Working wagon turntable

Marc Dobson

Western Thunderer
Has anyone built a working wagon turntable? If yes how did you do it?

Im working on a layout idea and it hinges on getting one to work.

Marc
 

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
Hobsons Brewery, built for the late Bob Alderman, included a working wagon turntable together with an undertrack crawler to move wagons on and off the table. The layout was featured in Railway Modeller early in 2020, there were three issues which covered the layout, the operating features and the control circuits (unique to Bob). The builder of the mechanisms was either Dave Sapp or Dave Haynes... both are members of the Yeovil Model Railway Group so you may find some details there.
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Hobsons Brewery, built for the late Bob Alderman, included a working wagon turntable together with an undertrack crawler to move wagons on and off the table. The layout was featured in Railway Modeller early in 2020, there were three issues which covered the layout, the operating features and the control circuits (unique to Bob). The builder of the mechanisms was either Dave Sapp or Dave Haynes... both are members of the Yeovil Model Railway Group so you may find some details there.

YMRG's 'Gasworks' has similar fittings (I should know as I've operated them at shows!) which were a bit erratic, but effective when they worked. I seem to remember that these had a drive from a tape recorder - though that might have been the filter beds on the EM layout, South Junction - and those were both Bob's work, I think, but we're looking back nearly thirty years for those, back when the club lived in the attics of Coker Court. I've not looked at the underside of Hobson's and I'm not likely to be down in Somerset for a while yet so can't comment!

Adam
 

decauville1126

Active Member
I've done one in P4, powered. I'll try and post some images later. Took a while to work out the copperclad tracking and collectors but I was quite pleased with the result.

Which then begs the question - how do I upload images/videos to posts on here? Thanks in advance.
 

decauville1126

Active Member
Managed to find a few images of the P4 one I did. Hopefully you'll be able to follow the sequence but basically the turntable spins on rollers on a copperclad plate which has been gouged to give 4 quadrant sectors, the turntable having segments with plungers to pickup. Only one road is actually useable. The outer rim is a piece of 22mm brown plastic plumbing pipe, and the whole thing screws up from under so it can be quickly dropped out. Power is one of the high-reduction N10 gearmotors fed by rechargeable batteries and is operated by a push button and aligned by eye - I tried a stepper motor but couldn't get any success before it went phut, so simplicity prevailed.

Hope it makes sense.

1.JPG

The assembly - sorry I don't have pics of the cut tracks but easy enough to work out hopefully


2.JPG

Actually a bit earlier, the rim with the deck and the base before gouging the tracking segments

3.JPG

Underside of the deck showing tiny ball rollers mounted on brackets.

4.JPG

A bit out of focus but in position'

5.JPG

Scribed walnut decking added and cobbling beginning

6.JPG

Height adjusted

7.JPG

Drive mechanism, so very slow which allows indexing by eye

8.JPG

Cobbling finished

This was a fun build of a micro P4 layout on an A4 sheet and happily takes 24.5mm SPUD-powered industrial locos. I'll leave you to work out the radius.

Hope this will help the original poster - it's quite easy to build one for any gauge/scale, and you can drive over it.
 
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