Freebies are good, but sometimes they come with bugs that have to be surmounted. This one was working fine actually, the bug being built into it by Atlas.
The table's wiring is very simple, each rail has a spring loaded brush that contacts a plate underneath that is divided for track polarity. As the table spins, the polarity is corrected automatically for the roundhouse leads, so that locomotives travel on and off the table without have to worry about direction of travel. A simple and effective device, its one flaw being the location of the dividing point. In this case, the location placed two of my five roundhouse leads with polarity opposed to the track on the table...
Undaunted, I fearlessly drilled the rivets, thinking I will just rotate it 90 degrees and all would be right in the world...thinking being the key word here...sigh...
Alas, those rivets carry current to the contacts, so another plan was devised...by replacing the strip contacts underneath with wires, reattaching one and relocating the other (noted in green), I was able to remount the contact plate...
I then soldered jumpers to the original breaks (in yellow) in the plate, and cut new breaks (in green) in by scoring the metal with a knife. This placed the circuit in a way that powered all my roundhouse leads properly, so that the locomotives could roll onto and off the table with the necessary polarity issues straightened out. I made sure that none of these new connections interfered with the path of the sprung brushes...
Speaking of those brushes...
...the best way I've found to reinstall them was to put them in their respective holes...
...and...while holding them in place with a piece of paper, carefully flip the table right side up, place it into the pit circle and, while pushing down firmly but carefully on the table, slowly slide the paper out. This ensures that the brushes remain assembled and in place when you secure the table to the pit ring...
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