A Return to the Turntable Drive

A while back I wrote about the gearbox for driving the turntable. This is based on some readily available gears from Tamiya. Unfortunately, the Tamiya gears don’t seem to be made for the torque required to drive my mechanism. This is surprising, because it doesn’t feel like a lot of torque, but when you go […]

Filling in the pit

My mum is coming to visit tomorrow (!), and so, I wanted to get as much turntable work done as possible before the train room turns into a bedroom. Ideally I would have liked to have had the turntable mounted in the benchwork before she got here, but unfortunately, I didn’t quite complete that. I […]

Stock Storage

I’ve been meaning to write this up for years, and a recent thread over at Model Railroad Hobbyist has encouraged me to finally post something on the topic. If you’re reading this blog, you probably have a collection of long narrow packages of strip styrene, scale lumber, maybe some brass wire and tube and so […]

Finish layer on turntable steelwork

It was time to re-acquaint myself with my airbrush and other painting equipment. Frankly, I approach airbrushing with the same trepidation that most people feel for soldering, perhaps even public speaking. There is a lot on the line every time you get it out. First of all, there is a largely-complete model, on which I […]

More Thoughts on Roundhouse Doors

I’ve been pondering the roundhouse doors for a couple of days. Earlier this year, I came up with the idea to drive the doors with magnets beneath the layout. However, the tangle of rods and levers beneath the baseboard was hard to visualize. So today, I thought I would sketch it out. It still […]

Totally Unacceptable!

There is nothing quite like a coat of primer to show you where all the blemishes on a model are. I’d been trying to find time to get a coat of primer onto the turntable for several days, and Canada Day finally presented an opportunity some time between the parade and the fireworks. I had […]

On its wheels

I must admit I felt some trepidation when I went to add the wheel assemblies to the turntable this evening. They were inherently unstable, and I couldn’t think of a way to clamp them so the glue would have time to dry. I also haven’t come up with a way to pin them, which I […]

Starting to look more like a turntable!

There was a clear and present danger that no modelling would happen this evening. The Girl wanted to snuggle, and well, who can resist cuddling with their seven-year-old? There will come a day when I can only reminisce about having my children fall asleep beside me. Still, the race to see who falls asleep first […]

Levelling the Turntable

My friend Scott Calvert invited me to an operating session on Thursday (check out his new website!). Everyone (everyone!?) asked me how the turntable was coming along, and so, I guess it has been a while since the last update. The true story is that I have had a couple of killer weeks at work, […]

Turntable girders

I started on the cosmetic girders for the turntable a few weeks ago when I was away on business and couldn’t make progress on the main body anyway. I confess I didn’t make all that much progress in the hotel as there was too much to do during the day, and I spent most of […]