Transfer Table

[cteno4]

Hobbysearch is showing a new 5 track tram transfer table from Kibu Collection for late july release. looks fairly crude and is only manual sliding. not clear if the table's track is powered or not from the description.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10191863

 

Not impressed at $150! but transfer table models are very rare and i dont think any others are in production right now. they are also selling a little flashing warning light kit for it as well.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10191865

 

Ive always wanted to make one, especially for the trams. nice long one with maintenance sheds on both sides. transversing movement can be done with a long threaded rod easily enough. step motor would be best to have programmed stops, but if slow enough the old just have a gap in a power feed rail along the edge at each track would work. i did a little turntable this way when i was a kid and it stopped 99% of the time dead on as long as i did it clock wise (as i did the gaps in this direction/order). its hard to get the gaps to work perfectly from both directions.

 

thought this was a funny bit of fortune cookie english at the end:

 

"For those who do not train are not suitable for knowledge."

 

i want to put that on a tee shirt and look at folks puzzled faces!

[bill937ca]

Not impressed at $150! but transfer table models are very rare and i dont think any others are in production right now. they are also selling a little flashing warning light kit for it as well.

 

There are a lot of current prices that I am not impressed with!

 

Too bad the parts are not sold individually.

[The_Ghan]

I won't be blowing $150 on one of those !!!

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[keitaro]

i love the comment "For those who do not train are not suitable for knowledge"

 

but hell yeah thats steep.

 

I been thinking how hard would this actually be to make? couldn't a simple one be made using some thin board by cuting out the shape and embedding the rail then using a servo to move it.

 

Would need to have the servo vertical and the runer pretty smooth to move.

[Martijn Meerts]

It looks mostly plastic, but from the description you'd think its an electric one .. Maybe the picture shows a prototype...

[Hobby Dreamer]

If you search YouTube/Google, there are some videos of scratch-built Transfer tables.

 

If this is motorized, then the price is probably fair and hopefully this looks better in person. I think the hard part might be attaching track. I doubt either Tomix or Kato tram track will fit so one likely needs to find an adapter track to join to rail track.. (And it might be nice to have track covers if the transfer table joins to a tram workshop etc)

 

If Kato keeps up with new releases of tram product maybe they will make one of these.

 

I think Brawa and Mintrix made N scale transfer tables.. They might be re-released or available on eBay..

 

Rick

[cteno4]

yep, brawa, minitrix and a couple of other smaller manufacturers have made them. they do come up rarely on ebay and always go for wild prices as they are pretty rare these days.

 

yes if it was motorized for $150 it would be ok, but appears not to be.

 

most transfer table models use a slot running down the pit that has a long threaded stock in it and a bolt on it that is attached to the table itself so when the shaft is turned the table is moved along the shaft. this way you dont have to gear the motor down slow as even a fast turning threaded rod will move the table fairly slowly.

 

i think the electrification they may be talking about is bringing power to the table's tracks. this is usually done with two rails along the edge of the pit with wipers on the table contacting them.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

well its in stock now at hs and has better pictures as well as all the instruction sheets. its a kit and no motor. looks like power to the table might come from the track its mated to. Not a lot there for the $162 price tag. I think i would rather roll my own that would be motorized and indexed as this one does not look easy to build as designed. something to work on in the future here!

 

jeff

[The_Ghan]

Agreed.

 

Edit: I think there's one too many zeros on that price tag.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan