabs.  Getting the TT bridge rail, at the same height, as all the spur rails, is a major part of any TT install, IMO. 

I did fabricate a very nice modular TT for the Fort Pitt High Railers many years ago.  At the time I used a lot of Diamond Scale, and Bowser, Parts. unfortunately Bowser parts are no longer available.

Main problem with Bowser was a relatively small 3/8" drive shaft, that could become easily bent.  The TT bridge boggy assemblies, that rides on the pit rail, were also poorly designed. Diamond Scale, the drive shaft was 9/16", other parts would break, before the shaft would bend. Pit rail boggy assembly was excellent, both operation and looks.   Diamond Scale also did a great job of powering the turn mechanics, and allowing the bridge to float on the pit rail, a lot like the real TT's operate.  The Millhouse River TT uses similar mechanics.  

TT and RH are a great project, you could do a complete layout of just these two items, IMO.

Best wishes with your project.  TT/RH recent thread with a lot of information.   Click on the underlined phrase.  

Information not mention in this thread link, relates to original Bowser TT, and the "joined at the hip", Korber 304 Roundhouse, which had/has an 11 degree bay configuration, that works quite well with 30" TT's.   

Mike CT. 

This is my recently installed 28 inch Millhouse turntable. I replaced the oversize pit rail with mico engineering flex track. I chose not to purchase the indexing mechanism. Prototype turntables that I have rode on, the operator jogs the bridge into position. So, I do the same with the model. The bridge operates so smoothly that it is easy to align it by eye.

In my thinking, the Atlas O turntable would be good for a Diesel facility, but the 34 inch Millhouse Turntable would be the very best long term investment you could make in this hobby. It’s durable, realistic, and would last you a lifetime and turn your largest of Steam Power.  If your going to build a nice layout, this would fit in very well.  David Eisinger’s Pictures above show the quality of this product. We are blessed today to have fine choices.  Good luck.

David  - your replacement of the oversize Code 200+ pit rail on the Millhouse River TT nicely addresses the one major drawback with it's appearance.  I had Al build mine with the ring rail base removable so  that at a later time I could install lighter weight ring rail.  Do you have any tips/lessons learned you can share with us in replacing the ring rail ((perhaps a separate thread).  My plan was to use AtlasO code 148 for ease of bending.  Code 125 ME would perhaps look even better.  I agree with your comment about the ease of aligning the TT by eye.  At the moment I power mine with an old HO power pack.  The TT's  very smooth drive makes it possible to ease it into alignment.  Animpediment with that on my layout is that the pilot beams of large PRR power (like 4-4-6-4 Q2, 2-10-4 J1) overhang the ends of the TT - just like the prototype.  For a few of the more distant pit tracks the large locomotives block the view of the rails I'm trying to align with.  To address this issue purchased Al's indexer but haven't gotten around to installing it.  

I wish I had enough room for a big TT, but the only available space was just enough for a branchline sized 18 incher. I scratch built it using an 18" diameter 2" deep baking pan as the starting point. As the photo shows it handles my largest steam power, an H10b. It has a homemade drive system, and I operate that manually with the handle shown in second photo. There's no roundhouse, and only the occasional need to turn an engine or a Cabin and so it fills the bill.

Bob

Keystoned Ed posted:

Dick,  - I've owned and operated all three turntables you've mentioned, and most recently one from Millhouse River Studios.  The cost of the later is quite high, but in the case of O scale turntables prototype appearance and operational reliability comes at a price.   I offer a word of caution on the AtlasO turntable.  in addition to its appearance issues - the motorized rubber belt drive is a weak point.  I've been through several belts on the one I have serving a hidden staging area.  The Diamond Scale table looks quite nice but they are hard to find.  I picked up mine from an estate sale.  It came with a very well made below the benchwork hand crank drive.  For reason of alignment visibility (and old eyes) I chose to power it with a digital indexing drive from New York Railway Supply.  

I did power my Atlas TT with an electric drive system from an earlier article found here. It works well. I just want my TT to look like a real turn table even though I know Atlas' was designed from an original.

Thanks

Dick

One of the first ROSS tables.  Works well.

My biggest problem is the cost of these turntables. As I understand Atlas has discontinued their O scale TT. Are they going to introduce a new one? Who can tell. I am willing to pay $200 - $300 for a table but not 1500-2000. 

Dick