Just curious if anybody has done so. I am contemplating maiking a yard and wouldn't mind a turntable with a roundhouse, but the marklin turntables are hard to find and quite frankly out of my price range. There has to be an easy solution. So has anybody made one that works and is willing to share the information with some pictures? Thanks.
Yes Joe, I have. It is not the best detailed turntable, but it works for me and it was not expensive. The bridge is made out of brass sheet. The bridge is directly attached to a slow drive mechanism. (I did use a drive mechanism which was used to tune air capacitors in an older MRI scanner). I'll guess you can find a suitable drive mechanism in an RC-hobby shop. Although there is a rail inside the pit, I did not install wheels at the bridge ends. The pit is a PVC end cap for a 110mm sewer pipe. I made a wooden inlay to make it less deep. Under the pit I have installed a pcb disk, which is electrically devided in to two halves. Two old relay contacts (attached to the mechanism spindle), which are conected to the bridge rails, supply track voltage. If you set up the yard tracks smart, this works fine. You should be able approx. + / - 75 degrees rotate and keep polarity. For a 180 degrees rotation, the polarity of the bridge rails rotates with the bridge. Although I have to align the tracks on sigh, it used to work great. Unfortunately I had to store the layout on my attic a couple of years ago, because one of my daughters needed a bedroom..waiting for better times. Meanwhile I try to keep up the hobby skills with my small switching layout and D&RGW rolling stock.
I've been toying with the idea too, since I got a real good deal on a Republic Locomotive Works #519-1 Nn3 pit. Very detailed but no turntable.
Joe D'Amato posted some video on one of the Z facebook pages a few months ago. Looked pretty cool, maybe he will post here too.
Cheap way to do it is get one of those cheap Atlas turntables, like $25, that self indexs every 15 degrees. Cover the HO track with some z scale track. Just saying....
In the July/August 2002 issue of Ztrack, we ran an article on covering Peco's N scale turntable to Z. http://www.ztrack.com/issues/issues_02.html Also check out the May/June 2001 issue of Ztrack. We have articles on turntables and roundhouses. http://www.ztrack.com/issues/issues_01.html Rob Kluz
If you would like to scratchbuild a turntable, there is this tutorial: http://www.zcentralstation.com/inde...5-turntable&catid=67:instructional&Itemid=263
Hi folks, nice to see some of my old work still around. It is easy and you rotate the turntable by a pulley under the bench work. I think I used a big rubber band. Cheers, Jim