I must apologize for not keeping people better informed of progress on the infamous turntable module. David, for one, must be sweatin’ bullets. Especially since his highly modified Bachmann OF 2-8-0 has emerged from the shops.
Well, never fear. The turntable’s here!
I’ve been quite busy since the crash I reported last time. Obviously. I didn’t deviate too far from the instructions, though I did do a few things in my own order. For instance, I put the pit rail onto the ties before painting, and sprayed the ties and rail a color approximating rail brown as a unit. That will more closely match the tie color on the layout. I did the same with the bridge deck.
I also was not happy with the design of the electrical contacts. Of course, I’m known for that! 
Instead of the bent wire pickups in the kit, I substituted a pair of my Shay Wipers. Jack, of Freshwater Models, was a little put out that I didn’t like his wiper design. But, I don’t like anybody’s wiper designs.
Anyway, starting tomorrow, I’ll begin to wrap a module around this, and get it tied into the other modules. Who knows. Depending upon how far I get, I may cart this thing up to New York this weekend for a little show & tell …
Geren, it looks great! I’m contemplating using one of the Sellers TT on the new layout I’ll build when I get to the NW (Washington). Are you going to use the motor w/indexing? If so, I’ll look forward to hearing how well it works.
BTW, I like phosphor bronze contact better than wire also, more dependable in the long road.
Chuck
Chuck,
For the moment, it’s an “armstrong” affair. That may change after Kimberton this year — we’ll see. I’m on pretty tight time constraints to “get ‘er done.”
As far as motorizing, I’ll probably do something home-grown. I’ve got a 2-rpm gear motor I’ve been hanging onto forever, waiting to build a turntable over it. So, that will likely be my motor.
The other option would be to use a stepper motor and controller. Indexing then becomes relatively simple.
Geren,
Looks great. Don’t worry about me, one of the reasons I can’t go to New Paltz is my modules are all still legless. I’m the one sweating bullets.
Choptank number 4 is an added bonus- I’m thinking about that paint scheme for my next OF280 and wanted to know how it looks. You have answered my question- rather nicely I think!
Dave
Legs? The modules need legs? Oh, crap!
For reference, the green on the boiler is Northern Pacific green that I had specially mixed when I worked for MTH. The paint used on the model is actually auto laquer.
Hey Geren,
That turntable is absolutely grand.
Well done; I hope it works as good as it looks.
best regards
ChrisA
Well, see the latest post, Chris.
I’m not real happy with the pivot — it won’t turn very smoothly because there’s too much play in the “bushing.” I don’t know that I’m going to have enough time to do anything about it before Kimberton. The trick is going to be coming up with a pivot and axle that is rigidly mounted and doesn’t rely on the pit rail or the center bushing for its operation. Once I get that behaving better, then I can worry about motorizing the thing.