The last time I had a working turntable was on my first layout, the Fiddletown Southern, when I was in middle school in the late 1960s -- an Atlas 9 inch turntable. A couple of my larger H.O. layouts -- the first Palo Verde & Pacific in my parents' attic in the 1970s, and the second in my garage in the late 80s -- were supposed to have, but I never got around to adding them.
I've included a turntable on several of my designs for the Lockwood & San Emigdio; I want to have some engine storage so I can keep several of my locomotives on the layout. Ideally, I figured I'd use one from Kitwood Hill, which by all accounts makes fantastic kits. But they're pricey, and have to be ordered from the manufacturer in England.
Well, one of them turned up on eBay a little over a year ago, at a very reasonable starting price, from a modeler here in California. I bid on it -- a lowball bid at first, then a more serious bid that was close to what I'd pay for a new one. I ended up winning the bid for a very satisfactory price; with shipping, I probably paid about half what it would have cost to order one from England and have it shipped.
The kit looks amazingly well engineered, and I've been looking forward to building it, but not having a layout large enough to install it, I've had the kit sitting on a shelf ever since. When I started working on the new layout, I did order the motor I needed for it, from Amazon. Now that I've got a place for it. I'm going to start putting it together.
I started this morning by staining the parts. I may start assembly as soon as tonight.
7/7/25: I started assembly today, gluing together the center pivot structure and the rings that make up the pit floor. After letting that dry, in the evening I added the ties for the ring rail, then soldered the rail in place.
I added the side supports, the top rim, and some of the side panels. At that point I decided to paint the pit bottom tan. It would have been easier to do this before starting to build the sides. After letting that dry overnight, I'll paint the rail and ties; that definitely would have been easier before adding the sides.
7/9/25: Yesterday, I painted the ring rail and ties, finished installing the side walls, and installed the power pickups.
Today, I cut the hole for the pit in the sheet of plywood I'm going to use. Then I built the motor mount and did most of the assembly on the bridge.
Both the 2-6-0 and the outside frame 4-4-0 just fit.
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