Greetings. I’m still tuning an HO layout and plan to incorporate a turntable and 6-stall (or so) roundhouse, to accommodate at least 4-8-4 steam locos. Would appreciate any comments on the Walthers 130’ turntable and 3-stall roundhouses, as well as suggestions on other brands to consider. I do want the roundhouse to be kit form. Thanks, all.
The Walthers ‘built-up’ indexed turntables are excellent, and in my non-builder-by-preference-after-attempting-to-get-the-motorized-kit-to-work experience, it is a godsend. I have had a 90’ version in use for three years now, and am very grateful for it’s functionality and reliability.
Any of the two most popular roundhouses, Atlas and Walthers, would be fine…they can both be added to. There are others that can also be built up from kits:
http://www.modelrailroader.net/ho_turntables.php
-Crandell
We have the Walthers 130’ turntable on out Boothbay club layout, and I am presently building the 6-stall roundhouse. The thing is HUGE! One of the things you need to be cereful about in space planning is getting the correct distance from the center of the turntable to the front of the roundhouse. This is essential for the tracks to align correctly. The angle of the roundhouse stalls governs this; it is better to plan some extra space behind the roundhouse so you can move it around to get the tracks aligned correctly. You might consider drawing the turnatble and roundhouse out full HO scale to get an idea how much space it takes. I saw it on the plans, but it still blew my mind how big it is when we laid it out in the benchwork.
This is a link to the museum website showing the servicing area as it was lest November
http://www.railwayvillage.org/Servicing_Yard.htm
Another thing we found is that the parallel track spacing for various Walthers servicing buildings like the diesel fueling and coaling tower are not the same.
I have the Walthers 130’ turntable and a 9-stall roundhouse on my layout, and I love it. It works superbly, but keep the pit clean, vacuum often.
Incidentally, the distance between the entrance stalls in the roundhouse and the edge of the turntable pit is 3 inches.
Rich
I’ve had the 130 foot turntable with programmable indexing, and a 9 stall version of the roundhouse for better than a year now, and definately have no regrets. In fact, I love the operation of it. However, building the roundhouse as a three stall version, I don’t feel looks right. The length and height of the stalls seems to beg it to be at least six stalls.
As far as I’ve seen, there’s nothing comparable, unless you’re skilled in making an indexing system work.
Thanks for everyone’s comments. My planned layout is an L-shape: 13’ along one wall, 10’ along the other, and about 5’ deep along both legs. It seems my issue will be placing a large turntable I like with a large roundhouse plot that may take a (visually) large share of the layout vs. the option of a 90’ turntable and smaller roundhouse that accommodates smaller locos (and parking the 4-8-4 and potential Challenger (and Big Boy) “outside” or in another non-roundhouse straight engine facility. Something to think over…
You could kitbash an extension on one or two stalls of your roundhouse.
Just a thought.
Have fun,
Hands down the Walthers 130’ T/T is the way to go , best bang for your buck. Their round house on the other hand leaves something to be desired form a building stand point. The way the kits constructed is way over complicated and does not make for an easy build. Compared to the Heljan Round house which for my money is a simple but very, very, nicely done kit when finished. For those who say it’s Heljan so it’s European wrong. I’s modeled after a North American prototype I would have to look it up again but I believe either a C&O or B&O round house. Regardless it is a very nice looking kit when finished. The one advantage the Walthers kit has over the Heljan is the stall extensions. For the Heljan I simply kit bashed my own extensions.
I strongly recommend you build the kit with at least 2 extended stalls and make the round house at least 6 stall for it to look right. Keep in mind if a prototype railroad had a Challenger you can bet they had more then one and they would build round houses accordingly. The only railroad to ever use the Big Boy was the UP and if you want to see a round house Google image search their Cheyenne engine facility.
Thanks everyone for the pointers. I enjoyed yesterday fine tuning (version 11C) the engine facility part of my track layout. I’m sold on the Walthers 130’ turntable as the core element. By moving the T.T. and roundhouse (probably Walthers “modern”) to the major section of the layout I can incorporate 8-9 stalls (with a few extended) plus some outside stalls plus a straight track using an engine house for diesels. Overall, it becomes a major (hopefully not overwhelming) feature of the layout, but at the expense of how much rolling stock yard space will fit there and elsewhere.
Would it be prototypical to use a 2-stall Walthers “engine house” for transition era diesels? Is he Heljan version (which is longer) Euro or U.S. style (I can’t tell from the catalog). I’m looking for alternatives to the Walthers “diesel house” #2916…it’s probably of the transition vintage but I’m not not excited about it’s style.
My bias is to keep tuning the plan, and as suggested perhaps start the program by building some key structures (and acquiring the turntable perhaps) so I can tune up the paper plan much more exactly before starting the benchwork / layout construction. Also, the commander-in-chief has not appoved the size layout I’m designing for the game room, she has only consented to a layout TBD.
Again, thanks!