SAR 85ft Turntable Kitbash
If the South Australian Railways (SAR) modeller wants a turntable for their layout, there are no commercially produced models available in HO scale, so one has to either scratch-build one or kitbash a suitable kit. While I have scratch-built a great many models in the past, including an 85ft turntable for the Adelaide Modellers Group’s Beltowie layout in 1985, which later migrated to Terowie North in 1992, I present here a wonderful alternative. Looking for a speedier solution, it became apparent when fellow modeller Geoff Brooks began a conversion of a turntable kit for his Mile End depot project, which had its immediate appeal. So, I thank him for the inspiration. The kit he used is available from PECO as kit No. LK-55. Many retailers sell the popular makers’ products and so this turntable is widely available. I needed two 85ft turntables for my home SAR layout and so I promptly ordered and acquired them.
The PECO kit is of course OO or 4mm scale and is a representation of a 76ft turntable with a table deck measuring 304mm. When scaled out to HO scale, it comes in at 86ft 10in, which is 6.5mm too long for the 85ft prototype. Now I do like to have everything as close to prototype scale as possible but, in this instance, I was willing to compromise with this very small anomaly. Why? You place a 520, 500B, 720B Class or even a 400 Class Garratt on the table, and they fit perfectly and, most importantly, they look right. You will
