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Atlas HO scale roundhouse
Very nice kit. I have a walthers turntable,can they be used together?
Thanks Doug Allen
The Atlas roundhouse is designed with 15-degree track angles to match the Atlas turntable, the geneva movement of which is set to 15-degree angles. One could cut the rear walls, roof sections, and modify or replace the floor to be adjusted to 10 degrees.
The table to door distance will be reduced if using any larger table. The distance from table to door is 4 1/16 inches, of which 3 1/2 inches is on the roundhouse foundation.
While the “bumpers” built into the floor are oversized, their position is reasonable. If these “bumpers” are removed, scale-sized stops (or wires) in the same location are recommended whether or not the original floor is retained.
If one intends to build a number of stalls other than three, six, nine, etc., then the original floor must be modified or replaced, as it is constructed in two segments that bisect the center trackbed.
Corrections to the review: The track bed built into the Atlas roundhouse places 9 5/16 inches of track between the closed doors and the end of the track, the “interior length of the stall track.” To the rear wall, the measurement is 10 7/16 inches. The side wall exterior is10 3/4 inches. Each rear wall exterior is 5 inches.
Between the closed doors and the built in “bumper,” there are 10 inches of free space before the coupler (glad hand) impacts the “bumper.” (As such, the Walthers Proto 2000 USRA 0-8-0 will fit into the roundhouse with modest room to spare.)
MSRP has increased to $38.50 (2011).
I’ve finally gotten around to building the Atlas roundhouse kits I bought a number of years ago. The model itself is first-class, but contrary to Marty McGuirk’s staff review, the instructions are sub-par on some points. Overall, the kit is very easy to build. Experienced plastic-kit builders will get through it fine if they closely examine the actual parts before starting construction, and note some subtle but important differences between similar-looking parts. But neophytes may wind up in a bit of trouble. This review is intended to flag the difficulties, for the benefit of future buyers of this fine kit.
First, the positives: I enthusiastically agree with the favorable comments in the staff review on the overall design and appearance, and would add that both the tooling and the injection-molding are very well done. Everything is carefully designed to fit together as neatly as possible, and does so (with the one exception noted below). I combined three of the 3-stall kits, producing a visually massive model occupying a 135-degree arc (almost 40% of a complete circle) but still fitting within an 18"-radius turnback curve – while still leaving room for a couple of servicing tracks opposite the roundhouse coming off the turntable lead. The stalls are long enough to accommodate virtually any diesel locomotive, as well as small-to-medium-sized steam locomotives. (The controlling dimension here is the inexpensive but reliable Atlas turntable that this roundhouse is meant to serve, which in turn is designed to fit into Atlas’s Snap-Track system in place of a 9" piece of straight track and therefore is limited to locomotives with a wheelbase (not overall length) of 9" or less. But this is enough to accommodate even E8/9 diesels, I was surprised to find.)
Now for the problems with the instructions:
- Although neither the packaging nor the instructions mentions this (nor did Marty McGuirk’s staff review), the wide slots in the base sections whe