Which OO turntable - Peco or Hornby?

[clecklewyke]

I am wanting to instal a turntable. I would welcome the advice and experiene of  rmweb users of the rival Peco and Hornby models.

 

TIA

 

Ian
 

see 

 

 

 

[Roger Sunderland]

No contest really. The Peco turntable resembles a real turntable, the Hornby one looks nothing like one.

[Steamport Southport]

Peco all day long.

 

I'm afraid the Hornby version is very dated.

 

 

 

Jason

[30801]

My childhood dreams of the best accessory in the 1980 Hornby catalogue were ruined by this video of one in action.

 

 

[smokebox]

I bought the Hornby turntable because it's self indexing and doesn't need a huge hole cutting in the baseboard, although it's noisy and unrealistic, far too expensive and needs modifying for DCC use.

 

I've seen a few that have been sunken into the baseboard and made to look quite good.

[DCB]

Neither are brilliant.  The Hornby comes in several varieties, some more prototypical than others but they are crude and noisy and toylike  but keep going  The peco can look good but the motorising not great and the joints in the base look a bit odd.  Both are far too big for most OO layouts at 75ft and around 13" overall diameter where 55/60/65ft ones were far more common.  Those couple of inches saved can make a huge difference to the track layout possible on a narrow site.  Both can be found on eBay dirt cheap  if you don't mind a few repairs.  

I cut a bay of of a Dapol Turntable and its still big enough to turn a Duchess.   There are some US 16.5mm gauge narrow gauge prototype ones around a scale 55ft for OO which I believe are Bachmann which  look promising

The Hornby nee Triang one varied over the years, the circle ones as per the video and the deck ones. Neither are brilliant but they use good old reliable motors, XO4 and XT60.

Edited June 24, 2020 by DavidCBroad

[Steamport Southport]

The Peco one is correct size.

 

It's the one that is at Yeovil Junction and is the same size as the one now at Didcot which came from Southampton.

 

 

 

Jason

Edited June 23, 2020 by Steamport Southport

[Mick Bonwick]

The Hornby one will self-destruct. The rails on the deck can move and will catch on the rails attached to the edges. The motor will not stop turning the deck and the rails will be forced out of their chairs.

 

I have seen this happen. Twice.

[cypherman]

Hi,

I would suggest the Fleischmann turntable. IMHO it is far better than the others with lots of track options. You can get extra track exits for the turntable and basically have a track coming off every section.  Plus it auto lines up and auto swaps the current so that they way you set the controller to go on the turntable  when you turn the engine the control still works in the original direction. Its a bit pricey but you get what you pay for.

https://www.fleischmann.de/en/product/4664-0-0-0-0-0-0-005007006-0/products.html

Edited June 23, 2020 by cypherman

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

13 hours ago, DavidCBroad said:

...Both are far too big for most OO layouts at 75ft and around 13" overall diameter where 55/60/65ft ones were far more common... 

There's a product opportunity for a new 4 mm RTP 70' turntable with automated indexing The LNER were the pioneers in general deployment (from necessity) so obviously the big engine line should get a model of one of their standard types, which will remind everyone else where the best concepts in UK express traction came from. That was the largest bridge used in the UK to the best of my knowledge, and would take any pacific and the P2. (Peco's is ye olde OO/HO fudge, too large for the UK, in order to handle longer HO models.)

[ColinK]

If you don’t mind build a kit, try Kitwood Hill models.  While most are intended for larger scales, On30 uses 00 track and should look OK.

 

 

 

 

[melmerby]

10 hours ago, cypherman said:

Hi,

I would suggest the Fleischmann turntable. IMHO it is far better than the others with lots of track options. You can get extra track exits for the turntable and basically have a track coming off every section.  Plus it auto lines up and auto swaps the current so that they way you set the controller to go on the turntable  when you turn the engine the control still works in the original direction. Its a bit pricey but you get what you pay for.

https://www.fleischmann.de/en/product/4664-0-0-0-0-0-0-005007006-0/products.html

I've got one (DCC controlled) but it aint like anything used in the UK.

If you don't mind butchering an expensive toy it could be made to look sort of UK like.

 

 

The GWR standardised on 65' for roundhouses and 55' for outside turntables in Churchward's tenure, many of the 55' were later extended to 65' as larger locos appeared.

(65' = 260mm or 10¼" in 4mm scale)

The Fleischmann 6152 is 310mm, which which scales at 27 metres in H0 and 77' 6" in 00.

 

Edited June 24, 2020 by melmerby

[ejstubbs]

2 hours ago, ColinK said:

If you don’t mind build a kit, try Kitwood Hill models.  While most are intended for larger scales, On30 uses 00 track and should look OK.

 

Simon seems to have re-jigged his web site a bit since I Iast looked at it and I thought when I went and had a look just now that he'd withdrawn the most likely candidate in his range for a UK-image OO turntable - but checking again I see that it's still there:

 

http://www.kitwoodhillmodels.com/on30-10-5-11-25-pit-turntable/

 

The 10½" one would be just under 67ft in OO.  The price isn't too bad either, especially since it includes a good quality drive mechanism.

 

Simon kindly e-mailed me a copy of the instructions when I contacted him about the turntable earlier this year.  The most daunting aspect of construction seemed to be forming the running rail for the turntable support wheels to run on; since the wheels do actually run on it rather "floating" above it I think you need to be fairly confident about your ability to form a true circle of rail at about 10" diameter.

 

At that time I was thinking of getting one he had a restricted ordering process: he only opened up order taking for certain items on certain dates, and closed it down again when he had enough orders for a batch.  Ordering seems to be more straightforward now, you can just put the turntable in your shopping cart and go to the checkout - though he does say that he will e-mail a copy of the instructions on receipt of the order, which suggests that there may still be some latency between placing an order and receiving the kit.

 

The other kit manufacturer that is regularly mentioned on RMWeb is London Road Models.  Their advantage is that their etch kits are based on genuine UK protoypes: they produce kits for 42ft and 50ft version of the Cowans Sheldon turntable.  They work out rather more pricey then Kitwood Hill once you factor in the pit base and the drive mechanism, and the construction is likely to be rather more challenging unless you are confident of your ability to assemble etch kits.

 

I'm sure that a quick Google would find a number of threads on RMWeb where people have described their experiences of building the above products.

 

All the above said, I think the OP is really looking for something closer to an RTR option.  If they don't want to cut a hole in their baseboard then that would rule out the Peco one - which is actually a kit in the sense that it requires assembly, though it's a rather more straightforward polystyrene affair rather than an etch kit.  The Dapol, ex-Airfix kit doesn't require a hole in the baseboard and could also be a contender, of sorts, if you don't mind something not particularly prototypical that would require a fair bit of extra effort to turn it in to a functioning element of a layout.

 

EDIT: There was a useful thread on pretty much this very subject back in 2017.  The South Eastern Finecast kits were also mentioned.  NOTE: Beware the links to AKA Models, which seems to have ceased trading.  To paraphrase Obi-Wan Kenobi: "These are not the models you are looking for"...

(Wouldn't it be nice if people would do a search before starting a brand new thread on a topic that has been fairly comprehensively covered already?)

Edited June 24, 2020 by ejstubbs

[Mick Bonwick]

49 minutes ago, ejstubbs said:

(Wouldn't it be nice if people would do a search before starting a brand new thread on a topic that has been fairly comprehensively covered already?)

 

Although I agree with the sentiment, the Internet is a place where you can ask specific questions and get a direct answer, rather than spend hours looking for something that might just possibly answer the question.

[Steamport Southport]

1 hour ago, ejstubbs said:

 

 

 

All the above said, I think the OP is really looking for something closer to an RTR option.  If they don't want to cut a hole in their baseboard then that would rule out the Peco one - which is actually a kit in the sense that it requires assembly, though it's a rather more straightforward polystyrene affair rather than an etch kit.  The Dapol, ex-Airfix kit doesn't require a hole in the baseboard and could also be a contender, of sorts, if you don't mind something not particularly prototypical that would require a fair bit of extra effort to turn it in to a functioning element of a layout.

 

EDIT: There was a useful thread on pretty much this very subject back in 2017.  The South Eastern Finecast kits were also mentioned.  NOTE: Beware the links to AKA Models, which seems to have ceased trading.  To paraphrase Obi-Wan Kenobi: "These are not the models you are looking for"...

(Wouldn't it be nice if people would do a search before starting a brand new thread on a topic that has been fairly comprehensively covered already?)

 

The old Airfix turntable is a pretty accurate model of a GWR design. There's one at Minehead (ex Pwllheli).

 

It's just very dated and not very practical to use or motorise. It was designed for pushing around plastic models rather than use on a proper layout.

 

Here's the prototype.

 

https://www.steelway.co.uk/rail/case-studies/minehead-railway-turntable#:~:text=Minehead - Railway turntable&text=The railway turntable which weighed,Somerset Railway Station in Minehead.

 

 

As for starting new threads I tend to agree, but as you can see from that previous thread often things change and manufacturers fall by the wayside. Three years is a very long time in internet years. Especially if you are looking for a thread where the title is incorrectly spelt (only just noticed that  ).

 

 

Jason

[ejstubbs]

30 minutes ago, Mick Bonwick said:

the Internet is a place where you can ask specific questions and get a direct answer, rather than spend hours looking for something that might just possibly answer the question.

 

You might get a direct answer if you're lucky.  Very often, especially on forums like RMWeb with knowledgable and engaged participants, you risk ending up with a rambling thread that still takes time to wade through to get something approximating to an answer.  (I'm tempted to cite the "General Theory of Minories" thread, which started out - under a different title - as a simple request for a copy of the track plan, and has now morphed in to a 56-page monster with a tendency towards circularity and a distressing propensity for gazing at its own navel).

 

IMO search engines are a useful first port of call and learning how to formulate a query in order to maximise the chances of getting useful hits without too much 'chaff' is a key skill in this day and age.

[ColinK]

“The most daunting aspect of construction seemed to be forming the running rail for the turntable support wheels to run on; since the wheels do actually run on it rather "floating" above it I think you need to be fairly confident about your ability to form a true circle of rail at about 10" diameter”

 

The Kitwood Hill turntable I built comes with parts to help you bend the rail to a true circle.  Even I managed it for a smaller  turntable - the larger the turntable, the larger the circle, so the easier it is.

[clecklewyke]

Let’s get back to the original question, please, which was about 00 gauge turntables, I.e.1:76 scale, 16.5mmgauge,  not H0, narrow gauge etc. Nor do I want to work through long posts about how to conduct research. I’m nearly blind, quite old and cannot waste time struggling through reams of irrelevant opinions and suggestions. 

 

Many thanks who addressed my questio, from which I deduce that Hornby is not in the running.

 

One further question please. What is the length of each turntable bridge? I have not found this in the manufacturers’  documentation. I guess it will be long enough for the largest express locos, i.e. longer than most prototypes?

 

i have posted elsewhere about my  Last Great Project - Clecklewyke and the Bradford North Western Branch I hope you find it interesting.

 

Ian

 

Edited June 25, 2020 by clecklewyke

[melmerby]

The Peco TT has a deck of 304mm. That equates to 76' which is large, most depots would have had shorter ones.

(the 327mm quoted appears to be the total diameter of it)

 

EDIT

Peco say it can be used with code 100 or code 75 track, the Fleischmann one is code 100 only.

Edited June 25, 2020 by melmerby

[yelrow]

If you want a decent Turntable, look a t Frateschi.   Brilliant. Simple to make DCC, looks good, and works from Hornby Railmaster, with a mouse, one click.

[melmerby]

14 minutes ago, yelrow said:

If you want a decent Turntable, look a t Frateschi.   Brilliant. Simple to make DCC, looks good, and works from Hornby Railmaster, with a mouse, one click.

Link please.

[31A]

I've used the  Peco turntable on my "Finsbury Square" layout.  Yes it is slightly on the long side, the longest turntables in this country, at locations where Pacifics and other big locos were turned were usually 70' diameter, but to my eyes that isn't too apparent.  I suppose a smaller one might be beneficial on a layout where space was at a premium.  As others have said, at least it looks like a British turntable!

 

I was quite worried about making the hole for the well as the plywood baseboard was finished, but the kit includes a template which I used as a guide to 'chain drill' holes in a circle and was then able to join them up with a Stanley knife!  It doesn't have to be too neat, as the well moulding incorporates a lip which will hide irregularities to some extent.

 

I found with weathering, the joins between the segments of the well moulding could be disguised quite well.

 

I've used it in connection with Peco Code 75 Bull Head track which it works very well with.  I put some thin card packing under a few sleepers on the lines leading up to the well, to avoid a slight hump where locos run onto the table, but apart from that it works pretty much as designed.  I had one on a previous layout (with Code 100 track) for many years, and that worked well too.

I haven't fitted the plastic handrails that come with it as I think they look a bit chunky but will fit handrails made from wire with brass stanchions, but am waiting until I have finished scenic work in the surrounding area as I think they might be a bit vulnerable.

 

I've made a mechanism incorporating an indexing system from Meccano to drive it which is perhaps a bit "Heath Robinson" but seems to work!  Possibly it runs slightly on the fast side.  On the previous layout I also had a Meccano mechanism, but alignment was by eye, which also worked.

 

I have uploaded a couple of videos which may give you an idea of how it looks; they're not brilliant as I just did them with my mobile phone.  In the first there is still a lot of ballasting etc. to do in the area, but by the time I took the second a lot more of that had been done.   If you watch the videos with the sound on, the 'squeaking' comes from the 'follower' in the mechanism running on edge of the indexing disc; it isn't really a problem, and the phone's microphone seems to have exaggerated it!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOeSyKYbdIo&feature=youtu.be

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIDJBoEhrKQ&feature=youtu.be

 

Some details of the turntable mechanism can be found on my layout thread:

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/83030-train-spotting-at-finsbury-square/page/14/

 

I hope this helps!

 

 

[yelrow]

 

Frateschi model HO scale 4500 Turntable | ModelRailroader ...

mrr.trains.com ›2009/10› frateschi .  This gives you a write up, size etc.

[clecklewyke]

1 hour ago, 31A said:

(A lot of really useful information based on direct experience)

I hope this helps!

It certainly has. Many thanks,

Ian

[stewartingram]

No connection to this trader http://www.locomotech.com/ but they have had some good reviews, and I'll probably order one shortly.

 

Stewart