Has anyone out there built both a wye and a turntable for turning locomotives. My prototype did not use turntables, but wyes. However, I am wondering if a turntable might take up less space. Looks like about 12 square inches for the turntable, as opposed to about 24 square inches or more for the wye. Bear in mind I am only wanting to turn locomotives, not train units. Thanks to all of you who have given advice over the past months and made possible the Golden Spike on the B,D, & CRRR.
Yes I have done both and have both. Turntables do take up less space than a wye. That doesn't include engine houses or other facilities. I use both because the railroad I model had wyes in certain locations and turntables in others. Primarily, the turntables were associated with engine servicing facilities and wyes were used at locations that didn't have such facilities.
Graphite, welcome to the TrainBoard! There is nothing wrong with a "Y" at one location, and a "T" Table at another, sometimes we do run out of room. Depending upon how much detail you wish to go into, Atlas has a pretty good operating surface mounted turntable for diesels and small engines. It holds 8 engines. Alignment to stall tracks is excellent on the one I have. I can e-mail you a photo of it with an F-7 if you like. Mine is old and has been used but still works like a champ. Not expensive. If you want a super-detail kit, Diamond Scale makes the one I am working on now. Ask Neal Wolfe for his catalog, it is quite extensive, and parts are excellent quality. I have the 134 foot for my Big Boys and was under $200.00 for whole thing! newolfe@compuserve.com
Watash, thanks. I saw your post on October 14 , 2000 about the Diamond Scale Products. I have emailed Neil for a catalog, but I am not sure I want to get into that much $$. I would like to have a turntable that has a pit and is more prototypical, however. I do HO, so it really would be a bigger propostion for me space wise. I have seen the old Atlas ones, but I understand the newer ones are vastly improved and index to 15 degrees rather than the old 45 degrees. Glad to hear they work well. That is probably what I will end up with for now. But I really liked the photos you uploaded of your N scale one. Do you know about any sources for scratch-building one? I remember seeing some plans in a magazine somewhere, but don't remember where (may be one I have-I am digging-have a library of them- gotta index that stuff one of thesae days). I have a lot of scratchbuilding experience-plastic modeller from way back. Thanks.
The prototype uses a combination as costs,servicing engine needs and real estate dictate. The LIRR had a turntable at the end of the Oyster Bay and Main line to Greenport with a wye at the southern tip of Long Island at Montauk. When the South Shore Railroad (pre LIRR) reached Islip, NY about 42 miles from Penn Station, NY City in the 1860's they put in a wye as real estate was not a problem, no homes north of the station to contend with. Further east 10 miles or so in Patchogue, NY a turntable went up as the line progressed east. Moved into town (about a 1/4 mile east by 1902). Islip wye torn up as no longer the end of the line. On the central (main line) Ronkonkoma had a wye, recently replaced by a parking garage.(about 50 miles from Penn Station) Steve Lynch www.NYandW.com http://www.nyandw.com/lirrcontents.htm
Graphite, My layout is HO, and I looked at scratch building my turntable, but since I found Diamond Scale so cheap compared to the others, and excellent detail, I decided to buy the kit. It was about the same cost as scratchin' it. The next good one was at $300 and the only other one big enough was over $450. If you can use a shorter one, you can get it for around $175. The hard part to scratch is the pit. Remember it has to fit each stall track perfectly, both directions! You'll see! Good luck. This was covered on the Turntable Pit Topic started by Sticky Monk, go look. (It was transferred to here from the HO Forum) [ 18 March 2001: Message edited by: watash ]
Watash, Would you sell the smaller Atlas turntable? i'm in need of one for a layout i'm helping to build at my local model railroader club. (the layout is more or less mine and i'm putting some time and alittle money into it) And being its not my home layout the little Atlas one would be a credit to none at all on that layout. Drop me a line on this in my e-mail inbox and we'll go from their. The sad part around my area theirs no local hobby shops which stinks in the first place so I either buy used stuff or order it from a distance and either way something goes wrong!!! I wish their were 100 hobby shops, within a 30 mile radius of my home town, but i'm NOT that lucky! My hobby shop for now is ebay so..... It works, and can be waaaaay cheaper on certain things! But if I need like scenery material or something new I do alot of buying out of trainworld in New York. [ 19 March 2001: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
