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Walthers 90' Turntable Kit

Started by Les, September 04, 2008, 10:37:26 AM

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Les

I have assembled a Walthers 90' Turntable Kit and am very dissatisfied with the project.  After assembly the bridge would not rotate properly - there is no binding on the edge of the pit, but rather there seems to be way too much wobble on the bridge shaft.  During rotation the bridge would turn and then stop - it sounds as though the bridge gear and the motor gear do not mesh properly; that one gear in turning above the other.   Has anyone else had such a problem; are there any suggestions; any way to fix the problem?  Your help will certainly be appreciated.  I did call Walthers and talked to a person that was familiar with the kit and he said that the kit is not too good and it has its  problems.  Again, any suggestions?   Thank you.  ???

SteamGene

Les,
From all accounts the kit is as bad as the built up is good.   Sorry.
Gene
Chief Brass Hat
Virginia Tidewater and Piedmont Railroad
"Only coal fired steam locomotives"

Jim2903

That kit is notoriously bad. A Web search should turn up numerous tales of woe, along with some attempts at making it right.
Jim Dudlicek
Hoffman Estates, IL

Cascade International Ry.

rogertra

Les.

Sadly, if you'd read the other posts in this group on turntables you would have been forewarned. 

It's a piece of crap!

Some people have been lucky with it, about 1% I think, but the other 99% of us, myself included, found it to be an workable piece of junk.  It was so bad, that niether MR nor RMC reviewed the kit.   They probably could not put on their usual positive spin when reviewing a poor model from a major advertiser.  So instead of a poor review, they simple didn't review it.

Cut your loses and scrap it.

Les

After posting I went back to the workbench and examined the turntable more closely and determined that the cover over the wheels at each end of the bridge were rubbing on the pit.  I ground them off with a Dreml tool and voila the bridge turned without binding and any apparent trouble.  This test was done on the workbench so I will see how it works when I install it on my layout.  Even if it does work reasonably well, the kit is,  to quote rogertra,  "a piece of crap".     :( :( :(

SteamGene

Roger is well known for his ability to detect crap.  8)
Gene
Chief Brass Hat
Virginia Tidewater and Piedmont Railroad
"Only coal fired steam locomotives"

Pacific Northern

I also obtained an item without first checking the various forums.

A very valuable lesson was learned. Had I checked the forums first I would not have missed the dozens of postings of disappointed purchasers.
Pacific Northern

Les

I hope someone is still looking at this post.  I have the turntable installed and IT DOES WORK; however, my problem now is getting track from the turntable to an Atlas 3 stall roundhouse.  The roundhouse has 3 extensions of about 4"from the doors; the turntable edge of the extension is about 1/8" plus higher than the turntable track.  Query?  How can I get the track to the roundhouse match the turntable track height?One thought I have is to glue another track on top on the turntable track now installed which would closely match the height of the roundhouse track (with a bit of shimming to make it match precisely).  This might be the simplest way and would perhaps not be too noticeable.   If anyone has any other ideas I welcome them.  Oh yes, I do not have room to move the roundhouse further away from the turntable so I cannot put a grade from one to the other.  Thanks for any help.  Les ??? ??? ??? ???