Roundhouse options

You may want to contact Dennis Brennan; dennis@brennansmodelrr.com

to confirm how far out he is from shipping his kit.  I believe he is getting very close to shipping.  The moment I saw pre-production photos of his kit I knew it would be worth the wait.  Since then, the kit has only gotten better.  He has developed a few optional upgrades such as the stall door below.  It has been a long time coming, but no other kit can rival its detail or quality (my opinion).

Hi Greg, this is an idea I came up with. I'm going to build my own roundhouse.  I took

a MTH engine shed apart and I put the front and back of the shed together.  Then, I put the sides at the appropriate angle and will make my own roof and back-end.  This will yield a 4 stall roundhouse. These are just quick photo's to show you.  I will start this project next week and when it's done I will show finished photo's on a new thread with a list of materials I used to complete it.  The best part is the shed can be purchased for about $95.00.

HOPE THIS HELP'S

THANKS,ALEX

This thread on roundhouse options was done Dec 18, 2011

IMO unfortunately the demand for scale roundhouses is limited and current available units seems to indicate that market. Korber had (2) #320 (smaller) and #304.  Both required serious space considerations. 

 At one time Ross Custom Switches ventured into this market. I was impressed with their offering but it didn't last long.  I may stand corrected on this, others would have to confirm.   Ross still has a PDF for their house listed on their website and prices are listed on the price sheet.

My first Korber 304 that is on my layout was used.  The panels and wood frame lend to being dismantled and rebuilt with a lot of time and care.  IMO there may be a few Korber Houses for sell used. 

Like Principal Railrookie said, I'm very close to shipping. Right now, the initial run of castings is finished,  I have half the instructions completed and I'm cutting the interior basswood posts and beams. The goal is to deliver my pre-orders before York.

Dennis Brennan

Alex,

That's a great idea. Looks like it's gonna workout. Please keep us posted on your continued development of the roudhouse. Especially looking forward to seeing how that whole engine facility comes out. Take lots of pictures.

Mike R

Ps...Who's hiding behind the computer screen in the last picture on the right? The Boss? LOL!!

I'd be interested in Dennis' solution to what I term as a "real-estate-hog" The Korber roundhouse I have I bandsawed to fit.

The issue I have is that if you want a reasonable amount of track ( to showcase the engine) in front of the roundhouse entrances then the round house front arc is rather large making the interior back end larger still.

The sizes are all governed by polar (circular)geometry. So the farther you place the roadhouse from the center of the turntable the larger the house becomes.

So with the limited frontage track I just used a three stall roundhouse and store the cowled streamlined steam engines because there is not much to see.

Dennis I love the round house but I have a question?
Will the doors be offered with an arch top as an option to the square topped door?
I think your round house is tops from what I've seen from some of the pic's but I'd like  the arched top doors.

David

Dennis' version is modern and looks like he is using roll-top doors completely eliminating the issue with the barn-doors and over-sized hinges.

KORBER uses the barn doors hinged with a bent wire in a easy-to-break slot.

I think your round house is tops from what I've seen from some of the pic's but I'd like  the arched top doors.

David

Sorry but I fail to understand this. From a model perspective, arched doors look nice BUT reality shows many more roundhouses with flat rectangular doors in the 20th century than the 19'th century arched tops. The market is Flooded with arched door roundhouses. I wish someone besides Atlas O made a common American roundhouse voided of arched doors and windows.

Arches were a common architectural design prior to the turn of the century. After 1900, rectangular windows and doors started to appear. In my research, the corrugated roller doors were in existence sometime prior to 1925. 

So, unless your time frame is before 1900, rectangular window and door design is entirely appropriate.

And to answer your question, David, no I will not be offering arched doors since they would not fit my design.

http://scaleuniversity.com/su2...mart&Itemid=Sacs scale university makes an O scale roundhouse.

I copied this reply by JIM M from the other thread in answer to a question about the Scale University kit.

George, I'll describe what the roundhouse is, and as I see it, some of it's flaws and you can make a judgement as to if it will work for you. I'm trying to do a layout that is somewhat realistic and the Scale University roundhouse doesn't really fill the bill for me. I've made some modifications to improve it and will continue but I think it would have been easier to start from scratch or get a better kit.

First off the 5 stall roundhouse is too small of a footprint. Though that is good in way, it requires that you use a flex track in the two outer bays otherwise the tracks will intersect too soon (not a huge deal breaker).

Secondly, I think the roundhouse is very cheaply made. It is essentially masonite that has a very stark brick image silk screened on. The image is extremely vibrant and very unrealistic. The outside walls are 1/4 inch masonite and the back and roof are 1/8 inch masonite.



Also notice the windows, they are just a taped on product that I removed and adjusted the opening and put in some grand line windows to improve it.





The doors are simply thin wood with huge hinges. I added some thick paper around the edge to give the doors a little relief and hopefully improve the looks a little.



And I also added a lot of chalk and weathering to tone down the stark look of the silk screen.



The roof comes in three sections of masonite with a very stark image of shingles. I ended up covering the roof with sand paper to make it look like rolled roofing but that took a long time and I'm not very happy with that result but it is far superior to the silk screen image.

There's really nothing that holds the kit together because the sides and back (which is in three sections) and the front just get glued together. I can't remember if there were braces in the corners with the kit, or I just added them myself. It really needs to be put on a base and then use the base to support the kit. I did that and then I added a stone paper to the edge of that base to act as a foundation.

All in all, you get what you pay for. The kit without modifications looks exactly like it does on the website so if you're happy with that then go for it. I wasn't, so I made all these modifications to make it look better. With all the work I've done on it, I just wish I'd built one from scratch. I think it would have been easier and it would have definitely looked better.

I hope this helps with your decision.

At some point I will use a Atlas Roundhouse kit, it has sufficient space inside (More or less) for the engines I will store there.

I suppose when ever prices drop more (When PIGS fly...) I might go ahead and build towards a full circle.

I really like what Carl Tuveson did with his kit bashed round house, architecturally it is very pleasing. Not sure the depth is enough as I'm running articulated steam, but who knows maybe more modifications if I go that way. 5 kits at 70-80 compared to Dennis' kit and his comes with instructions, compared to the unknowns of kit bashing the Atlas kits. I'm undecided. Dennis' seems like a better option and less work. Great idea Alex, update us with your progress.

One last time for the Korber 304.  Never say never.   Rich Redman, Korber Models, has committed to having the 304 Korber available Oct 2012.  With new windows and much improved instructions.  

One last time for the Korber 304.

Many of the components of the Korber Kit resemble the IHC/Atlas Two Stall Engine House. The upper clerestory sections and the individual wall sections, dividers and windows look identical. Also the arched fronts and doors. It appears the tall side walls and the fronts being individual sections are the only differences. True?

I am thinking of using the front couple of inches of dennis's kit for a facade only.  The turntable will be front and center with the facade to the rear on the lower level of my two level new layout.   That leaves some room in front of the doors for display of my livery of smaller engines.  

While there are many options for a roundhouse for your layout from scratch building to kit bashing. I think Dennis B's roundhouse will definitely be an eye catcher and a focal point to ones layout. As most roundhouse and turntable areas should be on ones layout. Dennis has definitely put a lot of time and effort into his kit to make sure that when someone buys and builds his kit it will go smoothly. 

A couple points about the Korber kits. They can be built to look great, like MikeCT has shown and still can be found on the secondary market like ebay but there are several issues that should be known about those kits.

1. Older kits the wall sections tend to be warped and need to be straightened          ( which sometimes doesn't work completely)
2. The supplied windows are nothing more than a vacuum formed window (which look like the clear plastic chocolate candy molds you find in the grocery store for making Easter candy) and they do not fit into the wall openings and must be installed backwards onto the inside wall with the mullions showing as grooves instead of raised dividers between pains of glass.          see photo           
3. The big boy stall extensions. The rear wall does not match up to the tapper height of the two side walls of the extension. You have to cut down the wall height and then rebuild the stone foundation course in order for it to look proper. You can see in the photo it looks like MikeCT has done just that.         

Here's an example of a stained roundhouse plaster wall section. My instructions will show you how to achieve this look.

Do you have any updates, pictures or videos (prefer) of the finished roundhouse????

I did an Atlas computer track plan that includes a turntable, radiating tracks, and

a roundhouse, but think I am going with engine houses, one two bay and one

four bay (non-radiating) similar to that used on the Great Western, so as to not use so much space.

I am going to have a wye at one end and a reversing loop at the other of a point to

point and MAY put a turntable in the loop end, with the 4 bay engine house, but I need to have the benchwork in place and track temporarily on it, to see if that is realistic with available space.

For engine houses I would prefer stone with rusty corrugated metal roofs, and rusty iron doors, and expect to scratch build them, as those kits I've seen have been tiny, for On3/On30, and would require a couple, if even two would be enough, joined end to end to park a Bachmann 4-6-0, much less a lusted after 2-4-4-2. (and would need to be raised up on a higher foundation) (luckily there are at least two sources for stone retaining walls in several patterns that make very nice, but not cheap, stone structure walls..)

When I have checked measurements on the few I've seen (stone engine house kits),

they haven't been big enough for anything but a tank 0-6-0T.

Isn't the engine house at Strasburg a two bay brick?