Turntable misalignment poses mystery

There are times when you should just put down the soldering iron for the night and take a breather. One of them is when you completely wreck something – clearly you’re not at your best, and it’s a good idea to quit before your frustration gets the better of you. Another good time is when […]

First rail is critical for Pembroke turntable

Tonight I finally started laying rail for the turntable. As with the staging yard turntable before it, the sequence of rails is carefully planned. Unlike last time, it’s only in my head — something I may regret. Tonight I glued down one end of the turntable rails themselves, as well as the near rail of […]

Cinders not quite right on Pembroke roundhouse tracks

Last night I glued down ballast for the tracks around the turntable. Now engine service areas are often ballasted with cinders from the engines, but I assume that it takes a little while for these to accumulate. After six years, would they have had enough to cover the area? I didn’t know, so I mixed […]

Six-year old turntable ties require delicate staining

I got up early this morning to do a little sanding on the ties around the turntable. It turned out that the edge timbers were particularly proud – on one side, they lost about .010″ (.25mm). There is still a step of about the same to get on one end of the turntable. I think, […]

Wood screws not to be trusted for Pembroke turntable realignment

Just once, I wish something would go easily! I installed the turntable in its pit the other day, and the observant among you may have noticed something is not quite right with the vertical alignment. It’s more than I can easily correct with sanding, but fortunately, the reason was easy to diagnose: the wheels were […]

Turntable and roundhouse requires handlaid track

Over the last couple of evenings, I’ve put in the ties and timbers for the tracks around the turntable and into the roundhouse. It’s hard to imagine how you would achieve this without handlaying the track. Mercifully, for most of us, it’s all just plain track – no turnouts – and so, relatively straightforward. Handlaying […]

Timbers at turntable edge should overlap

I had been wondering how to deal with the rather tight curvature of the timbers at the edge of the turntable pit. In my head, they were ties, with a scallop cut into them. That could work for the two outer tracks, but what about the middle track? It either gets no tie at the […]

Forward at last: Pembroke turntable pit installed

One of the nice things about keeping a blog is that you can look back and see how long ago you started thinking you were at the point you are now. This stall with the turntable drive has been exactly a month, but last night I declared victory and installed the pit and drive in the […]

Turntable wheel drive looks successful

I think Mark Dance’s idea of driving this turntable with a wheel riding out near the edge of the table is going to work! Rather than dig into the Lego for real, I made my own wheel from some O-rings and brass and 1/2″ styrene tube. The 1/2″ wheel yields about nine turns for a […]

Lego Experiments Bear Fruit

Thanks to some encouragement from the followers of this blog, I gave Lego a shot for driving the turntable. We have a house full of the stuff, although one of our collectors likes mostly the Friends and Elves Lego, which is sadly not conducive to turntable manufacture. Fortunately, the Boy like Star Wars and Technic […]