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6 Responses to Roundhouse Placement
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You didn’t give the size of you turntable or the number stalls in your roudhouse. I would sugggest that you draw an arc of the outer edge of the turntable facing the roundhouse and on this mark the center of each radiating track’s location. Then draw a line from the center point where the turntable will be located thru each of these marks to a point about 12 inches from the arc. Then place your roundhouse on one of these lines and move it toward the arc until all center lines match the center line of every stall. If you have already placed your turntable just use a straight edge thru it to mark the radial lines. This will work for any scale.
Are you building your own roundhouse or from a kit? As far as I know, there is no specific distance. The way I had mine was to lay the tracks from the turntable to the stall areas first. Then the roundhouse goes at the distance where the tracks in the stalls align down the center of the stalls. If you’re scratch-building the roundhouse I would suggest the distance as no less than twice the distance between the coupler and the front of the cab on the short nose of the diesel locos or twice the distance from the tip of the cowcatcher to the front of the boiler for steam locos (depending on the era). This will allow the locos to nose out of the roundhouse without encroaching on the turntable itself.
Most of the time that determining factor is the size of the turntable. That’s because the size of the turntable determines the size of your largest locomotive power diesel or steam with tender or whatever. The length of track between the turntable and the roundhouse ideally will be somewhat a bit larger than your largest diesel or locomotive and tender if steam is involved. And lastly if you are considering expansion of your power fleet you must consider if you’re going larger with diesel and or locomotive and tender power. Good luck
Some roundhouses are at 10 degrees, others at 15 degrees. Draw a line from the center of the turntable at least 15inches. to the center stall. Draw two lines 10 or 15 degrees on either side of the first line. Slide the roundhouse along the line until all three lines are in line with each stall center. Atlas turntables are at 15 degrees, Walthers at 10 degrees. The roundhouse must match.
I assume you are designing from sccratch. The angle between the radiating tracks must be sufficient that the rails are clear od each other at the edge of the turntable, and the roundhouse doorways must be far enough away so that they have room for doorframes which are wider than the loco.
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Look at photographs to get an idea of the general appearance of typical round house buildings.