I'm curious too...

I'm planning a future turn table, and would love to see what folks have.

Old Walthers kit in progress

Assembly of the Walthers’ 90 foot turntable turned out to be finicky for me; I wound up converting it to manual operation. Painting the pit was straightforward once I hit upon the scheme of using cherry-colored furniture refinishing markers to color the ties in the pit. Following up with a silver Sharpie to highlight the top of the ring rail and a black Polly-S and alcohol wash gave what I thought was a pretty pleasing appearance. Some Rust-All on the bridge girder was all that was needed there, and the furniture marker was used on the bridge deck to good effect.

Final assembly deviated from the kit instructions with the omission of the bridge rails; while a potential safety hazard to my HO-scale workers, the fragility of their attachment points would guarantee my frustration. It's temporarily in place in my engine terminal module.

Janet N.

A good idea for a

A good idea for a topic,

Always interested in TT and even more so custom, scratch or kitbashed ones. I need a 70ft tt in the future but i think it will be a custom brass etch and 3d print of my own.

The pits

Here are two turntable pits from my layout.

First is the Willoughby Turntable:

Second is the Groveland Turntable

Guy

batey_1020, what does a

batey_1020, what does a custom brass etch entail? I'm not familiar with this.

A work in progress

  This is the old Walthers 90´ turnt able...

I scratch built this about 20

I scratch built this about 20 years ago before all the nice detailed kits of today were available 

DaveS, your pit and bridge is

DaveS, your pit and bridge is nicely done and looks like it has done a lot of work; great weathering.

mrtrenes, the grass and weeds are coming along nicely; look forward to your progress.

Guy, I love the weathered look you achieved on the deck of your first turntable. As for the second one, don't let the engineer drop a cigarette into that pit ; )

Janet, the method you used to do the deck is interesting; it gives it a look of used heavily, e.g., a cocktail of spills, grime, and soot.

I'm still working on my scratch built manual turntable's pit:

Got to get some dead leafs and weeds into the pit not to mention get working on the bridge someday,

and scenicking the surrounding terrain.

Hi, mine is a Walthers 2006

Hi, mine is a Walthers 2006 "built-up" model (model prior to what is now a DCC model).  It's the 90' length.  I painted the bottom to look like dirty concrete, darkened a portion near what is really the pivot mechanism, but what would be the bottom of the pit (possibly with a sump or drain), and then poured epoxy over it to simulate oily water.

That is one convincing pit

That is one convincing pit there, Selector. I really like the oily water look.

So much detail and things going on in this photo not mention nice composition.

Scratchbuilt turntable

Probably around 30 years old or older powered by a motor out of an old player paino. I can't take credit for the build.

two tables

Here are two tables. The standard gauge is a Heljan 130' (Ithink) and the  narrow gauge is a 90' Walthers   

TT at Keddie, CA

My TT is a Diamond Scale product. The colors are kind of washed out in the photo but you get the idea. It is driven by a NY Railway Systems indexed unit. - Tom

Update

Update here:

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/29719?page=4

Montanan, still a nice unique looking TT and scenicked convincingly.

Ray, are they both on the same layout? I noted the first one has a texture of brick/stone in it.

Tom, a fine looking TT you have there. I regret selling my Diamond Scale TT from la ayout I had in the nineteen-nineties.

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/30797

Recently I bought a set of their Small Dolly Trucks,

as I intend to make another TT bridge.

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/29144

Here's Mine

Concrete with grime washed off the bridge onto the pit floor.

Bob Bartizek

Lebanon, OH

Very nice, Bob. How did you

Very nice, Bob. How did you achieve that look - the streaks? Also I love the staining of the bridge's deck; can you share how you did it? I would much like that look for my TT's bridge's ties.

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/29719?page=4

Streaks and Stain

The streaks on the bottom of the pit were made using acrylic black paint (from a tube) heavily thinned with denatured alcohol.  The alcohol contains no water and has virtually no surface tension, so a wash using it will not blotch and bubble like a water-based wash can.  I used a medium-stiff brush and made long, quick strokes.  The turntable bridge was removed for this procedure.  Practice on some painted cardboard or painted masonite first to get comfortable.

The wood was stained using Fiebing's leather dye.  I used a mix of brown and black, thinned about 10 to 1 with denatured alcohol.  I use the leather dye for all wood staining.  Thinned black looks like fresh creosote, mixing with brown makes it look older.  There are lots of online sources for the dye.  One bottle is a multi-lifetime supply for model railroad use, even in O-scale.  Again, since the stain is alcohol-based, it dries very fast and does not raise the grain of the wood at all.

Bob Bartizek

Lebanon, OH

I'm so pleased that you

I'm so pleased that you shared this, Bob.

Of all the times I have been to Michaels and never saw it the dye.

What does "raise the grain" mean?

I'm so excited to get to it,

but I'm back to work so hopefully my wife will pick some up for me this week.

Deemiorgos - blog: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/31151

CGW Rochester pit

This isn’t my modeling, but I thought I would share a photo of Jason Klocke’s pit. The image is from his rendition of the Rochester, MN. yard of the CGW.

 Right click to open a new tab showing the full image. 

Unique pit

Here is an abandoned and filled in pit by Clark Propst.

You don’t see these modeled very often!

CMR Turntable Pit

Here is my version of the Custom Model Railroads turntable.
http://www.custommodelrailroads.com/turntables-3.aspx
It's a clear acrylic kit and operates very well.  I painted it concrete, and then weathered with an airbrush.  Prototype photos I've seen since that time indicate the weathering should be more in a "pie slice" shape, but I was pretty happy with it until C&O Historical Society posted a photo of the Handley Yard turntable last month.  Seems I have some more weathering to do!!

Meramec Scenic

Walthers 90', manual operation.

Custom stained basswood railing, custom basswood shed stained and whitewashed, with Campbells corrugated and chemically etched roof.  Concrete paint a mix of a few colors with some light washes (for now- may add weeds and debris).  The spin was a bit "catchy", so I filed/sanded the ring rail as flat as I could get it, and have a slick nylon washer from the hardware store in the center point.  I also used ball-bearing wheels from Proto:87  to replace the molded plastic ones, and adjusted the height ot things accordingly.  Rotates pretty smoothly!  The plastic decking was retained, and I think I got a pretty good blending of various craft-store acrylics to simulate wood.

Scott, thanks for sharing

Scott, thanks for sharing Jason's pit. I like how he put it some board and weeds.

Scott, Clark's long gone pit

Scott, Clark's long gone pit is very unique. Gives me an idea to model a long gone foundation of some sort.