Scalefour Forum

I've bought an etched kit to assess replacing my home made wagon turntable on Forge Mill Sidings (parts of the prototype reside at Midland Railway Butterley ; anyone interested in moving restoration forward with me?).
No online payment but that's ok. The instructions for folding are basic and once worked out it folds ok. I folded these yesterday.

Interesting. I like the look of the etchings, but I think I'll await the next part of the saga before placing an order (or trying to - T&Cs that say you'll get an e-mail with payment details are always a trifle off-putting, even if they do recognise there's more to the world than Little England, or the area inside the M25).

This looks interesting, especially as the kit is listed for 00 16.5mm only.

Gordon A

dal-t wrote:Interesting. I like the look of the etchings, but I think I'll await the next part of the saga before placing an order (or trying to - T&Cs that say you'll get an e-mail with payment details are always a trifle off-putting, even if they do recognise there's more to the world than Little England, or the area inside the M25).

What's to be off-put? Peter sends you an invoice and then you pay by a cheque in the post. It may be a trifle slower in this day and age but his products are top notch...usual disclaimer...

Yes, I was put off by the lack of "click and pay". It's a trifle slower but no problem. Next issue will be working out how to wire it up, before fixing anything in. It's designed for 00 which leaves unacceptably large flange gaps in the centre. I'm going to use strips of metal to extend the "rails" by 3.25mm (to match P4 back to back clearance)..

The present turntable is slightly out on one rail so wagons sometimes derail on that line. I just have to remember which of the four lines it is. The table turns electrically but the rails are not live as it was never connected up. It uses Alan Gibson plunger pick ups, filed down to half length and springs cut in half, acting on an under track pcb plate. The intention was for the plate to be live to the incoming tracks and the pick ups to align accordingly.

Looking at this it seems that the etching provides only the rails, no working parts and no cosmetic parts for the deck.
And even the rails are not all the right length.
ie. You are left to do all the difficult bits yourself
Regards

Re6/6 wrote:

dal-t wrote:Interesting. I like the look of the etchings, but I think I'll await the next part of the saga before placing an order (or trying to - T&Cs that say you'll get an e-mail with payment details are always a trifle off-putting, even if they do recognise there's more to the world than Little England, or the area inside the M25).

What's to be off-put? Peter sends you an invoice and then you pay by a cheque in the post. It may be a trifle slower in this day and age but his products are top notch...usual disclaimer...

Please, Sir, what's a 'cheque'? Actually, they are still used over here, with certain draconian banking regulations controlling their issue, but I confess I have no idea how to fill one out. Paypal I can handle, bank transfer my personal financial assistant (aka SWMBO) takes care of, well-thumbed Euros in a plain envelope I might rise to, but I'd still prefer to know which of these arrangements we're going to enter into before commencing a purchase.

grovenor-2685 wrote:Looking at this it seems that the etching provides only the rails, no working parts and no cosmetic parts for the deck.
And even the rails are not all the right length.
ie. You are left to do all the difficult bits yourself
Regards

The rails on the outer parts are to length, it's the inner square that is made to 00, though I guess you could make an 11' table instead of a 12'. When I measured the one at Bestwood Forge Mill (the real one) it was 13' diameter...
No parts for making it work, but there are details in the instructions on how to cut the card for the deck. Then again I have seen wooden planks; Hull and chequerplate ; Forge Mill. I can't remember the one at Liverpool, Derby or Worksop. The rails are thinner than 95lb rail but then the real ones are very light anyway (far less than 80lb). There are instructions for adding pick ups but it's basic.

Metal strip has been purchased from the Stores to extend the "rails" of the inner square. I'll cut and solder this on soon and mark and cut the circle of plastikard.

Forge Mill turntable

The last few days I've been busy adding the strips of nickle silver to the inner "square". Here are the results. Looks a bit messy as I had to add bits to thicken it up.

The next job was to thicken up the other side of the etched strip to match the folded over "rail"

Small strips of the nickel silver were soldered and then filed to match the height.

Once these were done they were cut off oversize and filed back to size. As a guide I used a pair of P4 wheels to act as a guide. The etch was made to fit between the wheels - a sort of back to back gauge in reverse.