For the record, everyone... I'm aware of the flaws in the ORIGINAL Walthers
transfer table... but that is irrelevant since the one I'm talking about is
a "New and Improved" version. How much better it will be, though, remains
to be seen.
John Degnan
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Karnes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: {S-Scale List} Transfer table In S?
> John D. et al --
>
> Beware the Walthers transfer table.
>
> I built an S scale transfer table -- sort of. What I did was buy two
Walthers HO transfer tables when they were liquidating their first run of
these some years ago. I spliced the bridges and the pits to make a really
neat-looking S version. I even drafted an article on how to do it. On the
bridge, I simply mounted the rails outside their location grooves and the
gauge turned out just right. I left the operator's shack off, because I
knew I'd have to scratchbuild a taller one and mount it a little farther
away from the rails. The bridge itself was motorized, and it moved by
transferring motor power via a shaft to the two cog racks in the pit. The
motor got its current via brass wipers rubbing against two of the brass
rails mounted in the pit.
>
> The thing didn't work worth a darn. The pit needs to be perfectly flat in
order for the gears beneath the bridge to remain engaged with the cog racks
in the pit. The pit molding comes pre-warped despite its molded-in
stiffeners because that's what large two-dimensional styrene moldings are --
They are never truly flat. In order to make my transfer table work, I would
have had to replace the pit bottom with a flat metal or wooden plate, milled
the cog racks out of the Walthers pit, and bonded them to the new pit floor.
I just gave up and used a switch ladder instead of the transfer table to get
locos into my electric loco shop.
>
> An additional Walthers design flaw: The heavy mass of a locomotive, should
the bridge accelerate or decelerate too quickly (as when the gears lose
contact with the cog racks), can cause the loco to topple sideways off the
bridge.
>
> While the considerably lighter mass and lower center of gravity of HO
locos would reduce the likelihiood of loco overturning, the pit floor
distortion would have to be eliminated entirely for the transfer table to
work properly. I hope Walthers' new release solves this...
>
> There was an article in an ancient Model Railroader about building a
homemade transfer table. Its bridge was not self-motorized. Rather, the
thing was operated via a cable that attached to both ends of the bridge,
passing over pulleys located outside each of the four corners of the pit.
The cable was actuated either via a motor, or (preferred by the author) a
hand crank. A coil spring on a fifth pulley provided the necessary cable
tension. The entire design was simple and very stable. My regret is that I
could not use it because my transfer table would have been on a level above
and behind a main line on a lower level, so I had no room for a manual or
motorized cable drive.
>
> Dick Karnes
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