Has anybody built one out of cardboard? Got any good ideas, or am I better off just buying one pre-made or are these hard to come by?
On a small layout I built, I only had room for a 2 1/2 stall roundhouse against one edge of the layout. Not knowing how I would cut off one corner of a plastic or wood roundhouse kit, I decided to scratch build my own using heavy poster board. I first built up the interior framing supports from balsa wood. I then added posterboard walls that I scribed to simulate wood siding. Fine sandpaper was glued to poster board roof sections and windows were made by printing the window frames and mullions on mylar sheets in a laser printer. This approach allowed me to build exactly the right size and shape roundhouse without spending much money. Though the finished product wouldn’t win any contests, it did seem to impress most of the visitors to my layout. The “half” stall wouldn’t fit an entire locomotive and was there more to simulate a usable stall. I parked a tender in this stall to suggest that a whole locomotive was there. The “cut-off” back wall was simply painted black on the interior. Unfortunately, I no longer have that layout.
I have built other simple structures using cardboard and have found the most difficult aspect of working with it to be making accurate and square cuts, especially window cutouts. If I really want a show quality structure, I first use the cardboard to build a support structure. I then finish the walls, roof etc. using heavy cardstock. It is much easier to cut cardstock accurately and you simply glue the cardstock pieces to the cardboard base. Just my approach. I’m sure there are others.
I’m a big fan of turntables and roudhouses. I personally think they’re one of the most interesting features you can put on a layout, particularly if you’re modelling the steam era.
A roundhouse needs to fit the turntable that it surrounds. So, an Atlas roundhouse really works pretty well with an Atlas turntable, and a Walthers turntable matches up to a Walthers roundhouse. The cost of a basic roundhouse kit is actually pretty reasonable, although you could scratch-build one for less, and, depending on your skill, come out with a pretty unique model.
Yeah, I think a roundhouse is essential for a steam layout which is what I am doing, anything between the 20’s and 40’s basically.
However I am not sure I have the room for a roundhouse in a 14X12 layout area. HO much space would the Walthers roundhouse take up do you think?
Way back in the August 1996 MR, there was a great article on scratchbuilding a roundhouse. Unfortunately it made extensive use of some products that are unavailable now, but the article in general provides a pretty good idea of how to go about working out an original design.
This is the satellite image of my turntable and roundhouse area:
It’s an Atlas turntable and roundhouse. The Atlas turntable is a 65-foooter, which comes out to 9 inches in HO. So, this whole facility comes out to be about 2 feet square.
It’s small. The turntable and roundhouse barely accomodate my 0-6-0. But, a Walthers 90-foot roundhouse and turntable should take up about 3x3 feet. The Walthers unit is designed for a tighter angle, perhaps 10 or 12 degrees vs. the 15 degree spacing of the Atlas. So, you can build it longer and thinner. Or, you can double up on the roundhouse and have more stalls.
Thank you so much!
It all depends on your scratch building ability. If your of lets say average skill level and aren’t looking for something very detailed a round house is probably one of the easier structures to build.That is if your good at geometry. There are a good selection of relatively reasonably priced kits on the market. Two that come to mind are Heljan and CMR the later being more expensive but a fine quality kit. I built one for the club and I was very pleased at the quality of the pieces etc. I have the Walthers round house on my layout but don’t recommend it. I feel they over complicated it and there are way too many pieces and it could have been built a heck of a lot simpler and the end result would have been just as good. One example is the walls are in two pieces inside/outside with the widows sandwiched in between. Just my O/P
A turntable (or wye) is pretty essential. A roundhouse is not essential to a model railroad. A roundhouse is a repair facility. An engine may go a week or more without going into a roundhouse, but gets a ride on the turntable after every trip. The good news in that is that the roundhouse is a huge space hog, but a turntable is pretty compact.