Peco has just come out with a styrene turntable kit for On30 modelers. I have
just
completed modifying one of these to S standard for an upcoming magazine review
and
just had to pass on the results, as good turntables are so hard to find in S.
The good news
is that this is a "real" turntable with a full pit and bridge, not like the
flat surface Atlas
style. The prototype is probably British (Peco is a UK company), but it looks
plenty
American to me. It is smaller in, but most existing S turntable are quite
large thus the
Peco kit offers a good alternative at a fairly reasonable price.
The Peco "kit" makes an easy conversion to S standard gauge and will go
together in under
2 hours. It scales out to a 64 foot "armstrong" style turntable in S with a 5
foot deep pit.
That's about 12 1/4" in diameter and 7/8" deep. It is perfect for our smaller
layouts and
handles both the SHS 2-8-0 and Southwind 2-8-0's and 4-4-2's (with short
tenders).
Obviously, it will accomodate any first generation freight diesel unit as well.
The styrene castings are quite good with excellent rivit detail. All of the
parts are styrene
except for phosphore- bronze crescent inserts in the bridge base and sprung
brass
contact cylinders that insert into tubes cast into the turntable bridge. These
provide
power to the rails and control the polarity in a very simple, well designed
system. Code
100 rail is provided with the kit.
The pit consists of 3 styrene castings that assemble into the circle. The
bridge is made up
of one main top piece and two bridge side castings that interlock for good
stability. The
outrigger wheel assemblies are simple in construction and are added to the
bottom of the
bridge with pins and holes cast into the pieces. They provide bridge stability
with rolling
wheels that ride on a pit rail that is cast in place and does NOT carry any
power (hurray!).
Electric powering mechanisms are available and their installation is shown in
the Peco
instruction sheets.
All in all, this is a pretty cool find. Anyone wanting additional info can
contact me off line
for details.
Bob Hogan
Madison, GA
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
