Heljan Roundhouse

I have just completed assembly of a 9 stall Heljan Roundhouse except for weathering and some finishing detail. This was done with the base kit and two add on stall kits, each with 3 stalls. This kit has been around forever and I had a 3 stall version of it on my old layout. Overall, I am very pleased with the result. I did find that despite my best efforts, I had to fudge a little to get it to fit.

Because of the size of the roundhouse, I made the decision to assemble it in place. After positioning the base, I installed the lead tracks. Despite precisely measuring from the center of my turntable to to the front and rear of the roundhouse according to the diagram on the box, I had to bend the lead tracks to the outter stalls slightly to get them to line up. I probably could have fiddled with it until all the stalls lined up perfectly but decided the bends wouldn’t be noticable from any viewing angle so I left it where it was. I also found that each of the back walls was slightly longer than the base which meant that by the time I got to the last stall, the back wall had to be trimmed by about 3/32" to allow the side wall to line up flush against the base. Many of the roof joints had gaps of about 1/32" which I plan to disquise with strips of “tarpaper”.

As it is, it is a very impressive looking structure. When I get around to learning to use the new 5 megapixel camera I got for Christmas, I’ll post some pictures. This will also give me a chance to put the finishing touches on the rest of my transition era engine terminal.

sounds like anice project, can’t wait to see some pics of it all finished… maybe get some engines in her too.