Replacement gear for Tidmouth Shed turntable UK

If you live in the UK or just have one, there's a neat Tidmouth Shed turntable variant that's powered by your TM1/TOMY train. However, if for some reason your turntable is having trouble turning and the train is functioning on the turntable as it should, you might have a cracked/broken gear in the turntable which can happen for a variety of reasons (same way as the motor gear in your train). So I'm only here at the moment to guide you to the right gear to buy to replace that broken orange colored gear: 

    

The cheapest way to get them is AliExpress, but I understand some people aren't comfortable with sites like this so here's also an Amazon link. It's a little more expensive but you get the security of familiarity.
AliExpress:
https://m.aliexpress.us/item/22518327718..._shipto=US
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B097M6MW5...asin_title

They come in a pack so this is the gear you want to use:

Just cut it down to the same length as your broken gear and fit it in and you're set. (Use a box cutter, rotary Dremel, whatever suits you, just clean up the cut edges afterwards).

Why "if you live in the UK"?

This Tidmouth Shed variant was exclusive to Europe. I guess I should've said Europe. Actually, I've seen it in Australia too... Ok, so if you live outside North America lol.

[Super]

I am not sure of which turntable this is, can I assume its like the one that Ucwepn has in his Layout?

Thanks for the Links, its always nice to have sources for parts for these trains as they weren't offered from the manufactures.

What a surprise! I have the same turntable and recall having some issues with engines (that fit on it) struggling to move it, but hesitated to take it apart since I never knew how it worked/went together. Now that you've shown what it looks like, it should give me the confidence to do it and see if I have the same problem. I thought eight teeth meant I could just use (a) gear/s from (a) DC motor/s, only to find those have nine teeth and don't look as thick. On mine, the stop/go tabs also tend to stay up when the lever is in the Go position (could be the springs are worn out). Thank you for this helpful guide, and I'll be sure to remember it if I'll ever look inside mine.

Yes, Super. The one and only.

[Super]

Thanks LaG, please let us know how your repairs work out 😃

See Mitz, your Threads are already helping others 👍

Wow this is great! I was just about to delete my Ace thread cause it seemed like... Well it doesn't matter but I'm glad my experience is helping others. Thank you...LaG? For the rep point it made my day!

So, I've started trying to open my copy to look inside it and see what/where the problems are. However, there are seven removable tiles and three moulded ones holding the platform itself at the top, and I only managed to unscrew six of them (the seventh might have a stripped screw; I tried four different screwdrivers and none of them engaged with it). I also opened the large panel under the lever and caught a glimpse of another screw that 'seems to' hold the platform as well (like on the manual turntables). It seemed irrelevant to me, though, so I just put the panel back on. Did you have to unscrew it to remove the platform on yours? I should point out that it clanks a bit more quietly when turning clockwise, but strains when going counterclockwise like it does indeed have (a) cracked gear/s. I don't know for sure since I can't (fully) open it anyway. Even after looking under the lever panel and reinserting the arm, the stop/go tabs still fail to retract all the way (if at all). Good thing the track lock feature still works in all directions. At the moment, I'll just have to leave it as is until I could open that screw.

Yes that middle screw holds the platform in the center

I'm gonna upload all the pictures I took when I last opened it just for your reference. They may not be much help but it's something

     

Also there's an off white plastic cover that holds the pieces in image 6 it looks like this
 
That plastic cover causes I bit of friction to the white and orange piece shown here

That's specifically where you're getting the issue of the hold and release mech not releasing (or in other words not coming back up to hold the train) the spring. They're 4 screw holes that are responsible for holding this cover tight so maybe add some grease to the area that they rub against and also when putting the off white cover back on, play with the spring mechanism to see if it springs back easy.  You have to play with it a couple times to see if it gets stuck eventually.  If it does, then slightly loosen the screws nearest to those plastics until you get the desired result. (don't loosen them too much because then the plastic cover will interfere with something else that I tend to forget what it interfered with. Just loosen it slightly and slightly until the orange and white plastics are no longer hindered by the friction of the plastic cover)

And yes, that rotational problem sounds like a broken gear to me. You can rotate a gear in one direction and it'll rotate fine enough but then snag in the other direction it depends on where the crack formed and severity. And as I'm sure you figured out there are two gears responsible for turning the turnstile in the same direction (obviously for when the train comes in two different directions towards the turnstile) 

Just an FYI, even though you can use your hand to turn the turnstile counterclockwise or clockwise the product is meant to always turn clockwise because engines can't rotate their wheels backwards on the turnstile while being held in place at the same time. I only say this to you in case you start messing with your stopper mechanism as you rotate the turnstile to make sure everything is okay as you put it back together and you're rotating it left and your stopper wheel doesn't seem to stop the turnstile at the designated track locations that's because you're turning it the wrong direction it only goes One direction. If you know this already, then my apologies.

And of course, when it comes to that strip screw situation there are a plethora videos on how to unstrip a screw so I won't add my input on that one since they're better people out there that can aid in that