65-ft Gallows Turntable - Sequoia Scale Models Kit - HO Scale

 

I built this one straight out of the box except that I used Tichy NBWs (nut/bold/washer castings) instead of the ones provided in the kit. The supplied NBWs just looked too small. The finished model is a hair over 9 inches long and 4 inches tall.

I used brown sewing thread for the wire bracing, instead of the fish line in the kit. The fish line is hard to work with and doesn't hold acrylic paint very well. Drawing the thread across a block of beeswax eliminated any fuzziness. (I learned that trick from ship model builders.) I omitted the supplied turnbuckles because I could not get them threaded on either the fish line or sewing thread, no matter how much colorful language I used. 

I cut the threads much longer than I needed and coated about an inch of one end in ACC to make it easy to snake through #70 holes. On the other end, I tied a figure-8 knot. The knots could still pull through the holes, but with a little ACC, they made good anchors. I secured both ends with ACC and trimmed the excess thread.

I modified the base (also provided in the kit) to use the pivot and wiring from a Peco N-scale turntable. I'll trim the ends of the rails when I am ready to install the turntable.

The Sequioa Scale Models kit shows up now and then on ebay. If you build the kit, I suggest a change in the order of assembly:  The instructions have anchor blocks for the cables and the cable-end NBW castings installed before you build the gallows structure. I would save the outermost anchor blocks for last, after you have drilled for and installed the cables (using thread). That way, the block will anchor the thread and the NBW won't get in the way.

This is definitely not a "shake-the-box" project. It was at times a challenge, and the written instruction steps don't always correspond with the numbered scale drawings. I found photos of the finished model on the Internet, and they were helpful. I think the result looks good, and I'm planning to install it to look something like the one below that I found pictured in a back issue of the Narrow Gauge & Shortline Gazette.