Best Model Railroad Turntables

Indexing is the bridge automatically stopping in exact alignment with a stall track every time it is commanded there, rather than the operator nudging it by eye or by a mechanical detent and hoping the rails line up. A locomotive rolling across a misaligned gap between the bridge rail and the stall rail can catch a wheel flange and derail right at the pit, which is an awkward spot to rerail from. Motorized, electronically indexed turntables like the Walthers Cornerstone Motorized 110 foot Turntable with DCC HO Scale solve this with a DCC-addressable drive that always returns to the same precise stops. A manual turntable like the Atlas Model 305 Turntable Manual Nickel Silver HO relies on the operator's eye and a detent mechanism, which is why it costs a fraction of the price.

Diameter, drive type and DCC control vary across the lineup, and price tracks all three closely.

Yes, for the Atlas line specifically. The Atlas Model 305 Turntable Manual Nickel Silver HO pairs with a separate Atlas HO Turntable Motor Drive drive unit, which is a cheaper path to motorized operation than buying a fully assembled DCC-indexed turntable outright, though it will not have the same electronic stall-track indexing as a purpose-built DCC unit. It is a reasonable middle step if hand-aligning the bridge has become the bottleneck but a full DCC-indexed turntable is more than the layout needs.

If the only goal is turning a locomotive around to face the other direction, a wye or a reversing loop does that job for a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the benchwork depth a turntable pit requires. A turntable earns its cost and its space specifically as the visual and functional centerpiece of an engine terminal, storing and presenting several locomotives to a roundhouse or a service area, which a wye cannot do. See turntable versus wye for the fuller comparison.

A turntable bridge is only as long as the pit and the model it was designed around, and running a locomotive longer than that length means part of it overhangs the ends of the bridge while it turns. A small overhang is usually cosmetic, but enough overhang can cause the locomotive's front or rear truck to swing wide enough to clip scenery, a fascia, or an adjacent stall track as the bridge rotates, particularly on a smaller-diameter turntable paired with a long modern diesel or articulated steam locomotive. Manufacturer-stated bridge lengths, such as the 90, 110 or 130 foot prototype lengths named in these products, are the number to check against your longest locomotive before assuming any turntable in this lineup fits your roster.

This is also a reason to mock up clearance with your actual longest locomotive before committing benchwork to a turntable pit, the same caution that applies to curve radius elsewhere on a layout: a manufacturer's stated minimum or stated length is a real number to check against, not a guarantee that every locomotive you might eventually buy will fit.