Turntable Tribulations

MetalSmith Ltd market a very nice range of turntables. Cheap, they are not (£117 for the 60ft kit, plus motor) but the quality is superb.  However, thinking I could save both money and time, I elected to buy a Peco LK-55 turntable.

I'm sure Peco have many, many happy customers, and it's not my intention to knock a perfectly respectable product, but I soon realized that, for me, it was probably the wrong decision.  Firstly, it's 300mm in diameter (equivalent to an unprototypical 75 feet) and secondly it's made of plastic. Okay — I knew all that before I bought it, 75 feet isn't that much bigger than Padstow's 70 footer, and plastic bearings surely shouldn't have been a problem... but read on.

I assembled the basic kit, then set about motorising it, using the recommended Meccano parts. I wanted the turntable to automatically stop when it aligned with the approach tracks, so invented my own solenoid 'lock', using parts of an old H&M point motor.  The photo shows the arrangement.  Amazingly (for me) it worked! Energising the H&M solenoid withdraws the plunger and also depresses the microswitch, which energises the turntable motor. When the next slot comes round, the plunger drops into it, thanks to the spring on the microswitch, which de-energises the motor.

Elated, I installed the completed turntable on St Petrock and set about laying the approach tracks.  Then disaster struck. The main bearing had been emitting some ominous noises, but a drop of oil seemed to cure the problem... until one day the whole lot jammed and sheared the plastic stem clean off the table base!

I toyed with consigning the broken remains to landfill, but couldn't bear the thought of writing off rather a lot of hard work, so I stripped the whole lot down and carefully substituted a metal bearing and spindle.

The bearing is the centre of an old Meccano cog wheel. Great care was taken in opening up the original hole to accommodate the new bearing. If it was off-centre, the whole thing would be ruined. 

This is the new spindle, mounted in another old Meccano cog middle, locked tight with the Meccano grub screw and fixed in place with epoxy resin. The tri-square ensures that it remains vertical as the 'poxy sets.   

Before reassembling, I also lined the turntable wall with brick-embossed Plasticard, to make it look more like the turntables at Padstow and Camden. This, in turn, meant that I had to trim the table length a bit to fit the now slightly smaller well.

(www.britainfromabove.org.uk)

The Peco model is clearly a scaled-up model of a smaller manually operated turntable.  All the 70 footers in my collection of photographs are vacuum operated, so the finishing touch was to extend the table deck and add the vacuum control apparatus.

The irony is that St Petrock didn't really need a 75ft turntable, or even a 70ft one. A 60 footer would have been adequate to turn a T9 or N.  Unbeknown to me, the Southern Railway obviously planned to run Bullied light pacifics into St Petrock, perhaps hauling the Atlantic Coast Express, so now I shall have to get one.  Is Father Christmas reading this?

Finally, just to prove that it really does work, here's a short video...

So... will I replace this turntable when time and finances permit?  Probably not. I'm actually rather pleased with the modifications I've made – particularly the brick lining and the vacuum apparatus – so here it stays.

Daddy's Shop

Here is my first home — mum and dad's shop in Argyle Street, Bognor Regis. That's little me in the pushchair, probably being propelled by my cousin Margaret.

Within a couple of years, mum and dad had sold up and moved to Newquay, and a further 52 years were destined to pass before I returned to Bognor Regis.  By then, the shop had become an Indian Restaurant, and very good it was too.  When I showed them this photo and told them the story, they gave me a free aperitif with my meal.  Lovely folk!

It didn't take me long to decide that St Petrock must include a model of dad's shop, with his name proudly displayed over the front door. I've changed the proportions of the building slightly, to fit the available space but, despite my questionable modelling skills, it is, I hope, easily recognisable. To dispel any lingering ignorance when folk visit the layout, a print of the original photo hangs on the wall above it.

I will eventually get round to bedding down the building properly, to get rid of that 'orrible black line at pavement level. One of next door's chimneys needs attention too, I see. It, by the way, together with the rest of its building, belongs to that august firm of St Petrock solicitors, Messrs Swindle & Cheatem. Personally, I prefer to spend my time in the Cornish Arms, across the road. With beer at one shilling a pint, who wouldn't?