I need some ideas for my steam service area so if you could post some pictures it would be very helpful.
Are you doing this for me, you, or both?
Both so I can get a good idea and you can also get a good idea of what it will look like.
Okay, here is a hastily composed image showing an overview of my yard and service facility. I hope this helps you.
Nice! Is that a Atlas 3-stall roundhouse?I have 2 of them.
Yes, I believe it is the Atlas version because the stalls didn’t line up nicely with the 90" Walther turntable, not the motorized kit that I first used nor this one, the indexed built-up version. I had to bend the two outer bay rails outward in a 70" radius as it exited the bay to get the bay tracks to line up with the bridge rails nicely. No biggie, but…it had to be solved.
Here’s an under-construction photo of my Laurel facilities:
You can see the roundhouse floor in the foreground. The turntable is the 90’ Walthers built-up (awaiting some cosmetic mods). The ashpit, then the sanding tower (and sandhouse) will go between the turntable and coaling tower. Water column will be just beyond the coaling tower. (Don’t tell my wife I posted this picture - she’d kill me if she knew a photo of here wound up here!)
Mark,
Is that a jug of kerosene you’re wife is holding there, staring at your helix? [swg] (Mums the word on the posted picture.)
Tom
I has the Atlas Turntable with the Motorizing kit( which I have installed & works great).
Hmmm, this is a good thread.
Anyone know how to cram a 130’ turntable onto a 4x8?
What? No? Really?
Maybe it’s time for a small extension…
Here’s a few views of my Lowbanks shop area. This is about the only over-all view of the area:
The outdoor crane, with the oil house in the foreground, and the main shop building just beyond the crane:
The oil house:
The rear of the shop building:
And as seen from the crane yard:
The front of the main shop:
The turntable in front of the shop, plus the coaling tower:
An over-all view of the coaling tower - that’s the car and paint shop at left:
The sandhouse:
And from the opposite side, showing the dumphouse for the coaling tower:
Here’s a distant view, shot from the layout and looking towards the aisle. The crane and main shop building can be seen at left, while the car and paint shop is just out of the frame to the right:
This view is looking in the same general direction as the previous photo. Across the turntable bridge is the main shop, with the caboose and plow track at right. Those other structures in the background are in another town across the aisle, along with some extraneous carpentry and a threatenting “sky”: [swg]
Here’s the front of the car and paint shop - a rebuilt car is being pulled from the shop. There aren’t many full views of this structure, as it is almost at the edge of the layout:
Here’s the back end of the same building:
And a view looking east down the mainline, with the shop building at left. The board and batten annex is for workshop area and tool and part storage, along with offices, lunchroom, and change area. There’s a pile of parts past the end of the building, along with a derelict steamer, minus its tender, at the end of the siding shown in the previous v
Great pics of your entire shop facility.
doctorwayne you have the best photos yet I love your steam area is that a n scale model or HO i am doing N but that helps a lot.
Until I actually read your post, I was wondering who the PO’d looking woman was. That Helix is INSANE!! [bow][bow]It’d take my entire basement… I spared her (and you [xx(]) the reposting of the photo…
Very Timely!
Thank you Wayne as I wasn’t sure how I was going to mount my sanding tank.
Fergie
I posted these last year but here we go again:
The above one was taken after I completed the background hill
A longer view showing the new diesel fueling platform. The handwriting is on the wall.
Night is falling, literally and figuratively on the steam facilities. This is my favorite shot. Night photos are very dramatic and they hide the flaws.
jecorbett You know have the best photos this is about what I want. Thanks everyone else tho for your photos.
Challenger, just noticed you’re from Nebraska. I grew up in Omaha. What part are you from?
I used to model the UP and have two old Rivarossi Challengers, two Northerns, and a Big Boy. I now model a fictional eastern railroad but can’t part with my old UP equipment.
John, nice pictures of your loco servicing area. The one thing for which I didn’t have room was an ashpit, something that the other service area will definitely have, along with a proper roundhouse. It was difficult to fit everything into the 15" width available on the aisle side of the mainline. Total layout width here is only 30". [:)]
Thanks, Kyle. My layout is HO scale, with most of the loco-servicing structures kitbashed from commercially-available models, the main exceptions being the turntable and crane.
Glad it was of assistance, Fergie. The tank is a piece of plastic tube from a roll of paper, with the supports made from left-over bridge pieces, either Atlas and/or Micro Engineering. The sand delivery pipe is a length of styrene rod, and the spouts for steam locos are leftovers from a Tichy coaling tower. The pipes and hoses for diesel sanding are more styrene rod.
Wayne
Beautyfull layout pictures all…
Jecorbett. Could find the time to make another low angle shot with the added hill. The same as the one that follows your hill photo. I’m curious in seeing the effect of those poly ball background trees, seen from a low angle. I don’t want to nit pick, I just would like to see the effect. If I were a nit-picker I’d say one of your buildings had a foundation problem 
Marc