turntable/roundhouse

[Jim Banner]

...  on the Walther's turntable, the pit rails are plastic and the bridge track receives power from 2 rings located on the center shaft that are separated by a plastic ring.  2 wipers contact each brass ring and give power to the tracks this way.
...

If you look at my picture, all the left rails are wired the same and the right rails are wired the same, with on/off switches. The only thing that is wired separately is the bridge track, and thats on a auto reverse switch, DCC. This Walther's 90' works great ...

rogertra, are you and pdlethbridge talking about the same turn table??

[rogertra]

...  on the Walther's turntable, the pit rails are plastic and the bridge track receives power from 2 rings located on the center shaft that are separated by a plastic ring.  2 wipers contact each brass ring and give power to the tracks this way.
...

If you look at my picture, all the left rails are wired the same and the right rails are wired the same, with on/off switches. The only thing that is wired separately is the bridge track, and thats on a auto reverse switch, DCC. This Walther's 90' works great ...

rogertra, are you and pdlethbridge talking about the same turn table??

I'm talking about the Walthers 90ft Built Up turntable.  The one that comes complete and costs something around $250 to $300.  With straight DC, there is NO need to purchase anything else, let alone an auto-reverse switch.  I don't know about DCC.  I have the instructions stored somewhere for the day that I convert to DCC but didn't read them when I installed the turntable. 

Real men don't read instructions. 

[pdlethbridge]

Mine is the $30 kit with there motor added.

[rogertra]

Mine is the $30 kit with there motor added.

There yeah go.  You unfortunately purchased the crappy one that doesn't work.  Don't feel bad, so did I, about five years ago.

[pdlethbridge]

Actually my $30 turntable works very well.

[SteamGene]

Thanks, all. 
Roger, It's wired consistently.  My only question has been the wiring of the tracks on the "other" side of the turntable.   If the polarity of the rails changes as the turntable spins, there is no problem. 
Gene

[rogertra]

Actually my $30 turntable works very well.

Then you are very lucky.  The vast majority of them were crap.  They were so bad, they weren't reviewed by MR or RMC as nothing good could be said about them.  That doesn't happen to very often to a big advertiser like Walthers.

[rogertra]

Thanks, all. 
Roger, It's wired consistently.  My only question has been the wiring of the tracks on the "other" side of the turntable.   If the polarity of the rails changes as the turntable spins, there is no problem. 
Gene

Glad to have helped Gene.

Although my comments were for DC, not DCC, it's always important that the hot and common ( + & - ) are consistant.  It doesn't matter if it's DC, DCC, a model railway, your home or a starship.

All that may need to happen is the need to use the reverse switch function on your DCC throttle to exit the turntable after the loco has been turned. This is due to DCC being direction based where the front of the loco decides which direction it's travelling and not the polarity of the rails, as in DC.

[pdlethbridge]

I just finished getting the auto reverser wired and it works great with the turntable. My unit works great because I like to fiddle, I modified the way the wipers worked and I've never had a problem,,,, unless the rubber band I use to pull the to wipers onto the shaft breaks. I have a good supply of them and I just replaced one after about a year of it working.

[rogertra]

I just finished getting the auto reverser wired and it works great with the turntable. My unit works great because I like to fiddle, I modified the way the wipers worked and I've never had a problem,,,, unless the rubber band I use to pull the to wipers onto the shaft breaks. I have a good supply of them and I just replaced one after about a year of it working.

You deserve a very big hand.

Very few people have manged to get that $30.00 Walthers turntable to work reliable, if at all.

I gave up and purchased the expensive 90ft "Built Up" turntable and am as happy as a clam.  It worked perfectly, every time, with no fiddling.  Once you've got the alignment program figured our. 

I decided to spend the big bucks after reading reviews.  I figured that a roundhouse without a 100% reliable turntable was just a nice piece of static scenery so, for the price of one steam engine, I went and got a reliable working turntable.

[pdlethbridge]

Does that turntable use a stepper motor?

[rogertra]

Does that turntable use a stepper motor?

.Which 'table?

The cheap $30 one?  No.  It was aligned by eye.  Anyway, I never got mine to work.

The expensive $250 one?  No.  It uses a counter and, I think, an infrared detector accurately align the turntable bridge.  The table doesn't pause at any of the radiating tracks as each track is programmable and can be placed anywhere around the table, at any spacing you desire.  There are just two places, 180 degrees from each other, where the infrared comes into play where you cannot place trackage.

Don't quote me in the infrared as I'm not going to remove the bridge to double check.

Sufficed to same, it's 100% accurate, 100% of the time and well worth the big bucks

[SteamGene]

I have the built up 130 ' table - necessary for the 2-6-6-6s if nothing else.  I think what I'm going to do now is to do the scenery in the back corner where I won't be able to get to later, then remove the whole section so I can install the well, bridge, and service tracks, do the programming, and then place the whole shebang back on the layout.  Obviously, I will need some temporary wiring to do the programming, but that shouldn't be a problem.  Once the area is back on the layout, I can then finish the permanent wiring. 
Gene

[pdlethbridge]

I hope your turntable will be within easy reach

[SteamGene]

The turntable itself will be within reach.  The roundhouses will not be.  It's the only part of the layout that doesn't follow the two foot rule.  The engine facility is in a corner with a curved six track yard and two track mainline in front of it.  As a result the roundhouse front is about five feet from the edge.  OTOH, my wife bought me an "Upper Creeper" which puts the front of the roundhouse within range from the layout edge. 
Gene