Roundhouse

[topcopdoc]

I need info. on the interior of a roundhouse. Especially details of the floor, rail, and inspection pits. I could use dimensions, photos, blueprints or web locations or just some observations made by fellow model railroaders. I am building a Haljan roundhouse kit and wi***o show interior detail.
Thanks

[jrbarney]

Topcopdoc,
I'm sure you'll get additional answers, but you might want to buy a copy of Marty McGuirk's softcover "The Model Railroader's Guide to Locomotive Servicng Terminals," published by Kalmbach and priced at $ 17.95 USD. It has a short chapter on roundhouses and engine houses as well as one on turntables. The photos in both chapters will give you some ideas.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[Anonymous]

I recently finished a 15 stall Haljan roundhouse. The floor has openings where it should be even accross. I filled them in with plaster. I also made inspection pits for all the stalls however it was typical for some roundhouses to only have a few stalls with pits. If you want to detail the interior don't use the window glazing that comes with the kit. You can't see through it clearly. The rear walls don't line up too well either but I built a machine shop / office / parts crib / loading dock on the rear of the roundhouse which solved that problem and looks cool. If you are building anything larger than three stalls, the last wall panel may have a gap. They don't show it in the instructions, but if you do use the extention to extend the track, you must cut the floor and the windows out of the rear wall panel to extend the track. If you are using a Haljan turntable, the extended stall will be longer than the bridge. My thought on that is, why have an extended stall for a long locomotive if it won't fit your turntable. The extention would be more convincing as a machine shop anyway. You will have to make a floor for it and figgure out how to make the doors open and close.
Roundhouses were used mainly for light repairs, maintenance and engine storage. Heavy repairs went to the back shop. There is no room in the model to include an overhead crane like the prototype. I also installed 48 light bulbs and, when lit, they draw more than two and a half amps!
I did a lot of searching for photos of roundhouses. A book called "Southern Railway's Spencer Shops 1896 - 1996" (TLC publishing) had some information and a few photos. I have some videos that showed some interior views but roundhoues were dirty, dark even in daylight and dimly lit at night. They didn't have the high intensity lighting like today.

---

p.s.
I forgot to mention, if you use the pieces that comes with the kit that hold the door and hindges in place on the front wall panels, the back of panel / door assembly abutts the girder and will not align vertically with the foundation, making it overhang from the floor on the outside.
I cut and fitted strips of styrene to hold the hindges in place. Be careful not to glue the hindge. Test fit each panel assembly. The back of the wall panel, and not the door hindge retainer, must abutt the girder. The bricks should look like they are sitting on the foundation. This also made it eaiser to assemble the building.

[lupo]

Gsetter,
I have that same heljan roundhouse, I got it second hand, partly build, in bad shape in a box, do you know if it will fit the new Walthers 130" turntable I am planning to buy ?
another problem I encountered was the height of the doors, too low for a BigBoy on track. so I need to put in some kind of foundation girder to make it a bit higher

[Anonymous]

for the interior of the round house i would definatly suggest paving the floor and adding inspection pits. for the clearence problem i would suggest spiking the rail directly to the baseboard/plywood, this lowers the track makes paving with plaster easier and cuting inspection pits much less of a hasle. the track can later be brought up to meet your turntable by the use of wood spacers/ties or even PCB ties. for other details on the inside i might suggest putting some shop equiptment off to the side or inbetween some of the tracks such as a lathe, perhaps some welding or other machining equiptment.

hope this helps
chris

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lupo

Gsetter,
I have that same heljan roundhouse, I got it second hand, partly build, in bad shape in a box, do you know if it will fit the new Walthers 130" turntable I am planning to buy ?
another problem I encountered was the height of the doors, too low for a BigBoy on track. so I need to put in some kind of foundation girder to make it a bit higher

The Walthers turntable is larger (20") than the Heljan turntable (14") so it will work. The track will be spaced wider at the pit's edge than with the Heljan table. If you were using a turntable smaller than 14" you would have some complex track work because the tracks would cross. I have seen this on a prototype.

As for the lack of clearence, are you using a roadbed under the tracks leading into the roundhouse? The Heljan kit was designed for no roadbed. The track should sit on the same surface as the building and turntable edge.

I highly suggest that you layout everything on paper or the construction area first then install the turntable and lay the track with the roundhouse base in place before the roundhouse. You will have a much eaiser time if you build both turntable and roundhouse on the same board ( I used 48" X 48" x 2" thick foam) rather than two seperate pieces.

G.

[topcopdoc]

Thanks a lot guys for all the help, you hit a home run. I used all your advice. I plan to make it a PRR 9-stall roundhouse. Now for the "Big Question", what colors do I paint it? Unfortunately most of PRR was recorded in a black and white world.

[Dallas Morlan]

I did a quick online search and found a site that may help. I haven't looked at everything there yet. Appears to have some very good information on a pennsy roundhouse that is the subject of a preservation effort. Photos, some structural drawings and a link to the preservation organization site with more information.
http://crestline.pennsyrr.com/

[orsonroy]

Don't forget to check out Steamtown. They have a fully operational working roundhouse that you can wander through. It's a great source for ideas and inspiration.

As for Pennsy roundhouses, I asked my father, who spent a lot of time in the PRR 59th street roundhouse in Chicago in the tail end of steam. He said the roundhouse interior was whitewashed, but not too regularly, so everything had a sooty black wash over it.