Thinking about adding a turntable and roundhouse to my layout. It is intended to be transition era short line using older equipment, all steam for the short line facilities. Looking on E-bay for what is available, I like the look of the Heljan roundhouse. But, I am not clear on what turntables go well with it. The largest loco I would want to turn will be a heavy Mikado or light Pacific, most are Consolidations, Ten-wheelers, or smaller engines. So, I really don't need an Atlas 130 scale foot turntable. But, I do want to match the stall angle spacing of the roundhouse and turntable. And, I want a real pit, not a covered turntable or a psuedo-pit like the new Kato product. And what motors/controls work well with indexing these turntables? Suggestions and thoughts, please.
one needs to know at what degrees the turntable stops at, unless it is manual and able to be stopped at any degree of turn. of course, roundhouses have their own degree of geometry as to their design and architecture. if a motorized turntable, the geometry needs to be equal. while you might not need 130' due to your roster of steam, I would not go much smaller. the biggest difference I see in turntables, other than their geometry of stopping marks, is whether they are European or USA in design. perhaps that is not as issue for you. what ever serves your needs is best. respecfully Gary
Peco makes a turntable that's something like 73 scale feet long. That's what I use on my smaller layout since I don't run any big steam there. As I recall (it's been awhile) it works for most smaller locomotives.
The Walthers 130' turntable is a good performer. It's got a real pit, and it can either be run manually or custom indexed/programmed. If you're running DCC, it also has a decoder.
I had a 9 stall Heljan Roundhouse with a Heljan TT..The spacing calls for a big TT,I'd say the Heljan is as small as you can go,since the track ends need to be trimmed to get them on the pit wall as it is.Smaller TT's need wider stall spacing..I think the bridge is 9 inches on the Heljan? I powered mine with an Atlas HO TT drive.I put a shaft through the main drive gear,and up through the bridge.I didn't glue the bridge to the center,I just let it float,that way,the bridge was resting on the "track" that runs around the pit,no height problems that way..It ran flawlessly..
I currently have the new Kato n-scale indexed turntable and 24 extension tracks, but no roundhouse. I have packed away the Walther's indexed turntable which works, but is not nearly as accurate in aligning properly in my hands as it the Kato. The Kato turntable bridge is short, but is long enough to accommodate the Kato 2-8-2, Model Power 4-6-2, Bachmann 2-8-0 and 4-8-2 light mountain as well as 2-6-0 and 4-6-0 steam locomotives. The Kato turntable is made with 10 degrees between extension track. I, too, like the Heljan roundhouse, but cannot tell how or if it would work with this turntable. Kato part 23-240 is scheduled to be shipped 31 October 2014, i.e. their roundhouse with Kato unitrack embedded in the floor, 3 stalls per unit. I am considering purchasing a few of them depending on the price and my hobby budget. I have enjoyed having a steam locomotive service facility as an aspect of my layout since I model the steam era. The joy of operating a reliable turntable is of higher priority than whether it is close to a US prototype. I will add a coaling tower and water tower as well as other features, so think the end result will be satisfactory to me.
To give you an idea on roundhouses & TT's,just imagine this..If you have a 5" bridge,you may only be able to get 18-20 or so tracks around the outside of the whole circle.If you look at that,a full circle roundhouse will end up with wide stalls,and only have as many stalls as you have tracks.The one upside is,since the stalls are wide,you can have relatively short lead tracks.It's the opposite with big TT's,you end up with long lead tracks,because since the tracks are so close together,you need to go a fair distance away from the TT before the tracks get far enough from each other to put in a wide enough door to fit a locomotive.. The bottom line is,the roundhouse needs to match the TT..You can either have a small TT with a huge roundhouse that only fits a few locomotives,or a big TT with a small roundhouse that fits a lot of locomotives,but is longer.If you look at my roundhouse pic,you'll see what I'm talking about..If you made the TT smaller,the angle of the divergent tracks becomes wider..What you need to do is,find a matched TT and roundhouse set,or start scratchbuilding..LOL!!
LOU D, I understand the geometry. What I really need to know is what TT is compatible with what RH. And, to some degree, how big a 6-stall setup would be, since room is at a premium. (If it room was no issue, I would be doing G scale and scratch-building everything.) Your Heljan TT + RH picture looks like what I would like to have. The TT seems bigger than I though it would be, though. And, then there is the question of how well it indexes with whatever control is used.
If you look at my roundhouse,you'll see that the matching Heljan TT is actually the smallest TT you can use.The ties are hidden under ballast,but on the ends at the pit,the ties actually need to be trimmed a little to get them positioned correctly..You can go bigger,but not much smaller..The Heljan is the smallest you can go to get six stalls,but it needs a big TT..
MaleTrain: A turntable and Roundhouse takes up alot of real estate in N scale. I have a large around the room N scale layout. I have a 24 stall Roundhouse (Walthers- 8 three stall kits) and a Walthers 130' turntable. The Roundhouse and Turntable with service tracks takes up a space of over 48"x48". You will need about nine square feet to make a six stall Roundhouse with a turntable and service tracks around the turntable. Have fun planning your Roundhouse and turntable in N scale..... Shades
Berkshire Junction did sell a turntable mechanism for the older Walthers 120' turntable. This was not indexed however and the tracks have to be lined up by eye. That however is not difficult to do even in N scale. As I recall it used a stepper motor or a 1/4 rpm motor. The bridge moved very slowly. Berkshire Junction quit advertising these mechanisms when Walthers brought out their 130 foot indexed turntable but they may still have some laying around. These will probably also work for smaller turntables than the Walthers 120 footer. The only caveat for using one of these is to make sure you have good sight lines so you can visually line up the bridge rails with the approach tracks. Bershire Junction website is: http://www.berkshirejunction.com/
Roundhouse Kits (all that I am aware of at least): Walthers Cornerstone 3260 3 stall 'modern' roundhouse designed to use the Walthers Modern 130' Turntable Walthers 933-3202 Union City Roundhouse (former Heljan) designed for use with the Walthers (former Heljan) 120' Manual Turntable (both discontinued). Also previously sold by Arnold Rapido. Atlas 2843 3-Stall Roundhouse designed for use with the Atlas N Manual Turntable (Item # 2790) N Scale Architect Conway Roundhouse designed for turntables 5 1/2 to 7 1/2" FSM also had a roundhouse kit out but the are RARE and expensive Bachmann turntable 46799 (same as the Atlas?) (no roundhouse) Kato turntable 20-283 (no roundhouse) Peco turntable (no roundhouse) Tomex turntable 1633 (no roundhouse) Diamond Scale NT-100 and NT-135 (100 and 135 ft turntables) (no roundhouse) While I'm sure that I missed something, that's all I know about. Hope that helps...
Tomix has (or had) a 3 stall roundhouse for their table. I remember seeing it at my (now kaput) local n shop. A quick web search shows photos...
Kato lists 23-240 roundhouse as being shipped on October 31, 2014. It is a 3 stall roundhouse that is compatible with their turntable; the track is embedded in the floor based on photos shown online at Kato Japan's website.
Respectfully, it is the distance from the center point of the pit to the front wall of the roundhouse which determines the minimum degrees of track separation (and hence the roundhouse geometry and relative size and proportions) not the length of the turntable. It just so happens that longer tables generally serviced larger houses, but there are prototype examples where the railroad replaced the TT with a much longer one as locomotives got longer while keeping the preexisting, smaller roundhouse, sometimes adding extensions on the back side on a few tracks. But of course none of this is important if one is using a kit or a prebuilt structure.... Otto K.
The distance from the end of the bridge to the front of the roundhouse can't just be an arbitrary number.If you have a large TT,the angle between tracks is shallow..You can't just put the roundhouse right up to the TT,there's no point to it,since you can't park locomotives next to each other when the tracks are almost touching.What determines minimum track separation is how close you can place each track to the next at the pit and have them line up with the bridge,and minimum distance of the roundhouse from the pit is determined by how far the tracks run from the pit before the tracks are far enough apart to actually accommodate a proper front wall structure to the roundhouse,the spot where they are finally far enough apart to get the job done.You can put the tracks farther apart at the pit to put the roundhouse closer,but the closer you put it,the farther the tracks spread apart,the wider the stalls become,the bigger the roundhouse gets,and the fewer the stalls you can have...The same thing happens if you move the roundhouse further out,the stalls can be wider.You can't have a small TT with a big roundhouse,at least not one with dozens of stalls.
The Kato n-scale index turntable has the option for 36 extension tracks which are at 10 degree intervals. The distance from the lip of the turntable to the front of the roundhouse is "fixed" at approximately 5.5 inches based on my turntable. As much as I would like to use the Heljan roundhouse which I have constructed as a 6 stall unit and a 3 stall unit, I do not think they will fit.
