I bought one of the RCS 33" turntables and frankly was quite happy with the turntable and its bridge, even though some complained about the detailing. When I read Railrunin's thread with the photographs of the improved RCS turntable bridge announced at York, I really liked what I saw. When I learned about the upgrade rebate Ross offered, I ordered one of the improved bridges. It came today and I took some pictures of both bridges.
The original bridge.



The improved bridge



The changes that I see: improved hand-rails and stanchions on the bridge; a control shanty with different window and a curved rather than peaked roof; a finer detailed mast with a top deck and ladder which extends through a hole in the turntable deck bridge to the turntable pit floor.

The old control shanty



The new control shanty



The old mast



The new mast





Nice job by Ross Custom Switches!!

Andy

[Edited to correct turntable bridge length to 33"]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: prrforever1,

Great improvement.

Thanks Andy! The only other thing to mention would be that the shanty roof is removeable so one of those guys can be in there to control it!
Happy Railroading!

If i bought a 34" turntable from Ross, would the new bridge design be an upgraded price? Did you get the manual driven or computer driven model? Do you have any pictures or video of the turntable in action?

Now, if they'd just deck between the rails.

quote:

Originally posted by windycitysaint:
If i bought a 34" turntable from Ross, would the new bridge design be an upgraded price? Did you get the manual driven or computer driven model? Do you have any pictures or video of the turntable in action?

Windycity,
You'll have to ask RCS your first question.
I bought the version with the automatic index system (not sure I'd call it computer driven, but I don't know what's in the system).
No, I do not have any pictures or videos of my turntable in action. Hopefully soon.

Andy

My question is can the detail on this turntable bridge be modified for PRR use? The PRR had the control shack in the middle with counterweights!

There was a recent Keystone Modeler article that did just that to a similar Walther's TT assembly. Electric bridge and cab in the middle is a project no matter whose TT you attempt to modify.

Here are some pictures of the PRR TT at Conway Yard, Beaver Valley, Western PA.











You also may want to note that even though this TT has a center cab there are controls at either end.



I got lucky this morning. Here is a link to The Keystone Modeler, Jan. 2009 Number 66 reprint of a detailed PRR upgrade of a Walthers TT (HO scale). Pages 15 through 27. Excellent pictorial for any one wishing to do a PRR TT.

This article was reprinted from THE EAST WIND, Vol. 3 No. 4, Summer 2007. © 2007 New England Chapter, PRRT&HS

IMO. Steve's TT is an excellent product, that could be modified any way you want. Steve has shown excellent customer service concerning his TT products. His current modifications prove that. You should talk to him about your project and his TT. Neil Schorr (PRRMiddleDivision) here on the forum has purchase a Ross TT and is making extensive modifications to it, you may want to talk to him also.

Al Zamorski, (CSX Al) here on the forum, also has an excellent TT that could be modified to a PRR TT. You may want to talk to him also.

Best wishes on your project.
Mike CT

Looks better then the original, I wonder did they copy the control shanty and some of the details from this one? CSX Al's turntable

Good morning Paul. I'm happy to see you are feeling much better.

CSX Al's TT uses detail parts from Bowser Specifically the deck detail kit.

The electrical tower and boggie's are Diamond Scale Parts. Another player, who at one time supplied larger O-scale TT's

I believe Steve's bridge detail is done by Bryan Cooper, Bridge Solutions.

Thanks Mike for the info.

I like CSX AL's turntable because he gives you an option to have it weathered. I bought his bowser upgrade kit and it was awsome. Very good quality. However, I would lean toward buying the Ross turntable just because of the automatic index system. How many stalls can you have in the roundhouse with the automatic indexing?

quote:

However, I would lean toward buying the Ross turntable just because of the automatic index system.

Just a FYI, we offering automatic indexing of our turntables with the Dallee indexer at an additional cost of $80 so that is available. Also in the near future we will have a way to plug the auto indexer into a control board that will allow you to plug into MTH's AIU and control which track you want to go to with your remote. Stay tuned.

P.S. Even though we do use some parts from other suppliers we have modified them from there original designs to use with our products.

Oh and Steve, nice changes that you have made to your bridge.

Thanks for all you support everyone.

Thats great news Al. I'll have to wait. Please keep us updated. Is everything assembled when i order your TT? Also, if I buy your TT now will I be credited somehow for this upcoming control board and if I purchase the TT and the indexing kit, will the indexing kit be mounted on the TT? i would like to thank you fot the upgrade kit i bought earler this year. It is an excellent quality product.

I think the changes that Ross made reflects the success that Al's turntable is showing for a newly introduced product in this hobby, and is a valid attempt to meet the demand for better detailed turntables. A win/win situation for us!

I agree with VaGolfer1950. When Bowser was still making TT's, it was affordable. When they stopped making TT's, Ross started to sell TT's at(IMHO) at a ridiculous price and at that price I believe corners were cut on the detailing. I've never seen a control shanty with a pointed roof. Also the arch reminded me of a toy like appearance. Al's turntable came in just in time because of the price, quality and attention to detail. Al also offers a weathering service for an affordable price. I believe that if Ross came out with the idea of weathering TT's before Al, Ross would have charged at least doulble because there was no competition in that price range for a TT.

Wanted to clarify a few things, we make and engineer all our parts for the turntable (and all our products) right here in our shop. Gives us great flexibility in what we can accomplish. Our first bridge design was meant to compliment Bridge Solutions products as some of our customers that use Brians bridges wanted continuity in their layout. Some of our customers asked for more scale-like bridge detailing so we answered with what you see above which does copy prototype practice but is sort of an amalgam of different railroad designs. We are considering doing prototype specific bridges and when we do we will most likely start with the PRR bridge because a few have asked for it and because we have excellent drawings for it. If anyone can point me to standard turntable drawings for specific railroads, that would be most helpfull. I feel compelled to answer Windys "ridiculous" price comment. To answer as delicately as I can, the former less expensive turntables just did not work well. That has been confirmed here on the forum by literally hundreds of people over the years, and I can't help but surmise that is the reason they are not made anymore. In order to engineer and actually produce a turntable that does work flawlessly it takes a combination of the BEST engineering, the BEST parts, and the BEST equipment to make those parts. I won't get into all the specifics of what it takes to do all this, but I will mention that we invested $65,000.00 in a CNC machine to specifically make some of those parts and we use another that cost over $100,000.00 to make others. Our FIRST goal here at Ross is to make a product that performs flawlessly, SECOND to make them as easy as possible to use, THIRD to make them as prototypical looking as possible, and FOURTH to make them as affordable as we can. Consider these three things; we have to pay for those machines, comparable turntables are priced in the $2,600.00 and up range, Millhouse Rivers turntable is a kit, a pretty complex one at that, and the parts must be sanded, filed, and painted. I won't get into the engineering of the Millhouse product today (considerable differences) but we think our completely assembled and virtually ready to run turntable (two screws attach the bridge and the tower plugs into a socket on the bridge) is an excellent value priced at only $200.00 higher than the Millhouse. We had announced a price increase at the April York show but have held off pending the newly designed bridge. That increase ($100) should go into effect Jan 1st so you may want to order now if you are considering one, and that current price includes the new bridge design. We will be at the Syracuse train show this weekend (Nov 7 and 8), Milwaukee Trainfest (14th,15th), Allentown fairgrounds(14th, 15th), and Seattles Worlds Greatest Hobby show (21st and 22nd). We would be pleased to discuss some of the finer points of our line, and see for yourself why Ross Custom Switches products are the finest made. Happy Railroading!

Brother Steve,

I admire your commendable reserve in your response to the comment about "ridiculous prices". As you know, I am a huge fan of your turntables and transfer tables. I agree with you and others that everyone in the hobby that ever wanted a high quality, reliable, and great looking turntable has suffered decades of frustration and waiting.

The shortcomings of the previously lone available production turntable have been well known for many years. The Bowser looked okay, but everyone I've ever talked with about Bowser turntables has told me that they were unreliable and difficult to index and operate.

Lots of guys have claimed over the years that they have been able to successfully re-engineer the Bowser to get it to work properly. As a klutz, I was never that enthused with the idea of purchasing a Bowser and then having to spend a lot of time, effort and/or money to get it to function sort of okay. That's why I was so thrilled when you unveiled the prototype of your new turntables and transfer tables at York a couple of years ago. The recent upgrades chronicled by Andy above, and your tireless tweaking to improve an already impressively performing product are testimony to the passion for quality and reliability that you bring to your business, the hobby, and the industry that makes all this fun possible!

I commend you and RCS for finally bringing us reliable and user friendly turntables and transfer tables at rational prices. Your pricing strategy right after the rollout of the turntable which you expressed at the OGR Forum grandstand meeting was simple yet effective....finally, a reliable turntable for the price most of us would spend on a big articulated locomotive! I think the success of the turntables and transfer tables since then has borne out the wisdom of that strategy!

Please place me an order for the longest (upgraded) turntable so I can avoid the price increase in January you wrote about. Email me the details at your convenience.

LoyalToTheMarinesButRottenToTheCoreBear

Andy,

Nice reportage and photos! Thanks for sharing.

Bear

Thank you so much Bear, we miss you when we don't see you at York!