loathar wrote:Picked up an Atlas 3 stall RH on sale today. I hope I didn't screw up! Can this be used with other turntables such as the Walthers or Heljan 90'ers?? Looks like the floor base was made to butt up to the little Atlas turntable. 15 degree stall spacing.Any pointers or problems you've run across building yours? Looks pretty straight forward on the instructions but I'm thinking it may be better to NOT use the floor that came with it. (or at least modify it to fit the larger turntable.)
Yes, it is designed to use with the Atlas turntable, with the base butting up against the turntable itself. This was the main reason I bought it so I could use it for my switcher turntable. The base is designed so you can surface mount the turntable then surface mount the roundhouse and the track will line up for height. There's not that much space to use the roundhouse with a larger turntable, the apron is fairly short and is designed to use multiple kits for a larger roundhouse. Going with a larger turntable will throw off the proportions of the turntable/roundhouse, it seems to look right as is.
If you will be using the base, I'd suggest after painting it, that you assemble the snap track sections (don't use flex, with one movable rail, it can easily jam the turntable), solder the joints, then solder drop leads on the rails in a place where they'll be inside the roundhouse and out of sight. Drill holes in the roundhouse floor and feed the wires through before assembly of the roundhouse on the base. I also glued the track into the openings on the base to hold them where they belong. The whole thing about wiring and mounting the track isn't mentioned in the instructions at all. At least they tell you how long a piece you need on the back of the box.
I made a simple modification to the doors, I left off the swing open doors and trimmed a fat piece of sprue, then mounted it to look like a roll up door.
davidmbedard wrote: The problem with using it with other turntables is that you need to extend or cutoff the 'floor'. It is more work than you think....David B
The problem with using it with other turntables is that you need to extend or cutoff the 'floor'. It is more work than you think....
David B
But I can cut off the front of the base and make it line up though, right? I know there will be some height difference, but I can fix that.
Thanks for the replies!
I have one, and am using it with a Walthers 'built-up' 90' turntable. You will need to score/cut off that 'front extension'(about 15 minutes of work). The actual stalls are a little on the short side, but are fine for my engines. What I do like is the 15 degree spacing. This makes a 3 stall roundhouse 'look' bigger. With 10 degree spacing, you almost need an extra stall extension kit or two to get rid of that small 'wedge' look.
My turntable is on a 3/16" cork roadbed base, and matches up with the supplied foundation of the roundhouse kit.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
I also use mine with my Atlas turntable. Overall, I'm happy with the combination. For the price, the Atlas roundhouse kit is pretty good.
To use this with anyone else's turntable, you'll have to modify the "spoke" rails. The Atlas uses a 15-degree spacing, while others use 10 or 12-degree spacings. Not only will you need to put the roundhouse further from the turntable, but you'll also have to curve the spoke tracks to get them into the roundhouse at the right angle.
The walls and roof pieces are pretty thin plastic. If you plan to illuminate the inside, beware of the "glow-through" effect. I spray-painted the inside walls black, and then added a layer of cardstock paper which I had printed with a cinder-block pattern on my computer. This both gave me an interior wall which looked finished and prevented the lights from glowing through the outside. This is a shot of the interior of the roundhouse:
Here's an outside shot.
Your roundhouse and turntable will be a focal point of your layout, so paying attention to detail will pay off. I spent a lot of time doing the interior and mortaring the outside brick. As I recall, this was the first kit I built after 40 years off from model railroading, so my skills were a bit rusty. I was learning a lot of new stuff too, and it took me a long, long time to build the model. I replaced the lights over the side doors with working Cornerstone units, added the wood floor, and put figures and details inside. The pictures above the workbench on the back wall are Playmates from 1967. (Tough to imagine that those young women would be in their 60's now, huh?)
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I put two Atlas kits together into a six-stall roundhouse on my last layout, with an Atlas TT. I thought it turned out well. I used balsa wood between the rails in the roundhouse, painted concrete gray same as I used on the floor, to make it look like the rails were embedded in the concrete.
As has been noted, the Atlas roundhouse is designed to be used with the Atlas 9" TT which stops at 15 degree intervals. If you buy say a mechanized Walthers 90' TT that is set to stop at 10 degree intervals, it won't match up. If you're using some other TT I suppose it could work but you're going to have to do some work...the Atlas TT is 9", a 90' TT is a touch over 12" actual diameter, so you'll have to cut away about 1-1/2" of the apron.
If you're going to use a larger TT you might want to consider using a Walthers or Heljan roundhouse.
The Walthers 'built up' 90' TT has an program indexing feature - it does not lock into 10 degrees or whatever. You just program the stops where you want them and it will remember them. I have mine set for three, 15 degree stops for the roundhouse stalls and several others for some service tracks.
I have the Walthers TT and Atlas roundhouse combo, and have used them on two successive layouts. They work fine together, but there is the issue of the apron extending out of the front doors of the bays. I elected to use mine because I have some longer engines, such as the BLI Hudson, that won't fit neatly into the bay otherwise.
What I did was to use flextrack, removing the one or two ties at the end that sits on the turntable lip. I glued those ends in place.
The trick to success, at least as I did it, was to flex the outer two bay tracks so that, looking from the TT toward the bay door, from above, the right hand bay track flexes right a bit, and the left flexes left. That means you'll have to trim the right edges of several ties on the right, and trim off several outer ties on the left side so that the flex can actually bend enough to line up nicely when the bridge is presented straight-on to those outer bays. Then, use a snipped end of tie material that you cut off, which should be close to triangular, to wedge the curve into place. This means each wedge goes to the opposite side of the flextrack, and is glued into position and held with a weight until it all sets.
Also, I added my feeders right at the lip of the apron, which must sit back from the TT lip by about an inch and 3/4.
Here is a hasty flash illuminated image to show the effect and result. Works really neatly.
-Crandell
Hello I have one but it has 6 stalls. My dad made it for his layout and then he thought it was to big so he gave it to me. I cut the hole floor out and made one form skinny sticks. I used all flex track . But I did move it back form the TT so everything would line up. I have a Walthers 90' TT I have a piece of roadbed around the edge for height . Here are some pics.
hope this helps Frank
Thanks for all the pictures guys! That REALLY helps a lot!
Mr.B-Love the inside brick work. It will be right up front on my layout so detail is important.0-6-0-That floor looks great. I think I'll probably not use the stock floor and make my own concrete pad. I was wondering how it would look that close to the pit. Looks like you have about 2-2.5" of apron there.
Here is my Atlas Roundhouse. I was planning to use a Peco code 100 three way turnout. It is set at 12 degrees and should work. I think a turntable on a three stall house seems over kill so I decided to use the turnout instead. Also I was going to use it with more modern diesels so a turnout instead of turntable seemed more logical and cost effective in real world railroading.
Butlerhawk wrote:How large (length) locomotive can you use with the Atlas turntable (#305) and the 3 stall roundhouse?Thanks for y our help.
The TT is 9" in diameter. About 65 scale feet.
camaro wrote: Here is my Atlas Roundhouse. I was planning to use a Peco code 100 three way turnout. It is set at 12 degrees and should work. I think a turntable on a three stall house seems over kill so I decided to use the turnout instead. Also I was going to use it with more modern diesels so a turnout instead of turntable seemed more logical and cost effective in real world railroading. Larry
Larry
Not really overkill. Turntables were used with roundhouses because they were both round. In the diesel era, shops weren't built with turntables, and they weren't "round" houses. They're a common combination from the steam era because steam locomotives, in most cases, needed to be operated forward. Putting a shelter over some of the radial tracks for servicing the locomotives was a next logical step, which became the roundhouse.
Scenically, you could put in the remains of a turntable pit that has had the bridge removed, then filled in (show the concrete top edges of the pit), followed by the three way switch you mentioned. It would show the logical and economical reuse of a building from the steam era, but eliminated the costly and no longer needed turntable.
One other problem I noticed with the Atlas roundhouse if you plan to use all track positions on the turntable. The steps coming down from the small doors on the side won't fit, they need to be removed to clear the next track.
The stalls are about 10" deep from the door to the back track bumper. My Dash 8 40CW just barely fits.
This may not be the thread to join with this question. But I liked the Atlas Roundhouse so much in the store that I bought it without measuring my space available--you know the problem: measure once cut twice or three times. I have no problems with the mating of my Atlas TT with the roundhouse but -- Has anybody had to shorten the stall length? I will need to reduce the overall length. Since I have no long locomotives, no Mallets etc, if it is possible I must shorten the stalls. Otherwise it may remain a box of parts.
Ghost River Valley wrote: This may not be the thread to join with this question. But I liked the Atlas Roundhouse so much in the store that I bought it without measuring my space available--you know the problem: measure once cut twice or three times. I have no problems with the mating of my Atlas TT with the roundhouse but -- Has anybody had to shorten the stall length? I will need to reduce the overall length. Since I have no long locomotives, no Mallets etc, if it is possible I must shorten the stalls. Otherwise it may remain a box of parts.
I don't think cutting the back walls and roof would be that hard, but the real bugger would be the two side. The way the brick work is molded, there's no good or EZ way to do it and make it look good. I think you would be opening up a can of worms you couldn't close.
Ghost River Valley - I'm not sure how good it would look, but you could cut back the side walls 1 inch, if you want to go all the way to the first window. You'll have to trim the back walls a bit, too. This probably isn't too bad a job, because the walls are pretty thin. The kit comes with downspouts for each corner, so these will distract the eye of the casual viewer from the corner brickwork itself. Still, I think you'd be better off figuring out how to fit the whole thing in. Pushing in the back walls will limit the size of engine that can go in the roundhouse, and it's already pretty small.
Loathar - I took a look at mine, and there's really only about a quarter-inch of clearance on either side of entrance doors. That's not going to give you much room to play with in moving the tracks around to alter the angle. You may have to remove the doors entirely to gain a bit more width on the the entrance.