Best kit of a roundhouse?

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Hi guys

I’m currently installing my Walthers 130’ turntable. (Thanks to all those who answered my questions on this forum!) OK… so what’s the best roundhouse kit on the market? Any, from plastic to laser to whatever. I really want an excellent roundhouse and loco service facility with detail. (Yep, got all the Kalmbach books too.)

Any thoughts? I am also not frightened at scratchbuilding one but if there ia a kit out there, it would save a lot of time.

Thanks in anticipation

Barry [8D]

2

Hi from Belgium,

The best of all in HO is the South River Model Works, but it’s out of production and it’s a craftsman kit. May be you can find it on Ebay but price are in the range of more than 1000$!!

More affordable is the new Walthers “modern roundhouse” which with a little weathering and kitbash will look fine and it’s a “ready to fit” with the Walthers turntable.

I just receive one in Nscale but it’s the same than HO and it’s look great.

Put a few lights inside and some workers, also made under some track a few inspecting pit.

Kalmbach publish a very good book about terminals and roundhouse “locomotive Servicing Terminals”.

Good luck.

Marc

3

As Marc says above, the Walthers Modern Roundhouse is a match up for this turntable. I have the same pairing on my layout. I built up the 9 stall version (basic and 2 add on kits), installed interior lighting (LED’s), changed the doors to roll up instead of swinging. Although I didn’t use them, it comes with stall extensions that allows you to make longer stalls for longer engines.

A nice feature is the kit comes with inner and outer walls, so you have the full detailing on the inside for a leg up on interior detailing.

Check Walthers Cornerstone Series for the building you’ll need for the rest of your maintenance complex.

4

For the OP, Faller has a very beautiful traditional round house in the Walther’s catalog. It’s to my eye, “prettier” than the Cornerstone Modern Roundhouse but it may not be adaptable to the Walther’s turntable. I’ve seen it locally on a club layout and it’s gorgeous and looks East Coast American and maybe Mid-West American.

I’m going to be building the Cornerstone R.H. and am using Walther’s 130 foot t.t… for no brainer compatibility.

Tom and others, do you know if the present turntable cut out hole template is correct or if the one posted online is “more correct”? I bought my kit in 2008 if that helps.

I should know soon if some hidden track and a few benchtop cuts will allow me to use those extentions for more stalls. (Hoping to go from 4 to at least six stalls with at least 4 extended…).

5

I also have the Walthers roundhouse and do not recommend it. I did not like the way it was constructed the walls for example or in tow sections an inner wall and an outer wall with the windows sandwiched in between. I also have a Heljan round house with enough extra stall kits to build a 30 bay round house. I highly recommend this kit. It is a much easier kit to assemble and the end results are outstanding. The one major difference between the two are with the Walthers kit you have to glue down individual rails to to round house floor. Good luck with that if you want to paint the floor first which was my mistake. The Heljan kit on the other had had an open floor so all your track would be mounted to the layout and then the round house placed over the mounted track. Any round house will work with that turntable as it has an indexing system so it doesn’t matter how many bays you have or at what angle they are apart. Another really nice kit is made by CMR

6

I have the 130 foot turntable and used the cut template that comes with the unit. Just like anything, it needs some final trimming to fit easily. To print out the one on line, you’ll need a REALLY large printer, you’re talking about a 25 x 25 inch piece of paper. Then there’s a chance of getting some scaling (change in size of picture) in the printout.

7

Thanks TomDiehl

I used the template that came with the tt and it was perfect. I taped it down and used a bradle to mark holes along the cut out circle. Then jig sawed it after drilling a 5/16 hole as a starter. Perfect and it fitted in one go. However, geting those small screws with washers to line up took forever and I still haven’t done them all.

Is there a downloadbel pattern for the roundhouse? If not I’ll have to scale up the footprint in the Walthers catalog.

Barry [8D]

8

I didn’t screw mine down at all, it’s just sitting in place. Gravity seems to be working OK.

I haven’t seen any pattern or template for the roundhouse footprint. I’ll have to check my notes when I get home to be able to give you dimensions, such as distance from pit to front of stall.

9

Thanks Tom. A friend is building the N scale version and he told me that his in the box template was an older one and was wrong. I haven’t heard of the same issue with HO versions but wanted to ask.

bsteel, there is no printed template provided for the r.h. but I’d think the foundation/pad styrene pieces would reveal all. That’s what I’m using for my preliminary planning in place.

I’m still a ways off though building and installing.

10

I previously had the Walthers 90’ motorizable kit. Hated it. When I installed its much more worthy replacement, the new 90’ indexed version ([bow] to the boys 'n girls at Walthers), I found that I needed to remove another 1/2" or so around the perimter of the existing hole. That was easy to do, and the new pit sits nice and flush in the newer orifice. You’ll need 2" clearance from the bottom surface of the lip, or flange, of the pit, and the bottom surface of the electronics housing on the nether surface of the pit shell.

-Crandell

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Measuring from the center of the turntable pit, you’ll need about 30 inches to the back wall of the roundhouse, without any stall extensions. The stalls are set at 10 degree spacing, which is what I used for my garden tracks as well.

A little tip if you plan for the maximum number of stalls and tracks: lay in the roundhouse first, and program both ends of the bridge for each stall. Stop the bridge at each stall and use the bridge track like a straight edge to align a track directly across from each stall. They must be straight line as sighted across the bridge track to the stub track or this won’t work. You can program up to 60 positions, which would be 30 tracks, counting the approach tracks. Not only that, but there’s a limit on how close a program position can be to another. A track slightly offset from the one across the turntable may be too close to allow you to program all your tracks to both ends of the table.

12

Hi Tom

Thanks for the measurements and for the tips. 60 (30 stalls) positions is way too many for me so I should be OK for what I need to do. Good tip on the both ends registering!

Thanks annd cheers

Barry