roundhouses

[Terry Toenges]

I hope it works out for you.

[jward]

Just out of curiosity are you sure the Kibri roundhouse will work with the Bachmann turntable? The Bachmann table has an odd radial track spacing of 20 degrees. What is the stall spacing on the roundhouse?

[OLDERTIMER]

Hi Jeff, when we were talking about turntables last month Len established that the Bachmann turntable is spaced at 20 degrees so I'm going to have to finagle a bit to make the tracks on the 15 degree Kibri roundhouse line up.  Any ideas to make it work would be welcome.  Changing the stall angle is way beyond my pay grade.   Thank's for your input, Paul G

[Len]

One option would be to use DPM blank brick walls cut to size to add spacers between the stalls to change their angles to 20deg. Roof sections would have to be fabircated to fill the gaps. Actually, on a second look, Kirbri has a pack of brick siding that could be cut up to do the same thing. It's item 33302, and would probably be a closer match to the roundhouse brick:


Len

[OLDERTIMER]

They, whoever they are, say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.  Having spent the best part of the afternoon on the web am about as dangerous as I'm likely to be.   In any case Kibri makes a manual turntable that is 15 degrees and is approximately 10 and 3/4 inches long.  This would appear to be an improvement over both the Bachmann and Atlas Options IF.  If is another of those biggest little words in the English language.  If, in this case, refers to does it have those split rings?, is that what what they call them?, those things that change the polarity?  Secondly, is there any gearing that would stop it at 15 degrees?  At less than $20 one has to wonder.  Len, can you or anyone  help me out with this?  If not, at the price, I'm inclined to give it a try and see if it will work.  Regards, Paul  ps there appears to have been, at one time or other, a motorized version of it.  Thanks again.

[jward]

My dad had a version of this or a similar European turntable (Heljan maybe) yearx ago. As I recall it was a poorly made, stripped down model that came without motor or gearing, and he never could get it to work properly. Eventually he gave up on it, and both the yards on his railroad with engine service facilities used other means to turn the motive power.

Honestly, i'd start with an Atlas turntable, countersunk into a recess on the layout, and build a new bridge atop the existing table. You could make this bridge any length you wish. You'd get the proven reliability of the Atlas mechanism, the ability to use existing roundhouse kits without modification, and a unique and interesting kitbash project to keep your interest.

Note that I have nothing against the Bachmann turntable other than its odd track spacing and the lack of suitable roundhouses to fit it other than the Thomas one.

[Len]

What Jeff suggested may be the easiest solution. I've done it on several layouts over the years. It looks sort of like this:



The vertical pieces are just nominal 2x2's in each corner to connect the Atlas platform to the main table. Power is connected to the Atlass turntable. Wires are soldered to the rails below and run up to the visible turntable rails. That way the Atlas turntable handles the indexing and power routing to the upper turntable bridge.

Len

[OLDERTIMER]

Would that mean like buying the Walthers $50  kit for the pit and bridge and then attaching the wires to the rails on it?  I'm not quite sure how you get a pit and bridge without something like that.  From what I've read they upgraded the Walthers TT kit and it works much better than the old one did.  I sure appreciate the ideas and suggestions.  That sounds much easier than trying to modify the roundhouse.  Thank's again, Paul

[Len]

I was just playing around with my RR-Track software and it looks like the simplest solution is to take a 1/3 (10deg arc) 18" radius EZ-Track  curve and cut it in half. This will give you two 5 deg sections. Plug a standard straight into one turntable stall position. Then plug the locking end of the cut curved sections into the stall positions on either side of the straight you just connected. You'll have to add some rail joiners to connect the cut ends of the curves to straight stall track extensions. You can glue the cut ends of the curve roadbed to the straights for a permanent connection.

Shift the 15 deg spaced stall roundhouse around until all three stalls are lined up and centered in the stall doorways. Add short straights to the stall tracks as needed to get the final length you need. If you need more than three stalls, things get complicated.

Len

[jward]

(sigh) They already are complicated, Len. Why oh why couldn't Bachmann have used the same 15 degree track spacing as everybody else? To be honest their turntable looks a lot nicer than the Atlas one.

Oldtimer, As for buying a Walthers turntable for the bridge, I would have made my own from a couple of Atlas plate girder bridges spliced together to the length needed. I'd cut the girders away from the bridge deck and glue them together with the track on top. Just like you would if you were making a deck girder bridge. I've built deck girder bridges this way and they are surprisingly strong when fully assembled.

[OLDERTIMER]

 Hello everybody.  Another crazy day at the office.  I've ordered 2 plate girder bridges and an Atlas turntable motor, and the outfit that I ordered the roundhouse extensions from Emailed and canceled, and I've struck out for the 4th time with trying to order them from Reynauld's.  You had good luck with them several years ago Len, but I can't get past their website.  I guess I'll try to call them again for the 4th time tomorrow.  Don't mind me fellows and girls, I'm just blowing off some steam.  I guess I'd better go visit my locomotives, thats what their for, blowing steam, regards, Paul

[Trainman203]

The Bach Man doesn't always pay attention to recognized standards.  There are coupler pockets that don't accept drop in Kadee no. 5's.  Their EZ track roadbed is not the same height as standard cork roadbed or multiples thereof. There are pieces of EZ track whose length doesn't correspond to long established lengths set over many years by others. Their wiring and plug arrangements vary between the older steam engines. Now we have a turntable of odd track angles and an odd length that won't accept some of Bachman's own medium sized steam engines, just 1/4" or less too short, aaagghh.

I'm sorry, Mr. B,  I love most of your serious scale modeling products, have a lot of them, and will continue to purchase, but I have to say that some things could have been so much better with just the smallest amount of additional research about previous long standing standards.

[plint]

Saw a Kibri 5 stall engine house on Ebay for $40 or B/O.   However, the shipping is ONLY $92 !! 

[RAM]

Ok I know what ebay is, but what is B/O, other than Body odor.

[Trainman203]

Unrelated Quiz:  anyone remember the character "B.O. Plenty?"  😱😂