Hi gang!
Most of you have seen my threads on how I built my Walthers 90' turntable kit. I'm sure you are bored to death with it by now, but just to add insult to injury, I have decided to start a thread on building my Walthers nine stall roundhouse rather than hijacking WPF everytime I want to explain how I did something or ask for advice. This thread is very similar to my recent posts in WPF so I apologise for the duplication. Please don't expect daily entries, I don't work that fast.
Last fall I made the decision to get rid on my Atlas roundhouse and turntable. I had re-designed my service facility with a much simpler track plan and in the process I realized that I could fit in a much larger roundhouse. So, I'm going from three stalls at 15 degrees to nine stalls at 10 degree intervals. Also, I never liked the Atlas turntable because of the mechanical action where it stops every 15 degrees when rotating so I won't miss it.
First thing I discovered upon opening up the three roundhouse kits is that a nine stall roundhouse is rather large. For that reason I have decided to build it in three segments. It will be much easier to handle three stalls one at a time rather than nine stalls all at once. This will give you an idea of the size of the roundhouse:
My next step will be to finish the interior walls properly. The mouldings as supplied don't look much like an interior brick wall. I have Plastruct HO scale brick sheets on order (far too expensive IMHO). This is what the supplied walls look like:
When done, the interior will look something like this:
I'm waiting for the Plastruct sheets to arrive so in the interim I'm working on some interior details. I need a bunch! I want the roundhouse to look reasonably cluttered like some of the prototypes I have seen. I started with some shelf units:
Don't look too close. They're not very precise. Next step after painting will be to figure out how to make them look reasonably full without having to make dozens and dozens of little bits. Frank and Ja Bear gave me some good suggestions on the WPF thread. Frank suggested using printed images which he has done quite effectively, and Bear suggested using bits of sprue to simulate cans and the like. Both good ideas. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.
That's where the project sits right now. Like I said, please don't expect ground breaking progress every day. I like to take my time.
Regards,
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I believe the bridge on the 90 foot turntable is about 13 inches long. Are the roundhouse stalls at least that deep? So, if it fits on the turntable, will it fit in the roundhouse?
.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Hi Kevin:
I have the 90' turntable and the bridge measures 12" long. The rails in the roundhouse are 13" long so for my purposes everything that will fit on the bridge will fit into the roundhouse. However, you raise a good point. There wouldn't seem to be any advantage to installing a 110' or 130' turntable with the older style Walthers roundhouse #933-3041. Walthers also offers a 'Modern' roundhouse which is 2" deeper overall and includes an extension that adds another 20 scale feet to one bay only. It would make sense that the 'Modern' roundhouse would be able to fit anything that the 130' turntable could hold, but only in one stall.
https://www.walthers.com/3-stall-modern-roundhouse-kit-16-x-20-1-8-x-5-1-2-quot-40-6-x-51-1-x-14cm
Dave,
Thank you for the information. I plan to use the 90 foot turntable and roundhouse pretty much exactly like you are. I plan a 12 stall roundhouse, but only 6 or 7 stalls will be functional. The remainding stalls will be cut too short by the backdrop and just have dummy tenders installed.
You made me think of a very nifty idea (combined with some articles I recently read). Instead of brick sheeting for the inside - phot prints, made by taking some pictures of the real interior wall of a roundhouse (there's one at Steamtown, not far from me, or I could do the shop tour again at Strasburg - really any grimny brick wall will do) and replicate it to print full sheets. Then use that for line the interior walls.
Otherwise following along because I probably will be using the Walthers kits.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Mel:
Thanks for sharing your roundhouse and turntable pics. None of my locomotives will come anywhere near overflowing the roundhouse. I don't plan on having a lot of steam engines and they are all of the 4-6-0 or 0-8-0 sort of sizing. The roundhouse will also service diesels but the largest will be GP7s and FP7s and 9s.
Thanks also for the compliments on my work. Much appreciated.
Kevin:
I love large roundhouses!
Randy:
The closest roundhouse to me is in Toronto, which is less than an hour away. It is open to the public but I have never been in it (been under it in a parking garage). Maybe we are due for a day trip into the city!
I’m just finishing up building the larger Walthers “modern” roundhouse, a nine-stall version with 3 extended stalls. With 20-inch garden tracks and an 18-inch turntable, the roundhouse is far enough away from the front of the layout that I’m not worried about interior details. I have an access hatch at the side, but building it in place would have been too awkward. I used ¾ plywood on sawhorses for a sturdy work surface (with waxed paper so I wouldn’t glue the building to the plywood).
Hi Grinnell:
Thanks for your post. You gave me several things to think about.
I need to ask a question. Please tell me what the term "garden track" refers to. I don't think I've heard it before.
Thanks,
hon30critterPlease tell me what the term "garden track" refers to.
If I may...
Some facilities had outdoor tracks for storage or quick servicing that didn't require being inside the roundhouse. Kind of an "overflow" parking area. Sometimes boiler washouts were done out there so the wash water wouldn't be a problem.
I added the pipe gantry for interest. There would be air, steam and water lines there.
Regards, Ed
OK, thanks Ed.
I knew what they were but I never knew the proper name for them.
I don't know about "proper" but for some reason that name seems to have caught on...
And another thought. Back when I was the ripe ol' age of six my dad took me on a CN fantrip to Stratford, Ontario, where we were allowed to run around the roundhouse and shops like a bunch of crazed lemurs! One of the things I remember was the very narrow gauge shop trolleys they had for moving materials around.
Here I am pushing one of the carts.
Then a fellow offered to push a couple of us around like on a carnival ride! It was definitely different times, then!
These are screen-grabs from an old 8mm film. So what this is leading up to is that I noticed Walthers is offering a slim-gauge industrial track system and I'm trying to work it into my present roundhouse/machine shop/ backshop area.
I thought you might consider fitting something in like this if you have room for it.
There was a little turntable like that at Stratford and I remember one at the B&O shops in Dubois, Pa., too.
This is the B&O at Martinsburg, West Virginia.
https://www.walthers.com/track-set-light-industrial-rail-series-kit
All I bought were two of the track kits and one set of the three flat cars.
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/product-p/949-3007.htm
For me there wasn't the need for the non-operating locomotive in the higher priced set.
I'm sure, being the HOn3 critter, you have sources of narrow-gauge stuff but I thought you might consider this "Pre-Towmotor" material handling tram.
Have Fun! Ed
Ed:
Different times for sure!!! I can just hear what the crusty old mechanics were saying under their breath, and it wasn't "What a nice bunch of kids"
Thank you for showing me the HOn2 industrial tracks. I hadn't seen them before, and I can definitely use something like that to run between my various shops in my service facility. Alternately, it would be an interesting scratch build with some N or even Z scale rails.
Now you have me thinking about bashing a Z scale engine to use as a mule. Do any Z scale locomotives come with just two axles?
Interesting possibilities!!!
gmpullman I thought you might consider this "Pre-Towmotor" material handling tram
Those industrial tracks are not "Pre-Towmotor" at all. There are dozens of them still in use around this area, and I am sure we are not unusual.
The thing is... they are almost all inside huge industrial buildings, so no one ever sees them, and there is almost no reason to model them.
I know of them inside newspaper printing facilities, hospitals, water treatment plants, and automobile shredders.
I wonder about roundhouses. With floor space so limited in these buildings, how much of this trackage would be used? All the installations I have seen for them is where the same basic items (newspaper rolls, chlorine tanks, boiler equipment, etc.) moves within a captive area.
I hadn't thought about modelling them inside of the roundhouse because, as you said, space is limited. However, I do have a few buildings like machine shops that are not attached to the roundhouse but which would send stuff to the roundhouse on a constant basis. The HOn2 track would be ideal even if it only runs a short distance between buildings. Modeling a static mule that hauls a couple of narrow gauge carts from one building to the other would be neat. Having the mule actually emerge from one building and disappear into another would be really cool even if it is only seen for a couple of inches.
Understand that I am totally speculating here. I'm just exploring possibilities, some of which may not be feasible (maybe most won't be, to be honest), but some may actually work out. I won't know until I try.
I have to say that I am very glad that I started my roundhouse construction thread when I did. The fact is that I have barely started the project but I have received many helpful suggestions on how to do things. Had I completed the roundhouse before starting the thread I would have missed out on all the great suggestions, more of which I'm sure will come.
Many thanks to all the contributors past and future!!
SeeYou190Those industrial tracks are not "Pre-Towmotor" at all.
I'm sorry—I stand corrected.
Thank you for your enlightenment...
Ed
Dave, I have a 9-stall Walthers roundhouse on my layout along with the Walthers non-DCC 130' turntable.
The roundhouse was one of my very first structures back in 2004 when I was brand new to HO scale modeling. I didn't even paint the parts before gluing the roundhouse together. No interior details, no nothing. So, I admire your attention to detail. I may eventually paint mine, although that would be difficult at this point.
Like another poster mentioned, my roundhouse is set back on the layout, so the absence of detail is not really all that noticeable. The space required to model a 9-stall roundhouse and 130' turntable is relatively enormous. It takes up a 6' x 6' section of my layout, plus an area to accommodate a pop up hole to access the roundhouse for maintenance purposes.
With regard to interior brick walls, have you considered using a 3D printer?
Rich
Alton Junction
Hey Rich:
richhotrainWith regard to interior brick walls, have you considered using a 3D printer?
The Plastruct sheets are on their way so I'm kind of committed to using them. Using a 3D printer to make simple brick sheets that had to be cut to fit would be a waste of time and money, and doing all the calculations and programming to create fitted walls would take longer than cutting and fitting the Plastruct sheets, at least for me anyhow. If I make a mistake with the Plastruct sheets I know it instantly and I can correct it in minutes. If I make a mistake with the 3D specs I won't know if I messed up the calculations until the parts arrive in the mail. Besides, I enjoy hand crafting things as much as any other part of the hobby.
I appreciate what 3D printing is capable of and I have seen some amazing stuff. Where I would definitely use 3D printing is to make detail parts that are too fine to create easily and accurately by hand. One example that springs to mind is a gas pump nozzle with handle. I have tried to make them from scratch and I actually came up with one that looked pretty good, except it was about 2.5 scale feet long. Making it smaller defied me, and I couldn't find a cast metal one. Besides, I hate cleaning up metal castings anyhow. Right now I am gathering hand tools for the roundhouse. The castings are acceptable but they could be done so much better with 3D.
Thanks for the suggestion though.
I printed cinder-block walls for the interior of my Atlas roundhouse.
I didn't do much research, so I built a plank floor out of coffee stirrers. The walls of an Atlas roundhouse are very thin, so I'm glad I used the printed interior (on card stock) because it eliminates "glow through" from interior lights.
Do you want to know the truth? Nobody can see inside this roundhouse. The orientation is such that you need to lean way over across the layout to see inside, and with engines inside there's just no visibility at all.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasley Nobody can see inside this roundhouse.
I choose to disagree! I'm seeing inside it right now and it looks pretty good! The block walls are very convincing.
Thanks for sharing.
Further to Rich's suggestion about using 3D printing, I just spent some time searching Shapeways website for HO scale tools. I found a set of eight oxy-aceteline welding tanks which I thought were priced competitively with the Juneco metal kits so I ordered them. I found some HO fire extinguishers but they were too pricey. I also found some machine shop tools but I declined them because I can make perfectly acceptable models out of styrene and wire. I didn't find anything in the way of wrenches and pliers in HO. Maybe I wasn't searching properly.
I wonder if it might be possible to convince one of the designers to create the program(s) and then sell the tools under their name?
Perhaps I used the wrong term when I referred to my suggestion as 3D printing. I was merely referring to printing the brick walls on some form of heavy stock as Mr. Beasley has done. Easy to cut and trim, and easy to color and weather.
Rich:
richhotrainI was merely referring to printing the brick walls on some form of heavy stock as Mr. Beasley has done.
OK, that makes much more sense! I assumed that you were talking about actual 3D printing. I couldn't grasp the value of using 3D printing for images of plain concrete walls. Now I understand what you meant.
Have a great day!
Instead of buying an "add-on" stall kit, you could get one more complete roundhouse kit and use the leftover walls for interiors, trimmed to fit, of course.
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
A question for those who have built the Walthers roundhouse: How do you get the doors to open as far as shown in the picture on the box? The picture shows the doors in adjacent stalls actually touching each other in the open position. On mine the open doors are about an eight of an inch apart, so the doors are at best parallel to the track. Sometimes they scrape along the sides of locos and tenders. Once a door clipped the valve gear on an engine.
Grinnell
I just went down and looked at my roundhouse. The doors do touch each other, but due to the angle of the doors, there does appear to be a small space. However, there is plenty of clearance, and I have never had a loco clip the door.
hon30critterI didn't find anything in the way of wrenches and pliers in HO.
I believe Detail Associates or someone makes etched brass HO hand tools like you are looking for.
Anytime I have needed these, I just cut them from heavy cardstock and painted them gray.
I checked the entire Bowser site but didn't find any hand tools other than shovels and brooms which I already have. However, what I did find were a whole bunch of details that I can use to occupy the work benches and shelves and the floor in the roundhouse. I bought locomotive components such as compressors, globe valves, pipe unions, number boards etc. as well as floor jacks and stands and the like. It also inspired me to make up a pipe rack. Thanks for suggesting that I have a look there.
One thing I will say is that Bowser tells you right up front whether or not an item is in stock. Yesterday I ordered some Preiser hand tool sets from Reynaulds and only after I had placed the order was I told that they were backordered. That's dirty pool.