An SNCF Roundhouse & probably a load more!

[Notroh]

Well, here goes this is my entry for the Forum 3 mth Competition….

I want to extend Trouvé, I have mentioned it on my thread, but here is the revised plan:

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I have decided that before I build the board, lay the track and fit the manually operated turntable, I am going to build the associated round house. Something like this:

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A six bay version of the above, which will be built from 1.5mm Plasticard, with the roofing coming from Ratio or somewhere and the windows will probably be acetate prints, designed in Photoshop. The reason for doing it this way round, is that I have managed to find a diagram of the base of a roundhouse that gives the correct angles for the track to come off the turntable. I got it to scale and reduced it to 6 bays as so:

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I thought if I build it first, it should make the location and fitting of the turntable easier, when I come to do it, which given this is a 3 month competition, could very well be part of what happens in this entry!

Suppose I better get started…..

Peter

[jon_c]

Look forward to seeing this!

[PinkNosedPenguin]

Me too
The roundhouse looks like an interesting structure to model . . .

[Dad-1]

Hi Notroh,

That looks interesting, also somewhere where a few sets of traction can
sit & look pretty !!

Geoff T.

[Notroh]

Hi everyone,

Firstly, thanks guys for your encouragement.

I have managed to do a bit.

I have made a thin card mock up to see if the plan works ….

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A bit deep I think.

Last night and tonight I have sorted the front elevation, flippin’ hard setting French concrete mouldings 

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How?

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Next the side walls..plus the back wall in cardboard

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The real problem will be the back wall – 12 windows to cut from 1.5mm Plasticard 

Still I have a view of how it should look now


Peter

[ParkeNd]

To cut multiple windows (28 in Railway Cottages) I have adopted Ratio's brass template idea as per their included templates in Ratio sets of brass etched windows. I cut a Plastikard template for each window size by sanding the surface to accept pencil lines, mark out the window aperture with a set square, and cut out the aperture with steel rule and scalpel (a Stanley knife isn't good enough for N gauge size windows). Then I sand again to remove any chance of a tiny burr deflecting a pencil tracing its outline. I then cut the overall template out of the large piece of Plastikard leaving about 1/4" of material around the aperture but with perfectly square edges.

I have now done the work that would be required for just ONE window. But to mark out many more I just position the template using its square edges and draw around its inside edges with a 0.5mm lead in a draughtsman's pencil.

This saves time on repeat windows and helps avoid errors of say 1mm between window sizes. Also helps keep window aperture markings vertical.

[Notroh]

ParkeNd

That's much the same as I do

Peter

[Notroh]

I noticed a stranger on the build site the other day....

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Why he wants a photo I will never know, but it does illustrate the size of the structure..

I have managed to get the shell of the roundhouse finished

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Now for the big test….I printed out a 1:1 of the SCARM track plan for the area and……

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It is spot on!

Now there is a relief!!!!!

So now I know that the board will have to be 450mm deep to avoid the turntable snagging on the baseboard frame, I suppose I had better get my finger out and build the thing... A job for next month I think.

Peter

[Notroh]

I have made a little further progress with the roundhouse part of the project, I have added the buttresses at the front and given it a bit of a paint job. I need to do a couple of bits of filling and then lighten the grey to much nearer white, but not actual white….

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I have also been playing around with a} what windows to use and b) how to do the interior, as whilst the roundhouse will be at the back of the board, when taking shots with few locos there I feel there has to be something there rather than plain painted plasticard.

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I have opted for colouring the initial templates I made whilst planning and fixing the windows between the templates and the wall. As for the window, whilst browsing around at the early stages of my thoughts on this, I discovered the very nice man from Wordsworth Models, a fellow forum member, had designed a roundhouse, so I downloaded the plan for free and scaled it down to N and printed off the windows on acetate – Thanks Mikem64!

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Do you think it works?

Peter

[Notroh]

I have managed to push things on a bit, I have finally got the colours right, I think. The interior is done, the windows are in and the roof is roughly on, with just the roof vents to make. But it is beginning to look a bit more like a proper roundhouse now…

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Off for a few days winter sunshine at the weekend and then I think I will have to knuckle down to making the extension board for this to sit on as the hall, landing and stairs is nearly finished - Yeh!!

Happy days...

Peter

[PinkNosedPenguin]

Looking great
Though I think that steam loco has a bit of a climb to get out of the shed

[Peter]

My only comment on this and it's a mistake that I have also made is that in a real life situation it is unlikely that the only access to engine sheds would be via a turntable. In practice there would be an alternative route in case the turntable failed.

As mentioned I have made the same error as my engine shed area is set at 90 degrees from my main station so I effectively have a similar set up for the station and engine shed area as yours.

[Bufferstop]

In a true roundhouse the only way in or out is the turntable. There was a hybrid design in which the turntable tracks ran into a rectangular shed with through roads and points at the other end, leading to an exit road.

[Notroh]

Peter

This is one of many plans I looked at whilst working out how to lay this out

http://plm1950.msts.free.fr/rail/ChalonDepot.html

There really are many more French examples

I can only follow the prototypes

Peter

[Notroh]

He

I have finally built the baseboard for the extension:

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The backboard will run the full length of the extension.

Fully demountable, once I have laid, secured and cut the track where the boards meet, I will work on this as almost a new layout and only connect to Trouve every so often.

Plenty to do - so more soon

Peter