Well tried a few more ideas for the scratch build, I think I am going to ditch the Engine House roof and add the roof from an old Korber small factory .. It's a "saw tooth" roof design that was made to let ambient daylight into factories. 
Then waiting for the blizzard to show up I decided to open up my Lionel TMCC M1a Mountain 4-8-2. Bought it new and haven't had it out of the box in over a decade. Like Christmas on 1/28 ! Now I remember why this was only one of two steam engines I bought brand new. Of course I threw a traction tire within 10 minutes of running it, but fortunately I just got some from Lionel, so put on 2 new ones and it's running great.
