# Roundhouse & Turntable



## thequietdutchman (Jun 30, 2014)

Hey guys, i would love to make a roundhouse like this: 




But how?
I most likely have to make it out of wood, but im not sure how to get the right angle for it to match with a turntable, i was thinking about making around train 12 doors and another door (1) attached to the roundhouse for the big boy.

(G SCALE)

Turntable, do i make this out of wood? Should i make it a manually moveable turntable? Make this out of metal or make it powered turntable with a remote?


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## BigRedOne (Dec 13, 2012)

As to the angles, that really is not a difficult determination. It's a logical step by step process, which could be drafted by hand on paper.

This is how I'd proceed:

1. Determine the longest locomotive you wish to use on the turntable. add some clearance, and that's the diameter you need. 

2. See how close together you can / want to lay tracks as they approach the pit of the turntable. The closer together they are the more tracks you can fit around your circumference (or the portion thereof you want to use.)

3. From there, measure back as the tracks diverge to see how far you have to be to get clearance between adjacent tracks. This establishes the minimum distance between the pit and doors of the roundhouse.

Such a structure in G scale will be huge.

I'd build in a material you're comfortable working with. Whether to power or not is up to you. Protecting a motor underground in an outdoor railway seems like a lot of trouble.


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## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

How much room do you have , to build this in, is the question you need to answer first. 
a five stall round house is around 7 ft wide, x around 36 inches deep, plus 2 ft to turntable plus a 3 ft turn table
means a 5 stall is basically around 8 ft square of real estate.
Dennis


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

But that won't work for his new Big Boy....LOL...

Dennis.. more like an average of 18 - 20 sg ft... as you supplied..

... far larger even,.. if intended for the Big Boy.. which keeps coming up in his topics..

;-)

Before so many questions are asked how to build this monster turntable and round house..
... Dutch...
What locos do you expect to run across the turntable...? what do you plan to park inside the round house?
If you plan to run the BB on or over this... you better plan on steel to support the huge BB weight!!

;-)


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## thequietdutchman (Jun 30, 2014)

I Will get a drawing made today so you guys get a general idea


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## Fred Mills (Nov 24, 2008)

Remember, when planning this giant building, that you have to consider where you are going to locate it. If out of doors, you have to take into account how to weather-proof it.
I once looked into such a structure, but gave up the idea, as being unpractical. I went for a simple engine house, instead, and a wye for turning the locomotives.
But...to dream is a wonderful thing, and if you actually build it....ENJOY.

Fred Mills


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Nice music on the Video Air for a G string. Nice round house too


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I wanted a roundhouse and turntable on my pike. I figured I'd put it in the middle of one of my loopbacks. I knew I would not be satisfied with a simple 2 or 3 stall one... I wanted a BIG one... 3/4 round! And as many stalls as would fit in that diameter.

I set about drawing one in SketchUP and kept adjusting the lengths of the various components... I started with 3-ft long stalls, a 3-ft turntable and 3-ft between the pit and the doors. I kept adjusting the lengths until I got a pleasing drawing and ended up with 3.5-ft. stalls and turntable and a 2.25-ft apron. .. Made a nice drawing! 

I actually figured that the majority of the roundhouse would not be useable stalls... maybe only 1 or 2 stalls on one end would be hollow (with track) and able to fit an engine into it. The rest would be Styrofoam sheets glued together and carved to shape and maybe sheathed in plastic or wood to look like the real stalls.

Then reality set in when I realized that it would be an overall diameter of 15-ft! It would easily fit in my 17-ft diameter loopback, but...

My layout was all elevated. I would have to build a floor in that loopback and it would probably need to be structurally sound enough for me to walk on it at least while constructing the roundhouse. (I would not be able to build the roundhouse as one piece in the basement and then carry it outside) and the roundhouse itself would weigh a considerable amount. I also might need to get up on the layout to retrieve an errant car or re-rail an engine. Trap doors would be a good idea to get to the center from underneath.

The floor would be like building a gazebo in the back yard! (With enough support to be used as a gazebo by the next owner of the house!) Plus a 3-ft diameter hole I the middle to fit the turntable (with supports under that to pivot the table on). I went to a lumber yard and priced out a 17-ft diameter (a custom size) gazebo (may as well support the track around it on the same structure), but without a roof... just a structurally sound platform. $$$$ Woe... and Whoa! That put a stop to the project.

Here is a drawing of the building taken from one of my iterations in SketchUp.


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## thequietdutchman (Jun 30, 2014)

Now that is a nice roundhouse you go there Semper Vaporo


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## Ironton (Jan 2, 2008)

Remember you can cross the rails close to the turntable to compact the distance between the turntable and the roundhouse. This will make the stalls wider as the angle between the tracks will have to be greater.

I can't do much with text, but here is two tracks with the rails crossed at the turntable;

\ \ / /
\ \ / /
\ x /

You can do this with each track as you work your way around the turntable.

Hope this helps.


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

Rich... could I reccommend rethinking your crossed track theory...

If tracks are crossed... there will be more in any given arc...
Therefore the degree of angle is less between tracks.

The front wall of a building still requires room for doors wide enough to fit an engine thru...this is a constant..and should be the factor used to design both the building and there fore the track spacing arrangement.. which sets the building distance from a turntable.... 
Having crossed tracks... is more likely from the use of a smaller diameter table...a large turntable not so much..

Make a drawing... any scale or size

;-)
..


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

vaguely remember seeing a roundhouse with frogs in the radial tracks, but could not remember where so I decided to see if I could find a good example by looking through my list of Turntables and Roundhouses that are visible on Google Earth. 

Because my list also includes Linear Transfer Tables, my list has 961 in the U.S. and 499 in the rest of the world, so it took a while to visit them all today. Some are only a vague outline on the ground and some are listed even though there is nothing visible at all now, but I have other evidence of where a Turntable/Roundhouse once existed.

I did find a few examples of radial tracks from a turntable that have rails that cross near the table that you might like to see. Copy and paste these coordinates into the Search box of Google Earth and click "Search"... You may have to use the History feature (click the clockface in the toolbar and select some time in the past in the timeline dialog that appears). If you zoom in you should be able to see the tracks well enough to tell they cross.

Nashville Tennessee, 36° 5'31.11"N, 86°45'8.70"W
Note the irregular radial spacing that cause only some of the adjacent rails to cross.

Janesville, Wisconsin, 42°40'40.53"N, 89° 2'4.73"W

Bordeaux, France, 44°49'0.93"N, 0°33'41.31"W

Marseille, France, 43°17'46.49"N, 5°24'57.45"E


I also found some where the adjacent tracks come together at a point at the rim of the turntable but don't actually cross:

Spencer, N.C., 35° 41' 10"N, 80° 26' 10"W
Note the variation in the radial spacing of the tracks.


I also found some unusual arrangements that I'd love to have the wherewithal to model:

Prague, Czech Republic, 50° 3'38.73"N, 14°27'36.01"E
Dual Turntables next to each other in the center of two 3/4 roundhouses that face each other.

Hamburg-Altona, 53°33'41.27"N, 9°56'4.12"E
Remnant of twin "overlapping" turntables in a double roundhouse.


If anyone wants my complete list of Roundhouses, Turntables and Transfer Tables you can get the list as 2 PDF files (1 for U.S. and 1 for Non-U.S.) or as an "Excel" spreadsheet of the combined lists:


U.S. PDF
http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/sempervaporo/Trainsdotcom/US Roundhouses and Turntables.pdf


Non-U.S. PDF
http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/sempervaporo/Trainsdotcom/Non US Roundhouses and Turntables.pdf


Excel spreadsheet
http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/sempervaporo/Trainsdotcom/Roundhouse and Turntables.xls


I do update these lists on a random basis when I get the itch to look for more, or when someone finds one to add to the lists. I started the list when I was first doing the drawings for the roundhouse I wanted to build and was looking for examples. I was very surprised at the number there were and how many places still show evidence of their existence... as well as how many are still in use!


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Most roads will avoid the froggy approach due to add expense and maintenance, though I have seen them.
John


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## Ironton (Jan 2, 2008)

SD90WLMT,

The goal is to shorten the lead tracks. Yes you can pack them with less of an angle, but you will have to go out farther to acheive the clearance necessary for hanging the doors on the roundhouse. this means it will take up more room for the same number of stalls.

I was talking about reducing the length of the lead tracks. You need a larger angle to achieve the clearance and that was why my statement was made. Not thinking about next to the turntable, but clearance at the roundhouse.

Hope this clears it up.


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## thequietdutchman (Jun 30, 2014)

Totalwrecker said:


> Most roads will avoid the froggy approach due to add expense and maintenance, though I have seen them.
> John


I actually might use that 2nd picture for my roundhouse, i like that.


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## thequietdutchman (Jun 30, 2014)

Here's the roundhouse i wanted to make: 

The turntable will not have the size of the bigboy, it will have the size of the regular steam locomotives, the bigboy can just drive straight out of its shack over the turntable onto the main line


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## jimtyp (Jan 2, 2008)

That's using your noodle! Nice!


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Not an unusual remedy...

In my looking at Roundhouses on Google Earth, I noted one that had one long track from the yard to the Roundhouse that split into two tracks near the turntable as separate adjacent entries to the Turntable. Neither of the tracks from the switch to the pit was long enough to put much on them, so it was not for storage. I thought at first that maybe it was a remnant of some previous layout, but it just didn't really make much sense to have a switch to a 2nd feed to the Turntable.

Then I noticed that the two stalls opposite the two feeders were extra long compared to the rest and figured that the RR had obtained some new engines that were too long for the turntable and roundhouse stalls after it was all built. Rather than replace the turntable with one long enough to fit the longer engines, it was cheaper to extend two stalls long enough for them and put in the switch so they could cross the table without having to be turned on it to reach the long stalls.


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## Daniel Peck (Mar 31, 2009)

Here is one I built a few years ago. Got plans to build one to hold a Mallet soon.


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## thequietdutchman (Jun 30, 2014)

Daniel Peck said:


> Here is one I built a few years ago. Got plans to build one to hold a Mallet soon.


Looks real nice Daniel!
But what are these?








Did you cut a 30" track in half? And thegrey basket it's all laying in, what is that made off?


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## Ironton (Jan 2, 2008)

Dutchman,

Doesn't the bigboy stall need to be opposite the lead track to avoid the too short turntable problem? That is it needs to be towards the lower left of the roundhouse rather than opposite a storage track.

I would suggest you either move the stall or make the center track the lead track for the turntable.

Maye you meant this. If so, sorry I mentioned it.


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## Daniel Peck (Mar 31, 2009)

thequietdutchman said:


> Looks real nice Daniel!
> But what are these?
> 
> 
> ...


A lot of pits have rail which the table rides on and the motors to turn the table ride on the rails.
The gray is Aluminum .125 thick sheet metal That I made the pit from.

http://s615.photobucket.com/user/danielpeck/slideshow/Turn table Build
I run this table maybe 3 times a week. You can see the pit rail in here good. DC motors turn wheels that ride the rails.


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Since froggy tt's were raised, I couldn't help but post an example from the V&T.


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