Here we go again; it was about this time last year, that my Son and myself went to a local model railway exhibition held at a school in Dereham,Norfolk, looking for some inspiration and ideas. We came upon a very realistic layout with a nice (small) working turntable, and my curiosity was aroused - I had begun to realise that the non - motorised, kitbashed Dapol turntable on Sproston had many shortcomings, and that something more refined would be needed.I had contemplated the Peco one - too big; (72') and would not fit in the allotted space - or having a small one made by "Metalsmiths" ( mega money...): this was not really a sensible option at the time, given the layouts early stage of construction.

I enquired about this turntable, and was informed it was made by Heljan and was to ho scale, also that it was no longer available, - the person operating it informed me that he purchased it several years ago, and in his words"it cost a packet"....

After talking with him further about said turntable, and having its operation demonstrated - I became aware that this was exactly what was needed, all we needed to do was to find one....

When we returned home, I got to work on the internet- and so it proved, that this turntable was as rare as the proverbial hen's teeth!

No one had any, as it had only a short production run - there seemed to be no secondhand examples about, so in desperation I put a classified advert in the Railway Modeller "wanted" section,- all to no avail...

Things carried on as normal, with the Dapol turntable in position albeit only surface mounted with a slight ramp up to the table- but it worked!

Then suddenly out of the blue, I received an email from Ebay, with whom I had left a request for them to search for this item for me, (with no real hope that one would actually become available).

They had found one! it was with "Rails of Sheffield", was in mint condition and boxed ( it must have been laying in a pile of railway stuff in one of their storerooms...

Brand new this item had retailed for about £190-£200, but Rails of Sheffield were happy to let me have this one for £160.50 including postage and packing - sorted...!!

They were true to their word,it arrived a couple of days later, in its original box, all sealed and with all the bits present- result!!

Within a day it was fully assembled and the hole for the deck was carefully cut in the surface of the board ( with a heavy duty Stanley knife and blade).

The whole assembly was fitted, wired up and tested, it worked perfectly, Sproston now has a 60' well type turntable, with an accuracy in alignment of the rails of 0.003mm!!

I hope you like the result...i am well pleased with it.