Roco LINE Mode D'emploi page 19

THE ROCO LINE TURNTABLE
ASSEMBLY- AND OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Dear Model Railway Hobbyist!
A great wish has been fulfilled with the purchase - or gift received - of this
ROCO LINE turntable. We are aware of your expectations and have given
special attention to the design and construction of this operating model. The
result is a reproduction of a 22 meter (72 ft) standard turntable in exact sca-
le with versatile possibilities (fig. 1: installation with constant separation;
fig.2: installation with different separations), a durable, quiet and reliable
About the Prototype
Turntables are almost as old as rails and certainly older than railways; in the
mines of the early 18th century they were used - in place of turnouts which
were invented much later-to interconnect different rail tracks.
Along mine- or industrial tracks they are still used today as wagon turntables
for this purpose.
Compared to the "turntables" used by the "big" railways today, which are
actually "turn-bridges" (in some European languages they are actually cal-
led by this term), these wagon- and mine turntables are real "tables" with
covered pits.
With early railways, turntables performed the function of turnouts, especially
in terminal stations. Whether they were built as real turntables or only as
table segments they were used not only for turn-around of locomotives but
for shunting the engines to bypass the trains. Additionally, several station
tracks were cross-connected by wagon turntables (see fig. 3) to make it easy
to remove single wagons from the trains and move them, perpendicular to
the station tracks, to other tracks to include them in other trains or for se-
parate shunting. As locomotives and wagons became longer (and heavier),
turn tables were no longer used as substitute turnouts; especially the track
cross-connections within stations by means of wagonturntables disappea-
red. Instead turntables became indispens- able components of railway ope-
rating centres. Since then, they were designed as true bridges, either with
upper chord (relatively rare today) with shallow pit and ballast roadbed or
with lower chord (this version is generally used today) and deep pit which is
either secured with masonry and stabilized to the centre pivot with Radial tie
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under-table drive as well as simple, understandable electrical components.
In the following pages we discuss in detail the prototype, technical details,
installation and operation of the ROCO LINE turntable. Please take your time
reading these instructions. Then you will be able to perform the installation
successfully and will have many years of pleasure with the reliable operation
of your new turntable.
rods or - today the usual design - made in site concrete (see fig. 4, prototype
situation, e.g. in Freilassing, and fig. 5 as model). Until the end of the 80s
of the past century every turntable was built individually "to order": shortly
before the turn of the century a general standardization and classification
of turntables began to evolve in practically all traditional railway countries.
In the German-speaking countries, turntable sizes became common which
increased in 2-meter steps from 16 meters to, initially 22 meters. With the
introduction of the large standard locomotives, 24 meter turntables were
used in all newly built or enlarged operation centres. After the introduction
of the "giants" among the steam locomotives such as class 45, class 05 and
06 (later the condensation-tender engines of class 52) even the 24 meter
tables were not large enough and finally 27 meter tables were developed
which could accept these locomotives as well. They remained limited to a
few large operations centres where these large engines were stationed or
had to turn such engines at the end of their runs. or were supposed to have
such engines assigned at a later date which did not take place due to the se-
cond World war. With the change in motive power turntables did not become
entirely unnecessary (even though transfer tables took their place at newly
de signed diesel- or electric operation centres); for new construction or re
placement the installation of 24 meter turntables was (and still is) practiced;
the most frequently used version is the 22 meter table which can be used for
turning even driving trailers with 26.4 meter length as is done routinely in
the operations centre Freilassing (see fig.6).
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31.01.2011 09:18:55