Model Railway Electrics - Hornby Turntable

I have been asked on many occasions for help with wiring up the Hornby electronic turntable. Hornby do supply a circuit diagram but it is not in colour and is not as clear as it could be. For this reason I have produced this guide.

Previously it was my impression that the yellow switch controlled the turntable and that this was connected to the accessory power output. This is not the case. The turntable is controlled by the same controller that drives the loco on to it. The yellow switch is used to switch control between the locomotive and the turntable. Because the turntable is controlled by the train controller you are able to control the speed and direction of the turntable much like you do with locomotives. I did find that the turntable is noisy if you turn it too quick. This is because of the gearing required to allow the motor to turn the turntable with a heavy locomotive on it.

Click on this link to see the turntable in operation (Video 1.42mb)

Below is a copy of the Hornby electric turntable circuit diagram (click on the picture to enlarge). I have coloured two of the wires to help illustrate where they go. The Brown and black wire that come from the turntable can be swapped with each other. The green link wire is included with the turntable as is the extra power clip.

This picture is form the Hornby electric turntable instruction.

With newer versions of the Hornby standard controller their is a connecting sleeve holding both track leads together. One of the leads needs to be removed. I did this by holding the sleeve and pushing the connecter prongs down onto a solid surface. This should push the connecting prong out. Both the black and brown wire connected to the turntable have connecting sleeve with one whole spare. The green wire can be pushed into this before being connected to the switch (green and brown) or the track (green and black).

If you had a spare controller you could simply connect the brown and black wire from the turntable to its track power leads.

Converting the Hornby Turntable to DCC (untested)

Because the turntable is controlled much like a locomotive there should be no problem in controlling it using a dcc system. By connecting a dcc chip between the tracks power and the turntables motor you will be able to use your dcc controller to control the turntables turning speed and direction.

I will add to this once I know more about conversions. This will be discussed on the forum

I believe the chip will be housed inside the turntable building which gives access to the turntables motor.