Turntable coming for UniTrack

[rpierce000]

According to the 2012 Kato catalog there will be a turntable and 3 stall engine house this year.

 

Bob

[Nick_Burman]

According to the 2012 Kato catalog there will be a turntable and 3 stall engine house this year.

 

Bob

 

Oh golly, I'll rub my hands in expectation untill they catch fire...

 

Cheers NB

[to2leo]

Is there any picture of the turntable?

[westfalen]

The 2012 catalog only has a photo of a real turntable. My guess is that it will be a typical Japanese turntable similar to the Tomix one.

[rpierce000]

For all of you who have sent me PMs on this:

 

1) It is in the catalog for 2012

2) No, I do not have a picture of it, there is only a picture of a real turntable

3) No, there is not a release date, if I get one I will let you know

 

Bob

[keitaro]

DCC PLEASE

[westfalen]

DCC PLEASE

Do you mean able to operate the turntable by DCC, or able to use it on a DCC layout using the turntables controller to operate the turntable from a separate power supply? The former would be nice, the Tomix turntable is capable of the latter.

[keitaro]

both would be great.

 

I would like to be able to tell the computer to put loco in shed x

 

but yeah controller would be fine too but always good to have full automation ability.

[Martijn Meerts]

Keitaro, you might want to look at the Walthers turntable.. Not Japanese, and a bit big perhaps, but it's full DCC, and with a bit of work it should be possible to make it look fairly Japanese.. The only problem is the fairly deep pit. Of course, I'm fairly certain there's a spot in Japan where they have/had an American style turntable the size of the Walthers one =)

 

 

Westfalen, doesn't the Tomix turntable need some adjusting though? You want the bridge to be powered by DCC, but then you'd have to adjust the ribbon cable that normally hooks up to the turntable. At least, I guess that's how they power the bridge?

[westfalen]

Before Christmas we installed a Tomix turntable on a club members DCC layout straight out of the box, I'm sure he won't mind me putting up a photo. The turntable controller has a ribbon cable going to the turntable and two inputs, one for track power which we connected to the DCC track bus to and one with a Tomix TCS plug to which we connected a 12VDC power supply to turn the table. I was at his place this afternoon and it's still operating perfectly.

[linkey]

When the KATO turntable and roundhouses comes out are pre-orders, I will be getting a set of them for my layout. :)

[Martijn Meerts]

Westfalen, wow, it's that easy eh? Will have to try that with my turntable as well.

 

Also, I notice there's a double crossover in the picture. Had any issues with that on DCC? I have one as well, but it's causing a short when trains run over it. Looks like the wheels of the trains are bridging track with different polarity. Probably an easy fix, haven't looked into it at all yet :)

[westfalen]

Westfalen, wow, it's that easy eh? Will have to try that with my turntable as well.

 

Also, I notice there's a double crossover in the picture. Had any issues with that on DCC? I have one as well, but it's causing a short when trains run over it. Looks like the wheels of the trains are bridging track with different polarity. Probably an easy fix, haven't looked into it at all yet :)

He's got three Kato double crossovers on the layout and we have two on T-TRAK modules that don't give any trouble. Could be a wheel under gauge bridging the gap between rail and switch point.

[nik_n_dad]

we ended up with the fleischmann that is DCC friendly.  It has an option for a really nice digital controller.  It can't handle some of our larger steam, but it seems to work nice (we've played with it, but it's not on the layout-in-progress)

[westfalen]

we ended up with the fleischmann that is DCC friendly.  It has an option for a really nice digital controller.  It can't handle some of our larger steam, but it seems to work nice (we've played with it, but it's not on the layout-in-progress)

 

I have a Fleischmann turntable on an N-TRAK module, I bought it long before DCC was thought of and even back then it cost me $300 (on sale!) but it is a good turntable. The Tomix and, hopefully soon, kato turntables are more Japanese in appearance and although shorter also resemble many Santa Fe turntables so suit both of my prototype interests equally well.

[Martijn Meerts]

Westfalen, the double crossover we have is Tomix, and considering all trains cause a short on it, I'm guessing it's not the wheels being out of gauge, unless I've been REALLY unlucky =)

 

 

Nik's dad, the Fleischmann turntable is great, used to have one in the old layout. We recently sold it though because we figured we wouldn't be using it anymore, mainly because making it compatible with Selectrix would be too expensive, and I didn't really want to use it on the new layout.

[westfalen]

I don't have any experience with the Tomix crossover so I'll pass that one on to others.

[nik_n_dad]

I notice there's a double crossover in the picture. Had any issues with that on DCC? I have one as well, but it's causing a short when trains run over it. Looks like the wheels of the trains are bridging track with different polarity. Probably an easy fix, haven't looked into it at all yet :)

 

Martijn-

 

We have the kato double crossover on dcc and seeing no problems.  Are you sure you have the same polarity on both loops?

[Martijn Meerts]

nik_n_dad, 100% certain the polarity is the same yes. Actually, even if the train goes straight, there's still a short and there's sparks coming off the wheels. I need to test it with regular DC at some point, might be I got a faulty one, or that something's happened to it.

[rpierce000]

Now if they would only make a transfer table with DCC in N....

[cteno4]

aaah transfer tables, my fav. so rare! i have a walthers HO that back in my old US modeling days i was going to convert to n scale for use with big diesels and have a large set of maintenance sheds on either side. bit too big for japanese use though... really want to make a small one for trams on ttrak.

 

by dcc you mean dcc control of the stopping points? there are a number of good ways to control these w/o dcc and be accurate. contacts even work well on transfer tables as if you use a worm drive you can stop them pretty quickly as opposed to turntables where you are dealing with the fastest moving part of the thing to sense things usually.

 

jeff

[rpierce000]

I was lucky enough to pick up a MANUAL one, but no motor kit, I guess I was just adding all the dreams at once.  It is a Herkat, one track in, six out. I will search for a motor kit and/or expansions for a LONG time! I am also interested to see if anyone has played with the combo turntable/transfer table Fleischmann built, but it looks so complicated I would worry about breakdowns.

 

Of course we are wandering off topic here, perhaps I should start a new thread?

 

 

Bob

[john_ibw]

Before Christmas we installed a Tomix turntable on a club members DCC layout straight out of the box, I'm sure he won't mind me putting up a photo.

 

westfalen, is it possible to see more pics of the layout? Is the progress being blogged or documented someplace? Thanks!

[westfalen]

Before Christmas we installed a Tomix turntable on a club members DCC layout straight out of the box, I'm sure he won't mind me putting up a photo.

 

westfalen, is it possible to see more pics of the layout? Is the progress being blogged or documented someplace? Thanks!

Thats all I've got. Next meeting at his place I'll try and get some more.

[john_ibw]

Thanks and only if it's not too much trouble!