Peco Turntable

Hi Scotsman4472 and welcome to the MRF.

The Peco Turntable is, with just a little care, very easy to construct.

I power mine with a Frizzinghall motorising kit which is a bit Barnes-Wallace in appearance but works fine.

I had a similar question regarding power feed and track polarity and you might find this link back to my thread useful. http://www.modelrailforum.com/forums/index...=Peco+Turntable

Happy modelling,

Expat

QUOTE (philg @ 3 Jul 2008, 19:09) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>As I recall the supply is taken from the lead track...e.g. the main track into the TT...the supply to the table is automatically reversed by the copper strips under. Quite ingenious I thought and I digitally controlled mine with my fore finger!! Nice kit but getting a bit dear...price of plastic I suspect!!
Phil

Absolutely correct Phil. The trick is in the positioing of the semi-circular contacts in relation to the 'In' road.

As regards cost it it still a hell of a lot cheaper than any of the RTR options from the likes of Fleischman.

I can let you have the circuit diagram for mototising your TT if you fancy doing it.

Cheers for now,

Expat.

within the PECO turtable kit is a diagram showing the orientation of the circular contact rings.......it IS a very good kit.....it is worth inserting a bit of round steel rod into the table pivot....not only allowing future powering..hand or mechanical/electrical.....but gives the pivot someweight,or inertia?

the main problem with the Peco [and Aifix/dapol] turntable is the need to invent some form of locking system for when the tracks are aligned.....in order for the table to 'spin' freely, a tinytad of free play, or 'wobble' [like 'wibble', but horizontal?]....needs to be present in the collars that lock the table spindle in place.........there is also some free play in the carrying wheels, which ought not to really touch the ring rail...but....

this means that, once the table is aligned to a track, when an engine enters, the table tips very slightly.....unfortunately magnified because of the distance the end of the table track is from the pivot.

Unless some sort of 'lock' is devised, there may be a problem of the table bridge actually moving slightly out of alignment as the loco wheels pass over the edge.

I reckon an ideal form of locking would be a small diameter tube located vertically under the end of the bridge, containing a light spring, and perhaps a small ball bearing......running perhaps along the ring rail.

some suitably located notches would allow the ball bearing to register, thus holding hte bridge in place, with the spring allowing the table bridge to be rotated.

However, with ours I was mindful of a sub-10 year old son, so I made up some small bolts, one for each track, which slide in small brass tubes [with a small 'handle' on the end of each]...these are secured at an identical distance relative to each approach track....achieved using a home-made gauge, and PCB sleepers for the rail ends......with one short length of the same brass tube [eased out a bit inside], glued onto the turntable deck end.....in a correspondingly correct relation to the track.

thus my son can lock the turntable bridge securely in place, run on an engine, without fear of derailment....turn the table, and locate and lck onto another track....without anything being ''fiddly''...which bores small kids very easily...as does unreliability?

QUOTE (scotsman4472 @ 3 Jul 2008, 10:07) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>This is my first posting on this site, so here goes.

I have just built a garge layout 17ft x 13ft on 3/4in chipboard.

I have been pondering over a suitable turntable (manual operation is okay) and almost bought a Hornby one but did not think it looked realistic. I then purchased the Dapol (ex Airfix) kit only to be persuaded that the Peco 00 offering is best. I have the room to cut out the 12" hole.

Question is this. As the track on the turntable is not connected using fishplates to the track leading to it, how does the turntable get its power?

Has anyone fitted the Peco turntable and can offer advice on how simple or not it is to install?

Any input will be appreciated plus the amount of time it takes to build the kit. The box says "easy to assemble kit". I trust they're right!

Hi Scotsman

I've just purchased one of these (that was after I'd been to the Bank for a loan to do so - really expensive IMHO). The kit is indeed easy to assemble taking about an hour to do properly but, quite frankly, I don't know why Peco don't do the assembly and sell it as RTR. One thing I don't like is the three piece well as, even gluing all the centre tabs still allows it to flex a little and would have been better as a one piece moulding.

Another issue is the pivot retaining ring under the table. As alastairq mentions it is difficult to get it tight enough, or high enough up the shaft, to prevent a bit of wibble/wobble and locos entering and leaving have a definite dip as they go from solid ground onto the table and vice versa. I don't think this is helped by the wibble/wobble mentioned previously.

Electrically two wires are hooked up from the approach track to two terminals under the table well. These terminals go up through the base to two half circles of copper which form a flat two piece circle with a gap (to prevent shorts) either side. Two spring loaded brass contacts sitting under the deck make contact with the copper circle and automatically transfer power via the springs to the running rails on the deck - simple but very effective, nicely manufactured and goes together very easily.

Chopping the mounting hole exactly to the one given on the template provides a nice snug fit but before gluing it into the hole make sure you fully understand the electrical instructions as half the table has a reverse in the polarity when wired as directed and there are two dead spots on the table due to the half circle copper pick up gaps under the centre of the well. Make sure you get the dead spots in the right place or your locos won't go anywhere.

Track alignment needs to be carefully attended to particularly horizontally. Interesting to note that in alastairq's photo his tracks go slightly uphill onto the TT deck whereas mine, with approach tracks on a cork base, go slightly down.

My table is only used for turning engines at a terminus station and, being guilty of NOT reading the instructions properly, I went to the trouble of arranging a DPDT switch to reverse polarity back to that of the approach track after a loco had been turned. As I use DCC this was totally unnecessary. Wire it up as shown in the instructions, run an engine on, turn it and simply run it off again. I think you'd need to study the polarity issue closely if using feeder tracks to a shed for example or, if using DC.

I wanted a Heljan but the cost (£140-150) coupled with the present credit crunch meant SWMBO wouldn't allow it and I thought the Peco was the best of the rest. For now I'm stuck with a manually operated 'hand of God' jobbo but, so far, it has proved more than adequate for the intended purpose. As yet I've had no derailments etc, but I'm still saving for the Heljan.

Mike

Interestingly enough the Peco N Gauge Tuntable well is provided as a single moulded unit. When I modelled in 00 I also had a Peco Turntable and to avoid any distortion of the well I actually assembled it on, and glued it down to a piece of 9mm ply. Any 'wibble wobble' was minimised by fitting wagon wheels to the ends of the bridge instead of the provided plastic ones and then making sure that the bridge is held down tight on the centre spindle.

Unfortunately this last mod cannot be done on the N Gauge turntable so I am presently looking at other options.

As regards mechanisation I have the Frizzinghall motorising kit which, using the gearbox provided by them, gives a very, very slow rate of turn which enables the tracks to be aligned by eye. I am looking at some sort of interlocking device though.

As an easy to asemble and reasonably prototypical turntable the Peco uit has to be the best value for money on the market.

At the end of the day though you get what you pay for in terms of quality and performance.

Cheers,

Expat.

QUOTE (lnerdave @ 30 Jan 2016, 23:46) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>... will a hornby p2 fit on to the peco turntable
The Peco turntable is oversize for typical UK practise at a scale 75', rather than a scale model of a 70' turntable, the largest diameter generally deployed on the UK network. In the interests of not having to install yet larger diameter turntables, standard layout steam locos were carefully designed with a wheelbase and balance point enabling them to fit on a turntable of this size. So yes, the P2 will fit as already suggested.

The P2 might well have been a better machine in service as a 4-8-2, but that would probably have increaed the wheelbase to a length not possible to accomodate on a 70' turntable, and have the loco in balance. This last was important, most UK turntables were balance types, the crew having to position the loco on the bridge such that it was balanced on the centre bearing if it was to turn freely.

The only larger locos in the UK were the 2-6-0+0-6-2 and 2-8-0+0-8-2 Beyer-Garratt classes, which fortunately did not require turning. I believe peak size in turntables was achieved in the USA, where the largest Mallet classes eventually required 135' turntables.

I use a Peco Turntable on my layout with Frizzinghall power unit. I found that there were two main concerns I had and they were cementing the central spar, this has to be as firm as you can get it as when I placed the heaviest loco upon it the motor turned but the turntable didn't turn, and second, the noise level was very loud. I have stuck some neoprene under it and that has helped a little.
Turn speed is adjustable with swapping the yellow gears so when you fix the mechanism to the underside of the turntable make sure you can get it off again in case you need to change the gearing.

I've got mine working ok and controlling the stop points (for driving on and off the table) is do-able if your creep speed is slow enough.

I haven't finished weathering mine yet but basically it's oily and coked Matt black with grass tufts scattered randomly about. It's starting to look ok but I will post a piccie when it's done.