Just a short article that may grow in time, like all layouts will, and mine looks like doing more than I expected; read on... So I was looking at my N-Scale locos which were sadly suffering from settling dust, and I thought, why don't I put them under cover? Out I went to the garage and got out the Atlas roundhouse kit (still in box) and my Walthers 120' manual turntable (mostly assembled, partially painted) thinking I could add a little extension to my N-Scale shelf layout.
Well, after getting out the ruler and tape measure on both models, I was in for a surprise. Quickly the idea of adding the IHC Cheyenne Coaling Tower to the mix was discarded as the extension was already at least another 510mm long, and that was just for the models themselves, not counting any clearance to correctly curve tracks to the turntable or have some edge behind the roundhouse. Speaking of roundhouse, the 3 stall round house was going to leave me a whole 15mm clearance on my 300mm shelf. I know it's a shelf so it's narrow but wow. That's 15mm total, not either side by the way.
So now I am knocking up some wood offcuts to size up how much bigger this will make the layout and whether I will be able to extend it that much without endangering heads due to clearance/elevation/location etc. It is no wonder the railroads have gotten rid of most of these structures once they had no need for them, the real estate must have been worth a fortune. Just check out Two Brother'sfor what you can do with an old roundhouse. Previously known as the Walter Payton's Roundhouse, it is now a historic monument. And the final word, check out the ceiling height!
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