Roundhouse & Shop

[Anonymous]

Okay, a bit of hairsplitting/nitpicking here, but hoping someone with hand-on can guide me.

I'm planning to use the walthers modern roundhouse for my engine service facility.

I could buy the base kit + 5 add ons creating a complete half-circle of 18 stalls... which is what I'm looking for.

BUT, I also like the look of having the machine shop from the same series attached to the roundhouse.

My question is... does the machine shop take up roughly the same space as a 3 stall 'module'? or is it smaller? My head is spinning trying to read the dimensions off walthers.com, so I was wondering if anyone had 'the real deal' and could comment?

To do much more than a half-circle, I'd have to redo my service facility track plan. It could be done, but I'm not leaping at the chance... So I'm trying to judge whether I can do the half-circle of stalls PLUS the machine shop without it become like 2/3 of a circle... Or do I need to back off to 15 stalls and the machine shop, equalling about the half circle.

[jecorbett]

It is quite a bit smaller than 3 stalls. I would estimate about 1 1/2 stalls wide (Measuring at the back of the stalls). Now if you are measuring the side nearest the turntable, it is slightly smaller than 3 stalls. The front face of the machine shop is 6 inches wide. My roundhouse is a Heljan but it is roughly the same size as the Walthers and 3 stalls measure 8 inches across the front.

I installed my machine shop as a stand alone structure. It has parts to do it either way. What I can't figure is how it would fit as an attached structure. The reason I say this is that the roundhouse stalls are wedge shaped so that that all point to the center of the turntable. The machine shop is rectangular so the track into it is going to be parallel to the last stall track. It is not going to be centered toward the TT so the lead track into it is going to have to bend its way into the machine shop. I'm sure it could be done but I wonder how sharp that bend would have to be.

That is going to be a monster of a roundhouse you are building. My Heljan is a 9 stall and it is impressive looking. Next to it, I have a 5 stall South River craftsman roundhouse giving me a total of 14. Not quite a half circle but still sprawling.

If I had it to do over again, I would do it the way you are. I would opt for a single Walther's 15 stall roundhouse with an attached machine shop. Unfortunately, I already had made a significant investment in the South River Craftsman kit long before Walther's came out with theirs and I went with Heljan for the second roundhouse because it is a little cheaper. I made that decision before Walther's came out with their machine shop. The South River kit has been a major pain to assemble but I will save that for another thread if I decide to do a rant.