I noticed an article in MR regarding turniong the Atlas turn table into a more realistic "pit" and was wondering if anyone has tried it yet? I plan on giving it a shot, with some minor changes (foam instead of plywood) so I'll let you know how mine turns out!! John
John, What article in MR was it? I need a month/date/year... I wouldn't mind doing a conversion.. I need a turntable but alot longer then whats offered for a reasonable budgit...You can e-mail me this information if you like, yellowstone10@hotmail.com If possible I may have you scan it if possible and if nothing else to have it photo copied and snail mail it to me and I'll reinburse you for the cost of the copy and the mailing cost... [ 28 January 2002, 20:15: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
Its the most recent version of MR, near the back. looks like a relatively easy conversion, but I wonder how it will look when done. John
Doesn't Walthers offer a Conerstone HO-Scale turntable and motor? I've had a Cornerstone N-Scale turntable and Walthers motor unit for about 10 years now. They are still working very well. The motor is a really slow creeper when controlled by an MRC Tech-II 2800. They cost about US$40 for both, which I believe is much less than the Atlas HO table costs separately without a motor, though I could be bad wrong.
The major difference between the atlas and the Walters is that the Atlas is available more often in a larger quantity because they have been made for so long. And there is always someone selling one cheap on ebay. I am actually thinking of building my own turntable from scratch, I just don't have the space to handle taht kind of struccture right now. And I don't know if my People would get many kicks with spinning on the turntable at record speed 33, much less 68.
I had an Atlas turntable that worked well for the 8 tracks it would align with, but the noise of the plastic gears is terrible. I tried to see if I could use it for my BigBoys, but it doesn't have enough torque to swing them.
I have a Walthers turntable and motor (HO), and it's a tad cheesey, but after a little teaking, works well. I didn't expect much for under $40. The best thing is it looks like a real turntable.
As some may recall, I had a devil of a time building my Walthers turntable, and I fgure the Atlas is pretty cheap with no assembly (except for the change-up in the MR article). I had an Atlas on my old HO layout, and I agree with Wayne...very noisy, but Atlas claims to have made a quieter mechanism... I have some plans for a scratch built that were kindly sent to me by one of own board folk, but I have not tried them out yet. John
