Motive Way Department

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It seemed natural to have a module where locomotives were worked on and had a turntable. And, obtaining a Peco N gauge turntable at a boot fair enabled this.

Buildings and Equipment
These were workshops, ash pits, water crane, etc.

The Turntable
The turntable deck was about 6 inches (151 mm) in diameter and so could turn large locomotives (with a wheel base of up to 43 scale feet).  UnfortunateIy it was not motorised and I had to get a suitable motor and design a circuit to drive this.

Motorising the Turntable - I managed to get  a small motor with gearbox. But I needed a way to drive this slowly and stop when the tracks are aligned. To do this I designed a circuit that fed a train of pulses to the motor. The width of the pulses and hence the speed of the motor was adjusted by a preset resistor. Beneath the turntable, I mounted reed switches where I wanted the turntable to stop. The position was chosen using a rotary switch on a control panel.

The Module
The Motive Way Department was made using a standard module (22.4 inches long by 15.25 inches wide by 3 inches deep).