Learning from Others: More brains the better

I attended an On2 Zoom meeting the other night, hence the turntable post earlier - a little explaining how I did something and comments on how to improve. Got me thinking......uh, oh.

There are very, very few narrow gauge modelers around where I live. None model On2 or On3.With all the moving to online meetings this year, a few friends started Zoom sessions to share information. I've also  I recently joined a group of two foot modelers who Zoom on a frequent schedule. It's been really eye opening to see the flow of information. I'm slowly seeing the appeal that I've heard others talk about regarding the gathering of like minded groups in the hobby.  Zoom and whatever is next, I think, will only help increase the interest in Narrow Gauge Modeling. We'll see what happens....

Thought I'd share an example of how discussion on these groups can lead to layout improvement. While presenting information the Albion modules, I asked about how others deal with car cards? How to keep them off the top of the layout and off the scenery. I've seen some ideas online but wasn't really pleased with them and some would take significant efforts to attached. Lee Rainey, quickly provided the idea of what he did on his layout. Chris Mchesney followed up with the idea to keeping it high enough to be able to easily pick up the tops of the cards. The technique was simple, elegant and quick to build. Took me less than an hour to build these two. I'm happy with the results. One question, an answer and an improvement suggestion. Quick and easy! Thanks to Dave who put the session together, Lee for having a great solution and to Chris for adding an improvement. Pete Leach shared some ideas on backdrop painting, and.........Looking forward to how this can improve my modeling skills.

Powering the Albion Turntable

The question arouse on how I powered the Albion turntable. While NOT the ideal solution for a DDC system, this seemed like a simple solution and one that I find works well enough for my small layout operation. The idea for building the spider and powering the turntable originated from and article by Russ Watson in the 2010 On30 Annual.

 

I had to read the article VERY carefully and several times on how to set up the telescoping tubing. I think I did use slightly different sized tubing or a slightly different arrangement in the tubing.

Here is a picture of the spider I built. Only difference from the article is aluminum tubing and brass wheels.

Here is a video link to how it works and the associated momentary"short" that occurs. Not ideal but seems to work. May not be so good for system that uses a motor to turn the table. Two suggestions to stop the short would be: 1) a larger insulated gap between the split brass tubing and 20 smaller diameter wire. With Stay-Alive capacitors, I think a bigger gap would not cause a problem. One more thing to try........

 

Here is a video of the spider and tubing:

I hope this helps those who asked about it. For those who have a better solution, I'd love to hear about it, please leave a comment.