Scatchbuilt A-Frame Turntable

[sdrees]

I have switched gear as I await materials for the bridge.  I have been building an A-Frame Turntable base on the articles in the Model Railroad Hobbyist in March and April this year.  I have been using the A-Frame Turntable in El Portal, California for the Yosemite Valley Railroad.

The base of the pit is made from 1/2" birch plywood, the lower portion of the pit is also 1/2" birch plywood and the upper part is from 3/8" plywood and I had it sanded to 5/16" thickness to match the height of 3 layers of railroad ties which line the pit walls. The Code 70 rail around the pit was bent into a circle using a Fast Tracks rail bending tool. 







The pivot is made from a guitar jack socket  and plug. The long threads on the socket allows for accurate vertical adjustment.  The center spindle rail is also Code 70 rail bent to a 2" diameter. To represent the spider I used n scale wheel which I fastened to a strip of styrene and wrapped the styrene around the top plywood disc.

In order to take care of the polarity issue when the table is turned 180 degrees, I am going to install an auto reverser unit

Guitar jack and socket



Top spindle




Socket mounted in base of pit.




The turntable was built from HO scale dimensional lumber
































 

[cuse]

Very nice work. Looks great!


John

[jerryrbeach]

Steve,

You hit a home run with this!  I especially like the beautiful work in coloring and weathering the wood portions of the turntable and pit.  Looking forward to seeing this finished up and installed on your layout. 

[GPdemayo]

Beautiful turntable Steve. 

[sdrees]

Thanks John for your comment!


Also thanks Jerry, I soake the wood in and A/I solution and then painted it box car red.  Then ussed a wire brush to brush off some of the paint and then applied more A/I solution.


And thanks Gregory for your comment.

[ReadingBob]

That's really neat Steve!     Great job!

[EricQuebec]

That's really neat Steve!     Great job!

What he said
Eric

[sdrees]

Thanks Bob and Eric.  I ran out of track so I can't complete the installation yet.  Back to the bridge.

[sdrees]

Here are a couple of pictures of the turntable during the installation process.  I still have to finish the trackwork in the area.

[bparrish]

Steve.......

This just gets cooler by the minute.....

Thanx
Bob

[sdrees]

Thanks Bob,

[S&S RR]

Steve


I just found this thread - I agree with Bob this is very cool. Great modeling. I really like this idea - may have to give it a try.

[deemery]

Could you remove the bridge and post a photo of what the underside of the bridge (with the guitar plug) looks like?


Thanks in advance!


dave

[sdrees]

Here you go Dave.

[deemery]

Thanks!  I wanted to see how you mounted the plug.  Any tricks for making sure things are correctly centered?


dave