gregh
electronics, computers and scratchbuilding
Way back in 1995, I built my first turntable at a station then called Ghost Gum. (Later I changed its name to Sandstone.) It was a concrete base with an aluminium rail for providing power to the rails on the turntable. It was manually turned. I even provided water drainage from the centre!
These 2 pics show it from each direction. The station is on a raised garden bed about 2’ high.
And this is a closeup
BUT I made a big mistake. The turntable connected directly to the platform road (because there was no other option). This meant that I could not use the TT when the platform was occupied. And the TT was hard to reach, being at the back.
I tried a solution of moving the station platform to the front as shown in this pic. (The name changed to Sandstone here too, when I finally named the line).
But I didn’t like the station at the front – you couldn’t see the building detail and I had to reach over it to get to the sidings for shunting. (I have long since decided that “buildings at back, sidings at front’ is my standard)
So when I built the new station building it went back to the back, with the same TT access problems. You can just see the TT in these two pics from opposite directions
But I finally decided the TT had to go and I just covered it up and built a goods shed on the site.
BUT I STILL NEED A TURNTABLE as it is a terminal station and I still like running steam tender locos.
So I’ve decided to build an ‘extension’ at the front of the raised garden. (shown in khaki)
Here’s the area and a plan.
Ideally I’d like the TT access track to come off the mainline to the right of the plan to make access really easy - purple dot on plan. That way the TT access would never be blocked by standing/shunting trains. (It may not be prototypical, but would be easiest for operating MY railway.) But just not possible – that’s a ramp/path on the right. So I’ll lay a new siding in front to lead to the TT, so that I still have most of the existing siding length. This requires a 15cm wide extension at the front of the existing baseboard.
First, I built the TT bridge to determine the height from the TT base to rail (55mm -0/+3mm ). The TT bridge is a couple of bits of 2”x2” plastic angle and 50mm square wood, running on nylon wheels with a 3/8” pivot. Nothing fancy – just practical, and no track power needed
I decided to make the TT base from (suspended ) concrete – the TT is adjacent to the ramp/path just at the right height for my grandsons to step onto. So I want it strong. I had some corrugated fiberglass roofing lying around so used it as the base for the concrete. I haven’t decided whether to put reinforcing in or not. Here’s the ‘box’ ready for the concrete, with the bridge temporarily in place for checking.
to be continued.....
These 2 pics show it from each direction. The station is on a raised garden bed about 2’ high.
And this is a closeup
BUT I made a big mistake. The turntable connected directly to the platform road (because there was no other option). This meant that I could not use the TT when the platform was occupied. And the TT was hard to reach, being at the back.
I tried a solution of moving the station platform to the front as shown in this pic. (The name changed to Sandstone here too, when I finally named the line).
But I didn’t like the station at the front – you couldn’t see the building detail and I had to reach over it to get to the sidings for shunting. (I have long since decided that “buildings at back, sidings at front’ is my standard)
So when I built the new station building it went back to the back, with the same TT access problems. You can just see the TT in these two pics from opposite directions
But I finally decided the TT had to go and I just covered it up and built a goods shed on the site.
BUT I STILL NEED A TURNTABLE as it is a terminal station and I still like running steam tender locos.
So I’ve decided to build an ‘extension’ at the front of the raised garden. (shown in khaki)
Here’s the area and a plan.
Ideally I’d like the TT access track to come off the mainline to the right of the plan to make access really easy - purple dot on plan. That way the TT access would never be blocked by standing/shunting trains. (It may not be prototypical, but would be easiest for operating MY railway.) But just not possible – that’s a ramp/path on the right. So I’ll lay a new siding in front to lead to the TT, so that I still have most of the existing siding length. This requires a 15cm wide extension at the front of the existing baseboard.
First, I built the TT bridge to determine the height from the TT base to rail (55mm -0/+3mm ). The TT bridge is a couple of bits of 2”x2” plastic angle and 50mm square wood, running on nylon wheels with a 3/8” pivot. Nothing fancy – just practical, and no track power needed
I decided to make the TT base from (suspended ) concrete – the TT is adjacent to the ramp/path just at the right height for my grandsons to step onto. So I want it strong. I had some corrugated fiberglass roofing lying around so used it as the base for the concrete. I haven’t decided whether to put reinforcing in or not. Here’s the ‘box’ ready for the concrete, with the bridge temporarily in place for checking.
to be continued.....
