I worked one of those over yesterday - mine is a Franklin Rotary. It turns very freely! One of the coolest things was the clutch. It has a little piece of metal that keeps the two hand wheels together - when you shift the pin one wheel keeps turning but it stops the needle and the other wheel. It is ingenious!!! The slide plate has a little release in the neck of the 't-shirt' to get it out easier. It just pops back in. The bobbin is a little different but not all that hard to use. Pretty cool machine. The decals on mine were pretty messed over. I cleaned up the machine and DH used Glenn's method for restoring and protecting the decals. It looks very nice.
I do not know what needles it uses though. Maybe somebody here knows.