Modeling a Turntable in HO. (Structure Build 9.3 Commutator, Pit Rail & Bridge) 

Sorry I missed the live stream. But Dennis, that was fun to watch and listen too!!! Well done on the video and the turntable!! It looks fantastic! ...Claude

Great details and explanation, Dennis. Awesome project! Thanks for sharing

Oh man, I like how that turned out. You named some glues that I have never heard of. Guess I need to do some research. Thanks for sharing this. Great job Dennis.

Master level craftsmanship. Beautiful.

I think your paint job on the bridge is perfect.

Excellent work, Dennis. Amazing precision. Beautiful results. Thanks for sharing.

The phono plug idea comes from an article in Model Railroader from the mid 90's. I can't remember which magazine. I've built a few turntables this way and it works perfect.

Nice build, Dennis. That turned out fantastic. Luckily you have the skills to fill in what the instructions leave out, or got wrong. Too bad about the motor shed clearance, but even without it, it looks good. I think turntables are one f the most difficult builds in the hobby, and I've never done one. We had a Wilson brand turntable on my dad's layout in the 70s that worked okay, but looking back, wasn't too prototypical. He had a real nice Diamond Scale turntable on his last layout, but sadly I couldn't save it when removing the layout. In my era, the turntable at Mondovi came out years previous when they dieselized. Anyhow, great job! Thanks!

Impressive work! ❤ On the pit rail, if it's a uniform distance from the wall, might not premounting it by solder to PC ties give it a more perfect circle? I like your solution to the powering issue. I must say that those split shafts and whatnot are why I've avoided installing turntables over the whole of four-plus decades in the hobby. But having committed myself to a WWII era layout, I'm going to need a few. One method I've seen - and I want to say it was Bob Hayden's HON2½ layout that it was built for in an article in Model Railroader magazine - he used a 1/4" stereo plug to transfer power to the bridge rails and a DPDT switch to change track polarity.

Sorry that I missed the presentation live with any opportunity to comment Dennis, but tonight was my train club meeting. It looks like the commutator build went well. I hope that its operation is as good as it looks. Catch you next time.

yes super work

Wow, Dennis! Nice looking turntable.❤ Your patience and persistence are admirable. It shows in every video.🙂 Thanks for sharing that preheat tip for spray cans - it's kind of like low heat softening of raw honey - the results are always worth the extra effort. That old, obnoxious, rivet-counting engineer, 🚂Lawrence

Nice!👍

Why not use a phono plug it does it all

So you decide not to motorize the turntable. Here’s a scenario. The motor on turntable suffered an electrical failure and it burned out. The railroad decided not to spend the money to repair it. Instead they added a long wooden bar and turned it into an “Armstrong” turntable. ( Glue an “action “ figure to the bar😊)