SHOW US!! Your Engine Terminal/Roundhouse Scenes

[Norway2112]

I'm installing the turntable and roundhouse on my layout currently and have been pondering how to finish the scenery for it.  I model the SP and have been studying many photos of their engine terminals in the steam era.

Specifically I would like to see your examples of how you finished out the track, roadbed and surface area.  In so many cases the track is embedded down into concrete, or just years of dirt and buildup.  What methods have you used to create this? 

All advice/methods, and especially photos welcomed! Okay Go!

[jdcolombo]

John C.

[Erik W]

Damn!  That Nickel Plate scene is a tough act to follow.

Here are a few from mine.  Looking like the Plywood Pacific at this point.  This is 2 Atlas roundhouses kitbashed together and made to fit the geometry of the larger turntable.















. . . aaaaaand a roster shot for good measure. 


Erik

[jmlaboda - RIP]

This is 2 Atlas roundhouses kitbashed together and made to fit the geometry of the larger turntable.

Do you have a shot of the back of the roundhouse?  I have wondered about kitbashing one with better stall spacing as well and am wondering what you did in back the stalls.

[jereising]

Here's the Oakville engine terminal...generally fine gravel, but the fuel/sand pad is concrete...I'm thinking to maybe do something with the ground texture here, make it more like hard packed dirt,sand,gravel...

[alhoop]

Al

[C855B]

Beautiful photos, guys... with one big problem. Too beautiful! 

I saw just enough of roundhouses, turntable whiskers and service racks firsthand in my early railfan career to know that they are cluttered, dirty, oily, greasy, messy, filthy, nasty... you get it by now. By far the cleanest I ever saw - by far - was BAR's in Bangor, in 1980. You could almost eat off the floor in the roundhouse but, still, there was lots of clutter, oil drippings, sand mounds, and greasy piles of parts scattered outside. And lines of stored locomotives, though BAR had the class to put tarps over theirs, and none were in states of forlorn disassembly. Can't say that about any other place I'd been.

The OP asks about SP. They were one of the messiest. I recall their Bakersfield roundhouse in the late '60s as one gigantic grease pit. They didn't need special agents to chase the teenage railfans out of the place, it was such a filthy mess that despite the attraction of Alco DH643s and Krauss-Maffeis in and around the turntable, you simply didn't want to get near the muck lest you slip and fall in. That would make for some major 'splainin' when you got home. Railroading was and is dirty work in its most concentrated form.

And this was all diesel era! Extrapolate that to steam, and the mess factor goes up by 10X. So... bottom line... mess. And clutter. Lots of it. Comes with the territory.

EDIT: BTW, "...embedded down into concrete, or just years of dirt and buildup. " Oh yes - dirt and build-up. Concrete is for wusses.

[craigolio1]

I'm no where near building mine but when I do I plan to use unsanded grout. Colour, glue, and stuff all in one.

Craig

[RWCJr]

Building a reduced version of the ATSF Bakersfield roundhouse. Made the model removable from the layout for cleaning and detailing. As was mentioned earlier, engine terminals were very dirty, oily places. So after great procrastination, the RH weathering starts this coming weekend. Will be working with the Testors acrylic wash colors.

Below is a view of the sandhouse after it got weathered.

Robert

[Norway2112]

Robert,

What did you use to creat that buried oily look of your garden tracks?

[RWCJr]

Covered the area with sand sold for kids sandboxes (after a 300 degree baking for an hour to kill out critters and mold).
Coloring sand (silicon dioxide...glass) is hard to paint with acrylics. But like the upcoming weathering of the roundhouse, I used the Testors Acrylic Washes. Took a lot of coats, but that made it easy to control build up.
Robert

[Cajonpassfan]

Building a reduced version of the ATSF Bakersfield roundhouse. Made the model removable from the layout for cleaning and detailing.....
Robert

Robert, that's a good looking concrete house! 
Otto K.

[SP-Wolf]

Wow, Ya'll have some awesome service facilities. Here is my work in progress.





Yeah- I have a long way to go.. but, we have to start somewhere...LOL!!

Thanks,
Wolf

[C855B]

Building a reduced version of the ATSF Bakersfield roundhouse. Made the model removable from the layout for cleaning and detailing. As was mentioned earlier, engine terminals were very dirty, oily places. ...

Not too reduced - you captured the flavor.

Santa Fe's roundhouse in Bakersfield was no exception, although not nearly as yukky as SP's. There was a cul-de-sac off of California Ave. that ended at the south whiskers, and more than a little time was spent there. The mist from icing rack cooling towers a few tracks to the north provided relief in the sweltering SJV summers. ATSF Bakersfield was full of anachronisms in the early '70s - working icing facility, roundhouse, a manned grade crossing at F Street, Harvey House mostly intact but unused 'cept for the ticketing area.

I just looked at satellite views - there isn't even a shadow left of the turntable and roundhouse. Somebody did some major grading work around there; I see a fair amount of adjacent development. IIRC the roundhouse was where there seems to be a new minor service building.

[Flagler]