Full Roundhouse on the Union Pacific Cheyenne Division

The Cheyenne engine facility is I guess the centerpiece of the layout. I've never seen a full roundhouse model before. This is the most impressive engine facility I've ever seen. It takes a heck of a lot of room. I believe it's six feet across or so, and somewhere in that area. It's unbelievable. Can you tell me about it? It's impressive, it's a centerpiece, it's a challenge to operate, but to me it just makes an engine terminal look like an engine terminal did. Oh. And there are so many full circle round houses that existed in this country. I mean, they're placed like on the New Haven that had double full circle round houses at Cedar Hills. So I just think it's something that catches everybody's eye, whether they're a railroad fan, rail fan modeler, or not. The turntable is indexed, right? Yes. And Phil Gazzano did all of that. Well, it was a combination of things. The drive system of course was made by a manufacturer that, at least the control system, the design of the turntable, including all of the bracing and aluminum, was designed by Bob Darwin, and Bob Darwin's a close friend of mine and my fellow collaborator in all of this Union Pacific stuff that we do. Well, Bob did the prints and the design for the drive. And then Phil did all of the work and put it all together. Well let's get Phil to show us how. Hello, my name is Phil Gazzano. I worked on John Grey's layout. I'd like to take a minute to explain the turntable drive mechanism that we have come up with in conjunction with Mr. Bob Darwin. This utilizes New York Railway supply components, a geared stepper motor, and Mr. Darwin came up with the idea of a solid plywood, three quarter inch plywood L configuration with aluminum channel bracing, and addition to a pillow block here, and one you cannot see that is just below the turntable base, and a 5/8 drill rod shaft tied onto the motor. So this mechanism is extremely firm and that maintains the accuracy that is needed for the 48 stall roundhouse and a total of 57 tracks that radiate out from the turntable. Here, we've come up with a rather unique 57 position rotary switch. This utilizes two contact rollers, 180 degrees apart from one another, that make contact with nickel silver contacts in conjunction with each stall alignment. This is firmly tied onto the 5/8 drill rod shaft by a coupling that is keyed and secured firmly to the shaft above here. Utilizes a contact wiper, one for the A end of the table, and on the top, the B end of the table.