MOC Turntable

[Kivi]

Another larger project is under way and the first part of it is the rail turntable. An essential part of railway infrastructure in the era of steam traction but unfortunately not very common these days.

The concept is fairly basic - a bridge for rotating the engines, or in this case to direct them to one of the rails leading to the roundhouse.

Side view

The drive is hidden under the rails. The turntable is powered by M motor which is powerful enough to rotate the bridge with Emerald Night on it.

A video of turntable in action is shown

. The entire thing is built on six 32x32 baseplates and the pit is 58 studs in diameter.

[timmyc1983]

Wow, that is immense and amazing! Very very cool!! It seems a little too big to fit into a layout though, do you plan to add it to a layout? It's very impressive either way!!

Great work and happy building

[The Ghost Racer]

It looks great! Amazing work. One idea would be to add a small warehouse in which to store the locomotives.

[Redhead1982]

Knowing it's going to be a part of a larger layout, I'm more looking forward to seeing other details when finished. I like the fact that it's functional with a rotating motor.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Very impressive! :wub:

... the only note is that it requires a layout with a considerable thickness to insert it properly

[Hey Joe]

Hey! That's really cool, thanks for posting.

Joe

[kieran]

Whats the plan to take up the height of the pit in the layout, looks good

[Man with a hat]

That's impressive. Really nice how you made the round design of the pit.

And what you call a large layout most be a huge layout.

[Kivi]

Thanks @all.

It seems a little too big to fit into a layout though, do you plan to add it to a layout?

Those four rails won't lead just nowhere, so something will be placed at the end. Not really a layout, but it's going to be a part of a diorama 160x96 studs in size.

Whats the plan to take up the height of the pit in the layout, looks good

A massive support will be built all the way under the 'ground level' of the plates, though it will take quite an amount of bricks to build it. As this is already my fifth 'elevated' project in last 3 years, I got some experience how to make it efficiently, even without duplo or any other cheaper material.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

A massive support will be built all the way under the 'ground level' of the plates, though it will take quite an amount of bricks to build it. As this is already my fifth 'elevated' project in last 3 years, I got some experience how to make it efficiently, even without duplo or any other cheaper material.

This sounds interesting!

[zephyr1934]

Looks like a great start, can't wait to see the rest of the layout.

[Captain Green Hair]

That's brilliant! I'd love to see a close up of how the rails ''connect'', do the trains ride over it well?

[Hrw-Amen]

Looking forwards to seeing the end diorama then.

[JopieK]

very nice turntable... will you also share the mechanism, that is of course one of the more intricate things of a turntable ;)

[Kivi]

very nice turntable... will you also share the mechanism, that is of course one of the more intricate things of a turntable ;)

Sure I will.

The motor is positioned under the rails and the motion power is transmitted via vertical axle.

The technic turntable is the key element for bridge rotation. The part that lies diagonally to the bridge is the base that is fixed to the baseplate. The bridge is also supported by wheels on both ends to prevent it from deformations and to make it more stable.

I'd love to see a close up of how the rails ''connect'', do the trains ride over it well?

The widest and the narrowest gaps are shown here. Emerald night has quite some problems riding over them and often tends to derail, owing to its width and design (rods, blind wheels, cowcatcher), while any rolling stock with ordinary bogies, like EN carriage, runs over them smoothly, even over the widest one.