Today I got my Peco turntable kit, it was also the last time this month that my wife will be on night shift so it is now built, painted and weathered.

although I've followed the instructions carefully, when I put my black five on it for the photo and tried to turn it by hand I found it really quite stiff to turn.

I intend to aquire some meccano parts and make it turn by means of a hand crank, but I'm just wondering if there is a way of making it turn smoother as every loco on the layout that wants to run round its train in the station will be using the turntable.

I'm also wondering if I can wire it up using a feed direct from my control board instead of from the track it's lining up to as, in my mind, this would give less chances of a short circuit.