Please Help ,Round house placement

Thats a tall order because all of that great stuff takes up alot of real estate. Is this a moule or part of a 4 X 8 layout? Also is this HO or N scale? Before you do anything I would try to pick up a book on engine servicing. Model railroader has a nice book and I believe Carstens has one too. Basically when a steam engine came in they drop ash, get washed, get inspected, and go to the Roundhouse for service or storage. Next call to duty they get turned the right way, get coal, get water, and get sand, and head out. Diesels need less than this.  Let us Know what you intend to do and I'm sure we will all help with ideas. I have a scratchbuilt turntable myself that is going to need to go somewhere after about 20 other projects. Give us more info?

If you make your 4x8 a dedicated engine terminal with the roundhouse incorporated, it should not be too hard to fit it.  If you intend your 4x8 to be a layout and then want to incorporate that roundhouse into the "rest" of the layout, the roundhouse will be virtually  "all" of the layout.

Most people who don't mention scale are in HO, so I'll assume that's what you are talking about.

Walthers has built a diorama of some of the HO kits in 4X8, so it's possible, depending on what you want it to include. That was only a six-stall roundhouse, however.

Making it function realistically in HO in just a 4X8 might be a bit harder.

Is this a 4X8 to stand alone as a layout or to connect to an existing or future layout?

Some of these models take up specific amounts of space and require specifc track spacings, so without knowing the full list that you are trying to accommodate, it's hard to offer advice.

Here's an HO example taken from a custom track plan for one of my clients based on the 90-foot Walthers turntable, six-stall roundhouse, etc. As you can see, it takes up a good portion of the 4X8 even before you connect the lead tracks.

So once you draw out all the components to scale, it may be a bit of a challenge to make them fit in a realistic way.

One thing that is very rare on the pototype, but was used in a couple of track plans by John Armstrong, is to use a curved switchback to connect the lead into the engine terminal. By laying things out on the diagonal and using that switchback, one might be able to get an HO version to fit on a 4X8 with minimal additional trackage. But perhaps not inside an oval.

And why a 4X8? Why not 5X8 or 5X9, or something else?

Knowing more about what you are trying to accomplish might help folks help you.

I have 4 Different Roundhouse Kits and as I was working on setting up my first HOn3 Roundhouse which is a 7 Stall reproduction of the Rio Grande Southern I must of tryed more than 60 differ Track plans before I desided on the 7 Stall in Ridgway Colorado. This is a smaller turntable and roundhouse than yours by at least 2/3 smaller in size. The total area is 28" long and 21 inches wide down to 9 inches wide at the 50 foot HOn3 scale turn table. Then there is another 36 inches of service area tracks which makes the TT, Roundhouse and service area a little more than 5 ft long.  and then there are the tracks that lead up to the service area which is another 7 feet of track and this is a small Roundhouse and TT, if you don't plan on building a Very large Railroad I suggest you shrink the Roundhouse down to 5 or 6 stalls and as Byron has shown. Then save the extra stalls fo another expansion.

Dan

Sorry For letting the one important detail get away

I am working in H.O. the round house is assembled as are the machine shop, water tower,ash hoist, coal tower ect.

I am a model builder first and railroader second.

I intend to make the layout the servicing terminal,that is i would like the layout to be the service yard and facilitys

thank you

jerry

As Byron and Dan suggested, and what you are planning anyway, this IS your layout. A perfect avenue to display your models in great detail. And you do not have to limit your self to a 4X8. Plan out your foot print with  your models and go from there. The operational possibilities can be quite complex and  interesting as well, bringing in locomotives  for service, sending out ready one, ash pits, coal, etc.. Just plan for some staging for the locos to come and go to when you operate the facility. Would be a neat and unique layout that could keep you entertained for years.

Steve            

Today I purchased from Banta Modelworks an HO-scale model of the two-track roundhouse once located at Port Costa, California for the Southern Pacific.  That model and a 75-foot turntable could easily find a comfortable spot on a 4-by-8 table and still have a layout that isn't all engine terminal.  Present plans are for it to be placed on a 2.5-by-12-foot shelf.