Model Railway Forum

I find myself in need of a turntable for my OO gauge layout. From what I can make out there's not a lot out there. Could anyone here shed some light please?

What I've discovered so far. The Hornby R070, the obvious choice perhaps, is pretty universally slated for being an expensive piece of junk. Peco is the obvious place to look, but unfortunately, from what I can make out their models need to be sunk into a layout -- a non-starter for me. Atlas, if I recall the brand name correctly, seems to be another make, but their offering is aimed more at US HO than the UK.

For now, by way of an experiment, I've ordered a Dapol C001 manual turntable kit. Not my first choice, by any stretch of imagination.

Anyway, have I missed any? Are there any reasonably priced units out there that would suit (surface mounted, electrically operated), or have I pretty much covered the available options?

Cheers.

Hi, Frateschi, make an excellent , reasonably priced one. Converted mine to DCC. Great bit of kit. John

Whilst they may be reasonably priced in France, I can see no UK stockists. Most listings are for the US when I do a search, with South Africa and Australia spread into the mix.

The Dapol kit can, with a bit of ingenuity be powered to allow locos to drive on/off. And with a bit of thought made to look half decent.

I’m afraid I can only recommend the Peco. Excellent product. Dapol does a good job.

Ian, hi, there is a uk supplier. They are a Brazilian brand, like Hornby in uk, sell locos etc, many good write ups. Mine was secondhand, but they read well.

Ian, can’t find uk supplier, now. They were in London. As an aside, look at their Gann set, super model.

Thanks for all of the replies.

I watched a couple of reviews of the Hornby turntable on YouTube (Sam's Trains) and I do wonder how Hornby has the gall to charge as much for their R070 unit, if Sam's Trains reviews are anything to go by. It seems so noisy too. That said, all I need to do is to spin a loco. through 180 degrees using the same road out as in. I also think that the Hornby suggested powering of the unit looks unnecessarily complicated, so I haven't entirely dismissed it.

Peco would be my go-to choice were it not for the fact that I'd have to cut a hole in my layout board to accommodate it, The way that the board is cross-braced underneath makes that a non-starter, which is a pity.

I'm hoping that the Dapol unit will be man enough, and it seems that there are kits out there that can motorise it. I'll know more when Hattons deliver it.

Peco turn table as has been mentioned is great easy to build the plastic it is made from is tough and bits dont break off. It works fine. I have not got around to motorising mine yet but that is easy to do.

Both of my Peco turntables are positioned where there is cross-bracing. It was fairly easy to reduce the cross-bracing enough for the turntable well to be fitted, and then supported by the cross-bracing.

100_0396 by Barry Clayton, on Flickr