I have decided to have a stab at one of these challenges, so I am going to start work on a mostly scratch built turntable bridge. I bought the really cheap Heljan 120' nscale TT a year ago, but have never been happy with the bridge. The pit I painted and weathered, and the bridge itself is starting to take shape. I am using two Kato shorty Chassis for the drive wheels, one on each end. These are running around a rail which I have bent to a curve around the base of the pit.

I have started connecting the two Chassis together with two beams made of 2mm x3mm Walnut strip.

I will post pictures later today.

Sorry about the delay for photographs, I haven't really been able to work on the Bridge for a while as I have spent most of my time decorating at my sisters house so that it is ready for when they move in at the end of this month.

I have spent last night and this morning/afternoon on it though and am making some good progress, I am just downloading the photographs and uploading them to the net now.

The pictures have been uploaded to my website Here. Each image has a description of what it shows.

More progress. I still have alot of detailing and the control office to build. Hopefully it will be done for the deadline tomorrow. What time tomorrow does the competition end? will I get a chance to do more work?

Anyway progress pics:
The second end, which will be a ladder/staircase down to the pit from the bridge.

Turntable deck and end plates have been added.

The Indexing control board.


Another closup shot of the control office base.

Hmmm... please explain how this will operate. I see that it will be completely self-contained - no motor underneath the layout to make it spin. Anyway, very cool, the first time I have seen a turntable built in this manner.

The two ends are both loco chassis with built in motors. These motors will propel the bridge around a single ring metal ring on the base of the pit. The pickups on the chassis will provide power to the track and to the indexing circuit.

There is an axel in the centre wich simply rests in a hole in the centre of the pit just to make sure the bridge doesn't derail.

The reason I have gone for this method is because a track runs under the pit, and so there isn't room for a motor. Plus It would have been difficult to get my indexing circuit to connec to a motor beneath the layout.

There is a video of it in my gallery as a test, once the circuit is up and running it should run ALOT slower .

I just hope I can get it finished this evening.

So had you seen this done before or did you come up with the idea?

As far as I'm aware it is my design. It may have been done in the past, but if it has, I haven't seen it. I like trying to redesign the wheel, and see what I can make work.

Well, I am very very impressed with your ingenuity. It's one of those kinds of ideas that make you think "Wow, this is so obvious, why hasn't it been thought of before?" and that is the mark of a great idea!

Kudos to you Mr. TCWorld!

Thankyou!

great looking table , love the real wood used on it.
jim

Thanks. I am using Walnut strip wood that I got from a model boat shop. It has a wonderful natural colour which looks old ad aged.

More work, trying to get some of the detailing done by the deadline. I haven't got any fencing yet so people will just have to imagine it is there. The sides will also need some cross bracing detail which I will try to get done this moring (is 9am here) and hope it is done in time.

Piccys:
A shot of the turntable's location on the layout:

The control board for the turntable in the little hut:

The ladder end close up:

The centre arch. This will have ropes running from it to the base of the bridge for added detail. I will be using cotton thread for this job.

The office/hut with roof installed on the bridge:

The office end close up:

Construction of the control office/hut. This before the roof was added:

The final pictures of the bridge. It is now as complete as it is going to get for this competition. There are a couple of little finishing touches such as fences along the sides, and some weathering of the wood, but I don't have any fencing left, and I still haven't got around to ordering some weathering powders.

My N-Scale Turntable Bridge Scratchbuild and Turntable Pit Modification/Weathering (The pit is from the Heljan Manual 120' turntable kit).

Piccys:
The plastic people have teathered the arch on both sides to ensure it doesn't fall over again:

A shot of modified Bachmann Plymouth Loco pulling a covered Hopper on the Turntable to be transferred to one of the sidings:

A shot inside the control hut on the end of the turntable. You can see the panel which the little plastic folk use to control the turntable:

Just a few general shots of how the bridge looks on the layout and with the pit at its current level of detail:




Enjoy!

That's one tough turntable...

That's one tough turntable...