Hornby Turntables.

Well after waitng to see what would be posted as 'help' form the forum members, I went ahead a couple of days later with my thoughts about connecting the R410 turntable through the 15v output on the 'Select'.

Apart from the fact that it is unbeleivably noisey, and only travels clockwise, it seems to work okay, except I notice that it sends the 'Select' into a 'start-up' routine of displaying 30,11 then 03 remaining on 03.

I have concluded that as the tails of track on the table itself turns through the arc of the powered 'entry' road upto the table it must see this a temporary shorting out and triggers a reset.

It does not appear to happen anywhere else including the 'exit' road that the loco leaves by.

Upon returning to align with the 'entry' road it repeats the start-up sequence again on the 'Select'

Now, I wonder if this is what the adapter to which I refered to in my first post overcomes.

My obvious concern is that what if using this method is actually going to do damage to the 'Select'

I have checked out Hornby's site and I have not found any information about modifying a turntable for DCC control, but I have found reference to a DCC Accessories controller. Do I need to fit one of these?

There must be some one out there among you who has DCC operated turntable (R410/R070) who can just let me know what you did when fitting yours?

Perhaps some one would be kind enough to post a quick advisory please?

KR's

Mike
31.8.08

I've moved this to the DCC section where it will be seen by many more people who will surely be able to offer some advice.

What I've found:

R070 Hornby Electric Turntable. Diameter 382mm. The turntable is designed to operate with the Standard Controller R965. Drive the locomotive onto the turntable, then switch the power from the track to the turntable via the R046 Switch (supplied with the set).

Hornby R410 Turntable has one inlet track and seven outlet tracks. Operated by turning the water crane which turns the turntable. Attached to the base is a foreman's hut and water crane. Dates from around the late 70's.

Most people, myself included, use a reversing unit on the bridge of the turntable to prevent shorting and to keep the locos running in the right direction.

Also, see this info from Hornby (found on the Hornby site) on converting a standard DC Turntable for DCC Operation.

The Hornby Turntable R 70 is actually quite user friendly for DCC. The Hornby website describes the modification for complete DCC control adequately. At present I am using mine under analogue control with a redundant speed controller from a train set given to my grandson before he was old enough to appreciate it. I have that permanently on at about one third speed with an on/off switch. The speed is slow enough to be realistic although the downside is the stop for about 2 or 3 seconds at every exit, the noise as it turns is not too bad at this speed.

You still need to make some modifications for DCC use even if the motor turning the turntable is under analogue control. Remove the contacts as described by Hornby and locate the two wires that feed the track on the bridge. If I recall correctly these were wired to the entrance road. They need disconnecting from the entrance road, and connecting to the track bus. (Mine are all buried now somewhere in the scenics) All the exit and entrance roads should have their own separate connections to the bus but bear in mind that somewhere in the circle as the turntable rotates the polarity changes. You need to establish where this is, to ensure that the exit roads have the same polarity as the bridge at the point of exit.

With a bit of repainting and weathering and buried into the surrounds so that there is no incline on the entrance/exit roads and painting the control hut in more somber colours (or replacing) this is an acceptable model. OK not as accurate as the Peco model which looks good, but to operate it is not, trying to align the exit roads and a floating bridge, I eventually gave up and bought the Hornby turntable.

Hi Doug and Peter.

Well I followed Hornby's information page and did the conversion. Peter you're so right about the noise level at slower speeds, it is so much more acceptable.
I used a standard R8215 Loco decoder and it works well and now I have the choice to go clockwise or anti-clock. Interestingly it wouldn't accept the code 99 (which I would have preferred to assign, as an 'accessory' - strange that!)

Fortunately my layout has the t/table on the inner edge of a 1st radius curve with the entry road at 7 o'clock (relative) and only one exit road at 4 o'clock (relative) which is a spur that rejoins the existing yards. This allows for a quick 180 degree turn around either prior to rejoining the main rail or before retiring to the diesel fuelling station in the yards. (The yards are accessible from elsewhere on the layout as the 'main' entrance)

Sorting the small incline over a short entry slip was an interesting challenge, but the Loco's all seem happy with result. Not one complains, slips or does a "Duchess" ( ie, falls off)

Thank you all for your help. Especially to David and Doug for moving my posting into the correct forum.

On a different subject, the railway society I am a member of has a 'track night' every month. At the first one I attended a group of chaps were talking about the Pendalino 'leaning' train and I commented that when I had my first layout in early sixties, I had the "Duchess of Atholl" which was a leaning train, sometimes it leaned so far that it leaned all the way off at the corners! Hence, my expression 'Doing a Duchess'

Thanks again folks.

KR's

Mike

1.9.08