Jim:  Thank you for your prompt reply and detailed modification plan - I will painstakingly review your plan and trust my limited abilities will result in a 90' turntable

Åny thoughts/ideas re converting an Atlas TT to a 90 ' TT - would like to hear of results of those that have done so and how it was accomplished as well as problems with such a conversion

The front truck on the Baldwin 2 -8-0  tender does not turn freely - I have tried to loosen the screw but apparently the treads are damaged.  Because of this problem the tender does not negotiate a 45 degree crossover without derailing.  Any suggestions or this is a candidate for service at Bachmann? If the latter, can you get good service through Bachmann's customer service and how do you reach them?  Thanks for you assistance.   

I don't buy $400 locos, but notice prices generally are much higher than just a few years ago.  Seems to be fewer rolling stock kits and more RTR rolling stock - I don't like to pay $35 for a boxcar.

I purchased the Walthers 90' turntable kit - it is not good.  I assembled the kit, reworked the assembled kit many times and finally gave up.  I had power problems as well as mechanical problems (bridge scraping the pit, etc.).  I called Walthers for help and was told by a technician that there were many problems with the kit.  I finally bought and installed the Atlas turntable -  it is a bit short to turn certain longer locos,but it does work for me.  I certainly could never do the makeover mentioned above.  Good luck with whatever turntable you select.

Some read these posts only to find spelling, grammatical or other errors.  I thought Spectrum was spelled Specktrom.  Thanks for the help

I finally completed assembling the turntable kit and have it installed.  The turntable does turn with a minimum of problems, however, power to the turntable track is a problem.  It is intermittent and at present there is no power to the track, so will have to try to find the problem.  I have installed the turntable to use with an Atlas 3 stall roundhouse, and that did present a problem.  I had assembled the roundhouse which has floor under the building.  The floor was a 1/4" above the turntable track, so I had to remove the flood and attach the roundhouse walls directly to to the table top.  The locos do move into the roundhouse OK, so guess my kitbashing did the trick. 
A note for rogertra:  the turntable kit is a piece of crap, but now it is my piece of crap.  The turntable did take a good bit of sanding to the pit walls and then some Dreml tool grinding to the ends of the bridge.  If my time working on the kit would have been worth $10 per hour I could have bought the $250 Walthers turntable and would still have some cash left over.

The crappy one

Query - is there a polarity issue when wiring a Walthers 90'  kit turntable.  When the turntable is turned 180 degrees the tracks are obviously turned around.  Does this present a polarity problem, and if so,  how is it corrected?  Thanks for your help.  Les

I hope someone is still looking at this post.  I have the turntable installed and IT DOES WORK; however, my problem now is getting track from the turntable to an Atlas 3 stall roundhouse.  The roundhouse has 3 extensions of about 4"from the doors; the turntable edge of the extension is about 1/8" plus higher than the turntable track.  Query?  How can I get the track to the roundhouse match the turntable track height?One thought I have is to glue another track on top on the turntable track now installed which would closely match the height of the roundhouse track (with a bit of shimming to make it match precisely).  This might be the simplest way and would perhaps not be too noticeable.   If anyone has any other ideas I welcome them.  Oh yes, I do not have room to move the roundhouse further away from the turntable so I cannot put a grade from one to the other.  Thanks for any help.  Les

After posting I went back to the workbench and examined the turntable more closely and determined that the cover over the wheels at each end of the bridge were rubbing on the pit.  I ground them off with a Dreml tool and voila the bridge turned without binding and any apparent trouble.  This test was done on the workbench so I will see how it works when I install it on my layout.  Even if it does work reasonably well, the kit is,  to quote rogertra,  "a piece of crap".     

I have assembled a Walthers 90' Turntable Kit and am very dissatisfied with the project.  After assembly the bridge would not rotate properly - there is no binding on the edge of the pit, but rather there seems to be way too much wobble on the bridge shaft.  During rotation the bridge would turn and then stop - it sounds as though the bridge gear and the motor gear do not mesh properly; that one gear in turning above the other.   Has anyone else had such a problem; are there any suggestions; any way to fix the problem?  Your help will certainly be appreciated.  I did call Walthers and talked to a person that was familiar with the kit and he said that the kit is not too good and it has its  problems.  Again, any suggestions?   Thank you. 

My layout has grown like topsy - as a result I have 4 power packs in use; guess it could be called a 2 cab (or more) system.  Question - can I use another power pack simply to power the approach track, turntable and roundhouse by simply starting the power on the approach track.  Reading the Atlas Wiring Book it appears that I could use an Atlas 210 Twin switch and a series of Atlas 205 Connector switches for power to the turntable and roundhouse???  Will this work?  Thanks for your help.

I have a 2-8-2 URSA Athearn Genesis that simply did not run; I wrote Athearn in Carson, CA,  they told me to send it in, they repaired whatever was wrong and it did run for awhile and then started to run very slowly; another letter, sent it back in for repairs and it now runs OK.  Athearn did this at no cost so I would say the service was good.  By the way, has anyone had trouble with the 2-8-2?

Gene:  Using knuckle couplers - thank you.  Les