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00 turntables - more questions


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I was looking forward to building and installing a Kitwood Hills turntable on my layout, but I've just had my order cancelled and payment refunded and been advised to try Greenwood Model Railway Products instead.   Never having heard of this firm, I've been on their site and seen that they do a laser-cut kit for a very nice-looking 65' GWR-style turntable which would do me nicely.

 

However, that kit is currently OOS.  There's no price listed for it (and actually very little useful info about it, come to that) , but the 70' one they do is £115, so I guess the 65' will be much the same.   OK, I could possibly stretch to that if I could be convinced that the end result will be worth it, but it would seem that the only option for motorisation is a unit based on a stepper motor and the basic version of just that is ... £150.

 

No sensibly-priced drive option seems to be available, so even if the Greenwood turntable kit does indeed build into an awesome turntable that is well worth every penny of £115 or so, I would still be left with the problem of putting together a simple motor and gearbox drive unit which runs quietly and reliably.  My questions therefore are:-

 

Has anybody built one of these Greenwood turntables and would care to share their opinion of it?

 

Can anyone recommend a motor/gearbox unit which would be suitable for a 00 turntable and which could be fitted to a 6mm shaft directly or indirectly without the process needing anything more than hand tools?

 

If this Greenwood kit is out because of cost or motorisation issues, what are my alternatives given that smooth quiet running and reliability are more important than how true to life the thing looks?

 

Edited by spikey
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  • spikey changed the title to 00 turntables - more questions

I owned this 00 Heljan Model some years ago, it had an excellent programmable controller that could store positions - very nice but not very prototypical, as the whole deck moved.

1399904584_Screenshot_20201013-1236142.png.f746b49c929e5f1d4547308dbad67aeb.png

It probably could be converted to a more British style example by a competent modeller I expect though?

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Just spoken on the phone to the proprietor of Greenwood Model Railway Products who tells me that in addition to the 00 65' GWR turntable he also does a 65' Ransome and a 65' Cowans, all at the same price of £115.  I understand that he did do a cheaper motorising kit but most punters wanted a more upmarket product so that's what he now sells.

 

If I went for one of his kits, the starting point for constructing a drive would be a 4mm or 6mm (my choice) shaft projecting down through a hole of the corresponding size in the well (i.e. what keeps the bridge central in the well is the fit of the shaft in the hole in the well, there being no bearing though obviously one could be added).

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50 minutes ago, Ray Von said:

I owned this 00 Heljan Model some years ago, it had an excellent programmable controller that could store positions - very nice but not very prototypical, as the whole deck moved.

1399904584_Screenshot_20201013-1236142.png.f746b49c929e5f1d4547308dbad67aeb.png

It probably could be converted to a more British style example by a competent modeller I expect though?

It was prototypical in that some roundhouses had them (Midland), Heljan did the same model with a more familiar bridge deck, the one you've shown can easily be altered by cutting the deck down (it just lifts off), and the controller is very unreliable with replacements unobtainable but when it conks it's pretty easy to convert to a switch or transformer or dcc control, but you lose the indexing. You have to park it by eyeball, like the real thing.

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12 minutes ago, daltonparva said:

It was prototypical in that some roundhouses had them (Midland), Heljan did the same model with a more familiar bridge deck, the one you've shown can easily be altered by cutting the deck down (it just lifts off), and the controller is very unreliable with replacements unobtainable but when it conks it's pretty easy to convert to a switch or transformer or dcc control, but you lose the indexing. You have to park it by eyeball, like the real thing.

That's interesting, I must've been lucky with mine - although I did only have it for 2 years or so before downsizing to 'n' gauge and selling it on!  

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Coming back to the specific questions in my OP, I've now found the thread about the Greenwood turntables in the "Smaller Suppliers" sub-forum.  Suffice it to say that I found that useful.

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Gosh, what a lark this is turning into.  I can't buy the Kitwood Hills one that I wanted, the Greenwood's out on price if nothing else, the SE Finecast kit doesn't impress at all, I seem to have missed the boat with the the Midland Railway Centre ones, and whoever it is that I can't remember doesn't make anything over a 50ft.  All I want is a decent 60 - 70ft turntable!

 

I'm off to lie down in a corner and whimper quietly ...

Edited by spikey
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1 hour ago, spikey said:

Gosh, what a lark this is turning into.  I can't buy the Kitwood Hills one that I wanted, the Greenwood's out on price if nothing else, the SE Finecast kit doesn't impress at all, I seem to have missed the boat with the the Midland Railway Centre ones, and whoever it is that I can't remember doesn't make anything over a 50ft.  All I want is a decent 60 - 70ft turntable!

 

I'm off to lie down in a corner and whimper quietly ...

The most realistic (to British eyes) 60 footer is the Roco 42615, but it is very expensive ,(£350-£400 ish), second hand ones don't come up very often and make high prices, but it looks good, works well and reliably, and is quiet.

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This is a Roco 42615, heavily altered.                                                                                         .                         IMGP3308.JPG.22248d7bd77bccf7c59cacdbdb59be1e.JPG

 

 

This is a Heljan 89031/89041, again altered. (Like the one mentioned previously).IMGP3310.JPG.9a31ea08f0162e1f17897fa52935c03d.JPG

 

Both 60 footers.

Edited by daltonparva
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54 minutes ago, daltonparva said:

The most realistic (to British eyes) 60 footer is the Roco 42615, but it is very expensive ,(£350-£400 ish), second hand ones don't come up very often and make high prices, but it looks good, works well and reliably, and is quiet.

 

Cheers, but being way outside my budget, the Continental ones are non-starters.

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10 hours ago, spikey said:

I was looking forward to building and installing a Kitwood Hills turntable on my layout, but I've just had my order cancelled and payment refunded and been advised to try Greenwood Model Railway Products instead.

 

Did Simon offer any explanation for cancelling your order?  A quick look at his web site suggests that he's only doing 7mm and On30 these days.

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8 hours ago, ejstubbs said:

 

Did Simon offer any explanation for cancelling your order?  A quick look at his web site suggests that he's only doing 7mm and On30 these days.

 

I ordered a turntable that is described on his site as for 0n30.  To my surprise, he emailed asking if I intended to use it for 0n30 or for H0/00.  Seeing no reason to lie to the bloke, I replied 00 but that I was primarily concerned about reliability and smoothness rather than authenticity (or words to that effect).  I don't want to copy his response to me verbatim, but the gist of it is that he's 0 gauge and 0n30, I ordered an 0n30 turntable but intended to use it for 00, he doesn't get involved in 00, so order cancelled and payment refunded.

 

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That's very odd.  I'm sure he used to advertise 00/H0 turntables on his site - in fact I have a link saved for the HO 65ft turntable on his web site, but the page has been taken down.  And when I e-mailed him last year expressing interest in the HO 65ft turntable he e-mailed me the PDF of the instructions which clearly describes it as "HOn3 Durango Turntable, HO 65ft Turntable".

 

Sounds like he's decided, for whatever reason, to give up on those scales.  Obviously that's a choice he's free to make but if it's the case then - albeit without knowing the exact wording of his communication with you - it sounds like he could have expressed the reason for the order cancellation a bit better.

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All I'm saying is that how he runs his business is up to him. 

 

In case it's of any interest to anybody else, I got an email from London Road Models this morning in response to my yesterday's enquiry saying that they're currently working on a 60ft turntable, but don't hold your breath ...

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On 13/10/2020 at 11:16, spikey said:

Can anyone recommend a motor/gearbox unit which would be suitable for a 00 turntable and which could be fitted to a 6mm shaft directly or indirectly without the process needing anything more than hand tools?

 

The 6mm shaft is already compounding the problems of motorising a turntable, it's too small to index a 300mm deck to. 25mm would be better,   I believe the best way is to have a two level set up with indexing and motor on a lower level driving the deck on the baseboard above via a vertical shaft maybe 25mm dia. That way you can use the German outline Fleischman  motor and indexing with a tasteful uk pattern deck.   Actually on second thoughts at that price I would just use my finger to push it round

 

 

2 hours ago, cypherman said:

The turntable I have is this one. http://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/p/26550/6152C-Fleischmann-Turntable

IMHO it is the best turntable you can get.

Fleischmann-6152 turntable.jpg

 £400? My car only cost £750.

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19 minutes ago, Siberian Snooper said:

I'm on me laptop this morning, so here's the link to the Midland Railway Centre Turntables for 4mm.

 

http://www.midrailcentre.com/4mm-scale-00-em-p4#anchor

 

Thanks, but the only turntable kit that the very helpful Dave's still got that would suit is a 70ft which I'd have loved to have bought off him, but despite my best efforts over the past 24 hours to fiddle the finances, there's just no way I can afford the £200 for the three kits that make up the complete motorised unit.

 

I seem to be destined to scratch-build my second turntable ...

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9 hours ago, DavidCBroad said:

 

The 6mm shaft is already compounding the problems of motorising a turntable, it's too small to index a 300mm deck to. 25mm would be better,   I believe the best way is to have a two level set up with indexing and motor on a lower level driving the deck on the baseboard above via a vertical shaft maybe 25mm dia. That way you can use the German outline Fleischman  motor and indexing with a tasteful uk pattern deck.   Actually on second thoughts at that price I would just use my finger to push it round

 

 

 £400? My car only cost £750.

Hi David,

All I can say is you get what you pay for. I think the analogy here is the difference between a Ford Fiesta and a Ferrari. Both are cars but I know the one I would really want.........:)

Please note that every one of the separate edging pieces can be removed and a track piece put in it's place. So you can basically have a line coming off this turntable where ever you want. Electrically it stops dead centre on each line. If you do a 180 degree turn it remembers which end is the front of the engine and which is the back.

Edited by cypherman
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4 hours ago, cypherman said:

Hi David,

All I can say is you get what you pay for. I think the analogy here is the difference between a Ford Fiesta and a Ferrari. Both are cars but I know the one I would really want.........:)

Please note that every one of the separate edging pieces can be removed and a track piece put in it's place. So you can basically have a line coming off this turntable where ever you want. Electrically it stops dead centre on each line. If you do a 180 degree turn it remembers which end is the front of the engine and which is the back.

I agree entirely, my next door neighbour had a Ferrari Dino, 2.3 litre  aluminium body,  absolute pig to work on, looked good, went sometimes. 
 

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