Railworks America

buzz456 wrote:

I have been wanting to build something for sometime now, but could not find any inspiration until I saw this picture.

I have created a turn of the century manual turntable, but would like some basic feedback before I complete it an upload it.

It is shown here in the Cimarron and Pacific route in the place of the original turntable.

The turntable is 22 meters long (which is long enough for my personal copy of a converted MSTS Otten Shay and Tender) and for the small steam engine shown in the following picture. The question is, will that be long enough to meet the needs of most early steam engines. (I do not yet own any of Britkits early steamers, so I can not evaluate them - maybe someone who does can provide me with their overall length for engine and tender).

I set it up for 8 tracks, because of the small size, but it is very easy to increase that to 10 or 12 - what would you prefer?

Also, the texture I used for the 'apron' part of the turntable is a grassy dirt type, but maybe a gravel texture would be better (based on how the turntable looks when placed in the gravel texture in the picture) - looking for opinions.

Anyway, here is a picture in its current state.

That looks real nice Dick. I do agree about the gravel instead of grass. But it looks good with grass too!

I agree, looks great! Perhaps two versions? One grass, one gravel?

Trevor

That's looks great!

That will look great on my or any route.

Just a couple of questions:

1) why not go ahead and make it as long as the ones already in use? Some of the steamers, like the Prairie and Consolidated are going to be too long for it, for sure. Those are just medium length engines.

2) Are the 8 tracks evenly spaced around the turntable? Grouped? Again, I'm thinking more is better.

But hey, ANYTHING you decide on will be much appreciated.

USRA Pacific and Mikado were just over 80 feet so we would need 25 meters for them. Consolidation is 66 feet.
Buzz

gwgardner wrote:That will look great on my or any route.

Just a couple of questions:

1) why not go ahead and make it as long as the ones already in use? Some of the steamers, like the Prairie and Consolidated are going to be too long for it, for sure. Those are just medium length engines.

2) Are the 8 tracks evenly spaced around the turntable? Grouped? Again, I'm thinking more is better.

But hey, ANYTHING you decide on will be much appreciated.

I was trying to be realistic in what was actually used at the time (remember the train crew had to turn these things by hand). The default Kuju RailSimulator US turntable is 26 meters long. I will try and do some googles of old turntables to see if I can come up with a good historically accurate length.

The turntable exits are evenly spaced around the turntable by the sim, but I have already increased from 8 to 12.

Here is some information about one that was 80 feet and still turned by hand. I guess I will take a look at making mine 25 meters and see how it proportions up.

Turntable

Adjacent to the Columbus roundhouse is an 80' "Armstrong" turntable for turning locomotives, "Armstrong" referring to the lack of electrical-mechanical equipment for turning the structure. Throughout the steam era, the table was turned by hand as needed by shop forces. In later years, in the diesel era, a tractor was used for turning the engines.

It will look great on the Cimarron & Pacific.

I have increased the turntable length to 25 meters, and am looking for a beta tester to see if the Britkits early steam engines will fit on the table and rotate. (I do not own the Britkits engines yet)

If you have the Britkits steamers and are willing to help me verify the turntable function, please send me an PM.

Send it to Gary Gardner. Let him try it out on the Cimarron & Pacific. If it passes the test, he can include it in his next update.

Mike Durdan is checking the Britkit Steamers to see which ones work and which ones don't. Once Mike is done, I will submit to the file library for everyone to have.

It is already 25 meters (82 feet), I really don't want to make it any bigger as it would not be prototypical for the era. (in my opinion)

I used google earth to check this; It looks like the one at the Nevada State Railroad Museum is 56 feet. I believe it's standard gauge. This number I seem to recall from my model railroading days as well.

The turntable is complete. It is 25 meters long and will accomodate almost all of the Britkits steamers. I have also increased the number of connecting tracks to 24, and revised the apron texture to a gravel.



The file has been submitted for inclusion into the File Library.

Lovely addition!