Continuing the discussion from Number of stalls in a Roundhouse.:
So what is the actual verdict of space required for a 32 stall set
up? And is the “modern roundhouse” the same foot pri
nt as the older walthers roundhouse kits? Im envisioning using different kits like roundhouse was added on to over time (like Collinwood in Cleveland)
You must know the stall length, the bridge length, and the ‘dead’ or apron space from the bridge to the stall doors. Not all stalls have to be ‘long’ to fit modern engines, ‘coast-to-coast’ tenders and the like (see the PRR house at Crestline for an example) so there might be a creative combination of shorter stalls that let you fit a full house into a given footprint. I would be careful with the stall entrance width required by your engine to be sure the projected “10 degrees” actually gives sufficient clearance, especially if both your bridge and your apron are kept short to ‘save space’…
Note also that you are not restricted to just ‘a full circle less two access tracks’. In the past on these forums we have shown several facilities with twin turntables, including at least one in Germany, where a higher-capacity house is desired.
Linndale was something close to 32 stalls as well:
Linndale Roundhouse Big Four by Edmund, on Flickr
I think one of the Pennsy’s Altoona roundhouses was a full 360°
I built my Walthers ‘Modern’ roundhouse with 9 stalls. A full 360 would require a diameter of 59¼ inches, not counting the extended stalls.
Ivy City in D.C. was one instance in North America with twin turntables.
Ivy City Roundhouse Turntable Crop by Edmund, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
Very interesting responses. The turntable is the walthers 130’. The roundhouse is the walthers modern roundhouse, although in my case ill be combining the modern roundhouse with the regular, which i think are two different lengths.
As for me where I only have 3 0-4-0 & 3 0-6-0 I have gone with a 2 stall modern locomotives house for my lumber mill yard, My coal mine yard & my agricultural yard. This way I am also keeping the shipping separated, even though the 2 minor yards have 5 R,R. cars at any given time, the lumber yard has 12 -18 in it the most. All of my locomotives R basically switchers anyway or run on the short line that I have.
You can download the ‘footprint’ for the regular and modern roundhouses and expansion sections from Walthers (who seem to be having a sale on roundhouses as I write this). I don’t know if the ‘published’ dimensions for a roughly pie-shaped structure adequately reflect the individual stall length, but I think you could take the largest footprint dimension as being ‘controlling’
It appears that Walthers is using a longer ‘apron’ on the old-style turntable to use it with the shorter turntable (90’ bridge) – the modern house is pictured with the stall doors very close to the turntable structure. This leads to some questions about how close the ‘old’ sections will be to the bridge and how they would relate to the ‘new’ section when combined.
The turntable bridge is just shy of 18", and it does not look as if there is much more than a few scale feet to the ‘new’ style stall entrance (which is only a half-inch or so in HO). Walthers gives 20.125" as the ‘extended’ length, so the contribution to ‘diameter’ is 40.25", to which we add the turntable diameter up to the doors, call it 18" without looking at the formal footprint of the turntable assembly. I get about 5’ as a round number for planning.
