The Atlas HO Roundhouse,
and the way they painted it.
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The Atlas HO Roundhouse, and the way they painted it. |
The Atlas Turntables
Before we get to the roundhouse, here are a few pertinent
facts about the Atlas turntables.
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| Ironically, some of the features that make the Atlas turntable easy to use are part of the reason it is so often looked down upon by "serious" model railroaders. Real turntables nearly always have pits with ring rails in the bottom, and steel girders under the track. Real turntables are completely flexible in where they can stop and very seldom have the flat circular deck that is a necessary part of the Atlas model. Still, the precise indexing and electrical features have induced some serious model railroaders to get one, if only to place under their pit floor to drive their realistic model turntables. |
The N scale turntable is a scale 100 feet in diameter, and the O scale turntable is 96 scale feet in diameter, both respectable sizes. Unfortunately, the HO turntable was designed to fit into track plans based on the 9-inch lengths of Atlas's popular Snap-Track®, and is thus only 9 inches in diameter, a scale 65' 4". That length makes it suitable only for the shorter steam locomotive typical of the early 1900s and before, some small post-1910 steam switchers, and nearly all single unit Diesel locomotives.
Note: When comparing a locomotive's wheelbase to the turntable's 65' length, don't forget to take into account the length added by the flanges on the wheels. Some real railroads, the Union Pacific for example, turned locomotives that were slightly too long by jacking up axles until their flanges were clear of the rails. Not much is to be gained this way, however, and it is a ticklish job in HO.
(To see a page on the Columbusrailroads.com site illustrating another solution to the problem, click here and scroll about half-way down the page.)
The Atlas Roundhouses
The Atlas Roundhouses are designed to be positioned right up
against their turntables, with a fifteen degree angle between
the stalls to match the "stops" of the turntable.
It appears, although I can only say for certain about the HO roundhouse,* that Atlas made their roundhouse's stalls long enough to take practically any locomotive that will fit on their turntable.
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* Atlas claims only an 8 inch stall length for their HO roundhouse, but I measure the distance between the inside of the door and the end of the track area as 9½ inches, and the coupler can extend past that. Did I miss something here?
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I model in HO, and the scale 65 foot turntable is not much of a hardship for my 1930s-era shortline, the Hillside & Eastern, because those older steam locomotives would have been all it could afford anyway.
I need to work within a model railroad budget that is stretched in too many directions, so any given project must make use of materials on hand as much as possible, to save money for those which cannot be improvised.
A review of the Atlas HO Roundhouse kit said it could probably be assembled in about one evening's work. I'm not going to argue with that, but in my case, I wanted to make a few changes. Besides, lengthening the project is yet another way to get as much as possible out of a hobby dollar.
Desired Features in My Turntable/Roundhouse Area.
Here are a few of the "Givens and Druthers" that influenced decisions I made later.
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The Required Changes
In order to implement the desired features,
some changes would have to be made.
A Few Possible Improvements
With an eye toward ease of use, Atlas did a few things
when designing their roundhouse floor that
are not commonly found at
most real roundhouses.
But at most of the roundhouses I have seen, the area between the roundhouse and the turntable is ordinary track, filled with cinders or ballast up to the tops of the ties. The ballast is often deeper near the turntable, covering the ties and nearly reaching the railheads, perhaps to improve the stability of the tracks.
But most of the photos I've seen of roundhouse interiors show solid floor up to the outside edge of the rail heads. The area between the rails is either an inspection pit or solid paving with minimal flangeways. I am planning to fill in the area outside the rails with stripwood painted concrete color.
But I have looked at 1940s photos of five roundhouses on four railroads,* and was surprised to see none of them had anything remotely resembling bumpers. The rails in the floor just ended about 10-15 feet from the back wall. I guess real hostlers (those who move locomotives around service areas) are just very, very careful.
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In the 1910s, certain large locomotives cooled unevenly after their fires were dropped and their boilers filled, causing their "closed" throttle to open enough to pass steam. If the reverse lever was off-center, the engine would begin to move on its own. They were called "night walkers" or "night crawlers," and roundhouse crews took to chaining adjacent drivers together to keep them in check. A 4-8-2 with this problem was placed in a small roundhouse where its habits were unknown. Because of its length, it was parked against the stall bumper rather than with its stack under the smoke jack. During the night, enough pressure built up to slip the drivers. The resulting exhaust blew a large hole in the roof of the roundhouse. |
Furthermore, Atlas's bumpers are only tall enough to catch the "gladhands" of the magnetic couplers I use on my equipment. Hitting these bumpers will put an unnatural strain on the coupler, which could in time bend the gladhands out of adjustment or even damage the couplers themselves.
But (and this is really picayunish of me) examining the photos of roundhouse interiors reminded me that roundhouse floors were often paved with wooden blocks set on end, somewhat like an industrial-strength butcher block. If you want to figure out how to model this, go right ahead. To me, concrete is a perfectly acceptable floor for a roundhouse.
I changed the Front Yard because it is so obvious to the eye and I thought it would be relatively easy to change.
The interior, like most model kits, was never intended to be viewed. If I hadn't stopped to research roundhouse interiors looking for bumpers, I'd probably be blissful in my ignorance. But now, when I have to take the roundhouse roof off, as I undoubtedly will, I know it will bother me to see ties in there.
For now, I will concentrate on the exterior, only doing interior work if it can be seen through the windows or from the stall doors.
* The roundhouses I researched through 1940s photos include the IC and C&NW in Chicago, the AT&SF in San Bernardino CA and Shopton, IA, and the CRI&P in Blue Island IL.
What follows is an account of the joys and trials I encountered while building the Atlas HO roundhouse kit, their item 709. I document this not because I think it is the best way, but as a record of what I did, in hopes that those who come after me may learn from my mistakes and find better ways.
Quick links to specific areas:
The Office (Step 13)
I started with the kit's optional office, to gain experience and
test materials and techniques before tackling the
roundhouse.
The windows of the office are set quite deeply into the wall, to the point where the lack of brick detail around them becomes obvious. It would be a nice touch to at least add the horizontal mortar lines. The roundhouse windows don't have this problem.
There are two different part numbers for the steps: 20A and 20B. I don't see any difference.
Painting Considerations.
If the office is to be used,
one of the three windows in the back wall of
the roundhouse must be "bricked up" with
the piece provided in the kit.
The office, then, clearly represents
an addition made to an existing roundhouse.
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That very property came to my rescue when it came time to highlight the mortar lines in the brick walls. Prior to assembly, so they could be laid flat to dry, I painted the roundhouse walls with PollyScale Boxcar Red. When they had dried thoroughly, I applied a thin coat of the Woodland Scenics Concrete paint, making sure to fill all the mortar lines. After it dried, I wiped off the bricks with a slightly damp cloth and was rewarded with clean distinct mortar lines. |
One way to emphasize that fact, almost like telling a story with colors, is to use different colors for the wall cap tiles and the brick and mortar. I chose PollyScale Roof Red for the brick, PollyScale SCL Hopper Beige for the mortar, and Pactra Gloss Brown for the cap tiles. I think the story would have been clearer if I had saved the darker Roof Red and Gloss Brown for the older structure, and used lighter colors for the addition, perhaps adding a little orange to the brown.
Don't forget to paint the three brick pieces that go around the inside of the walls just above the roof.
The door and windows in the office are recessed in from the brick surface of the wall. This means the sides of the door and window area should be painted the color of the brick, and the lintel and sill areas should be painted to match the lintel and sill pieces. The lintels and sills are a very good fit in the wall, but if there is still a visible crack between the sill and the wall piece, it can be filled with paint.
I used a brush and Pactra flat white for the windows, but if I had it to do over, I would have used a spray gun or spray can for the windows to get uniform coverage. Don't bother painting the outside edges of the door and windows; they don't show and must be free of paint to fit into the walls.
For the stairs and foundation, I didn't care for the grey color Atlas used to represent concrete, preferring something with a little more yellow in it. Unlike the roundhouse floor, the outside edges of the foundation will be seen in the finished model. I used PollyScale Aged Concrete.
When painting the foundation of the office, remember to paint the step at the bottom of the door.
Assembly Notes.
The office window sills lay flat as compared to the door and window lintels,
which are upright.
They can be cemented in place before the windows are installed.
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Before starting final assembly, file off the raised round areas on the inside of the walls above the roof supports.
Prior to cementing the roof in place, make sure it seats properly on the roof supports. Otherwise, the brick pieces on the inside of the upper walls cannot be put into their proper position.
Knowing how fragile they can be, I left the over-the-door light fixture off until the office was almost finished. When it came time to install it, I applied some damage-resistant techniques developed on my first model railroad.
I tapered the square lug on the back of the fixture, drilled a #80 hole in the end of the lug, and glued in a short length of fine sewing thread. This is run through the hole above the door, draped over a support inside the office, and a small weight is attached to the loose end.
When snagged by a passing arm, the fixture yields under pressure and does not break off. When released, the thread pulls the fixture back against the outside wall of the office, and the lug squares it up.
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Some rotary switches come with a movable stop to limit their rotation to however many positions you will be using. If you use a rotary switch, be sure to include a position for "everything off."
Actually Wiring the Track.
There are two small holes in the floor of each
stall, apparently intended
for feeder wires.
I chose to solder stranded feeder wires to the outsides of the rails, then drill holes in the bottom of the roundhouse track area to route them under the floor. To make the three track pieces easier to identify, I soldered the feeders for track 1 about 1 inch from the end, track 2 about 2 inches from the end, and so on. I used black insulated wire to make them less obvious, and when the solder cooled, I painted the shiny areas flat black.
After drilling the holes through the floor, I turned the floor over and drilled holes through the webs that help strengthen the floor so the wires can be routed to meet the wires from my track selector switch.
I used the largest hole-saw I had (2 1/8 inches) to make an opening in the table below the roundhouse for the wiring to pass through. On the edge of the hole, below the table, I mounted a home-made socket with the wires from my track selector switch. The ends of the wires from the tracks are soldered to 1/32" brass rods, which fit in the holes in the socket like the plugs on an old-fashioned telephone switchboard.
Finishing the floor in the Track Area.
To implement
solid paving outside the rails would require adding removable
strips roughly ¼" wide between
the rails and the track area walls.
Making these removable is a work in progress.
An inspection pit between the rails would require cutting a rectangular hole in the bottom of the track area, cutting the ties that would cross the inspection pits, and regaging the track.
Solid paving between the rails could be done with ½" wide pieces (actually up to 0.564" wide) fastened securely to prevent derailments.
The Front Yard.
I decided the point at which I wanted the
concrete floor to end would be about 9 scale inches in
front of the front wall, or about 1/8" from the door hinge holes.
On the two concrete areas adjacent to the side walls I scribed lines at a 90° angle to the side walls. For the other two areas, I scribed lines at a 75° angle to the side walls. (90° - 15°) I darkened the scribed lines so they would be easy to see later on.
The first cut I made was the one parallel to the floor about 1/16" above the bottom of the track area. Thinking it would be a good way to maintain the proper depth of the cut, I clamped the blade of a hacksaw about 7/16" above my drill press table, and ran the floor back and forth on the table while holding it against the saw blade. There has got to be an easier way to do that. After getting the cut started, I switched to a hand-held hack-saw blade for the rest of the cut, stopping just short of the scribed lines. I then cut down from the top of the floor piece, parallel to the scribed lines, into the end of the long cut, and dressed the ends of the floor with a file.
All during the preparation, I was wondering what to use to cover the gaping triangular holes that were going to appear between the track areas. As soon as I saw the shape of the pieces I removed, I had my answer. The four pieces removed have the same exact angles as the holes they covered, and can be trimmed to fit and cemented in from the underside of the floor piece. This surface will be covered with cinders later on.
I covered the holes in the ends of the floor where it meets the front yard with 0.020" styrene sheet, trimmed the excess flush with my rail nippers, filled with Testors Contour Putty, and rounded the corners.
In hindsight, I think putting wax paper between the floor piece and the drill press table might have eased the friction, but I'm not sure how the wax would affect the paintability of the floor.
The Bumpers.
To prevent damage to equipment,
the bumpers must catch the knuckle of the coupler,
which is centered roughly ½ inch above the floor,
and not the gladhand.
To hold my largest locomotive, the bumpers must sit back
3/8 of an inch from the end of the track area.
It can't be so ridged that it could damage the
coupler, but it should move no more than 3/8 of an inch,
so the gladhand doesn't hit the wall.
In keeping with the fact that roundhouses have no bumpers,
I'll have to come up with three bumpers
that don't look like a bumpers.
Bumper #1
Selecting a rather stought fellow from my
collection of Airfix OO scale
polyethyline civilians,
I carefully drilled a 0.028" diameter
hole up through each of his legs.
I then fashioned a spring from 0.025 music wire.
Don't try to cut music wire with ordinary wire cutters,
it will damage them.
To cut music wire, use the corner
of a grinding wheel to grind it part way through,
then flex the weaked spot until it breaks, and
dress the ends to remove sharp enges.
The spring is mounted below the roundhouse floor, and the ends go through slits in the floor and are inserted into the holes in the legs of the man.
The Inspection Pits.
Because of the length restriction of the turntable,
most if not all the locomotives that use the roundhouse
would require visits to a track with an inspection pit.
The Diesels would require
pits because their traction motors are located on their trucks,
and the steamers because most of the locomotives this size
were equipped with inside valve gear.
I chose not to cut inspection pits into the floor of the track areas, but to just simulate them with flat black paint.
If I had cut pits into the floor, I would have removed the part of the track ties that cross the pits. I then would have bowed the pit area rails slightly and cemented shims to the sides of the track area to push them back into gage.
Painting the Floor Assembly.
I painted the bottom and sides of
the track areas Grimy Black.
I used a wash of Grimy Black to unevenly cover the walking surface
inside the building, and then used fine sandpaper to remove most of the
paint in the high traffic areas. The floor alongside the
track areas should remain grimy black, especially near where
the locomotives would be.
The Right Wall
If you are going to be making any modifications
to any of the walls,
do so before painting.
If you are going to be painting any walls,
do so before assembly.
Cutting Corners.
I began by selecting a place on the wall next to one of the
pilasters (is that the right word?) where an angle might
logically be found.
Starting on the inside of the wall, I used the back edge of a hobby knife
to scrape a vee-shaped groove almost entirely through the wall.
Painting.
Assembly
The Back Walls
I didn't notice this until after I had narrowed 04B
to allow for the cut-off corner.
The total width removed worked out to 7 bricks,
so I removed 3½ bricks from each side of the window.
That was a mistake.
It resulted in two adjacent rows of bricks above the window that
were not properly staggered.
I should have removed 3 bricks from one side and 4 bricks from the other.
And yes, that cut below the window is not horizontal.
That area will be covered
by a trim piece, so the gap will not be a problem.
The angle makes sure there will be no interference
between the two pieces.
I pieced it back together using
pieces of half-round sprue on the
inside of the wall to strengthen the joints.
Step 2 in Atlas's instructions assumes the modeler will
be using the office annex.
If you are not going to add the office,
Atlas does provide enough window frames
and clear window material for all nine large windows
in the roundhouse.
If you are going to be using the office annex,
it can be placed against any of the back walls
and the window of that wall should be at least partially bricked up.
When I get to that step, I plan to investigate
cutting the window smaller, and installing it
and part of the brick-up piece in the wall.
In addition to the modifications needed in my particular situation,
this section will cover any issues relating to preparation and painting,
as they will be the same as those for the back and side walls.
The right wall of my roundhouse has an angle in it,
to avoid hitting the concrete sky just behind it.
I painted the roundhouse walls with PollyScale Boxcar Red,
and highlighted the mortar lines with Woodland Scenics
Concrete as outlined elsewhere
in this page.
The window frames are a close fit in the wall,
but not so close that the bowed clear window material
couldn't push it back out.
Rather than wait for the Testors clear part glue to dry,
I applies a little Tenax to the underside of the window sill
and the top edge of the frame and held it for 30 seconds.
The instructions might lead you to think all
three back walls are the same.
Wrong!
There are actually three different kinds of back wall.
You will find them marked as 04A, 04B and
04C on the inside of the wall.
The sketch on the right (not to scale) shows the cuts I made
(in red) and
the areas I removed (in blue) to narrow the wall.
To keep calculations easy, I used bricks as a unit of width.
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I painted the bodies of the smoke jacks PollyScale Signal Green, and plan to add rust stains to them. Coal smoke is nasty stuff where metal objects are concerned.
The Garden Track
The HO Atlas turntable is designed take track
sitting on ¼" (6.35mm) roadbed.
That used to be the standard size for cork roadbed,
but I have not seen ¼" roadbed for decades.
You could use ¼ plywood,
since sound dampening is not an issue at such low speeds.
You could also use card board shims under commercial roadbed.
Don't use corrugated board, it will wilt over time.
Use the kind
used to made cereal boxes, soft drink cartons, and such.
Assembly
Once all the pieces are painted, it will be time to start construction.
Walls (Steps 3 through 9/9a)
Roofs & Skylights (Steps 10 through 12)
Foundation and Trim (Steps 14 through 17)
The Trim pieces are applied to the floor,
and the Foundation pieces are applied to the walls.
There are two kinds of Part 57 the Base Trim along the back edge of the floor: two 57A and one 57B.
There are two kinds of part 40, the Foundation pieces for the back walls: four 40A and two 40B.
There are two kinds of Part 42, Foundation pieces for the side walls: 42A and 42B.
Roundhouse Interior Decorating.
Begun October, 2008, last updated 1/18/2010.
I studied lots of photographs of roundhouse interiors,
to see what they had lying around,
and here's what I found, along with some ideas on how to model it:
I hope this gives you some ideas for your roundhouse.