Hay Marc

In the following I'm using HO scale as the area example, If you modeling in "N" scale you can divide the areas by 4 to get closer to the space that "N" scale will occupy

I have used a few different types and size Turntables and roundhouses in the past 45 years. First Turntables are not that large but adding the roundhouse can take up as much as a 6ftX6ft area when you have 12 to 20 stalls in your roundhouse. The best idea I have found is to keep the roundhouse stalls down to 7 stalls or less with a three stall being the more modest but will still take up a 14 inch wide by 28inch space in HO scale.

You have to make the decision as to weather your roundhouse is going to be a major point of interest that will have an insane amount of details or a modest rendition of the Bakersfield Roundhouse and service area. There have been many people building what would appear to be a large roundhouses, yet they only will build 3 or 4 stalls up to the edge of their Table and have the roundhouse built with that table edge section of the roundhouse as a cut away. The turn table will then have 8 or 9 dummy tracks coming off to the side of the table with only a few inches off of the turntable and stopping at the edge of the table & actually cut clean at the table edge to give the illusion the tracks extend into stalls that are off the table. When this method is used the open end of the roundhouse having no wall allows for viewing the inside of the roundhouse.

From that open end you will see inside the roundhouse & you will need to place the details of tools, tool benches, Pits for the workmen to service the under side of engines, spare parts, welding tanks and hoses, oil drums, ladders and buckets. You will also want to put LED ceiling lighting to illuminate the interior for visitors to admire the interior. This will help take your visitors minds off the fact that 2/3s of the round house is missing and at the same time saving you 15-18 square feet of isle space that would have had the remainder of the roundhouse and the table top and would have extended into the isle.

You have to make the decision of weather you want the whole Bakersfield TT and Roundhouse which I remember as a quit large facility by itself.

Much will also be dictated by the ERA your building and also what kind of engines will be serviced in the roundhouse, Like Cab Forwards 2-8-8-4, 2-8-8-2, 2-10-2, 2-8-0. or Diesels 4 or 6 axle.

If you can, Post what year your modeling and what type engines you running or will be and what Scale you working with.

Thanks and hope this gave you some kind of help.

Hi Dan, Thank you for your

Hi Dan,

Thank you for your reply.

I'm building the layout in N Scale, and the era is to be the early 1950s just before the fires were put out on the steamers for good. AT&SF had long since dieselized by then, but the spotlight on my layout is to be SP anyway, and while I love first generation, the Intermountain AC-12s have got me hooked into learning more on SP steam ops.

The planned layout is to be multi-deck in a small 2-car-sized building I have behind the house. The ideal arrangement would be to include most sidings between Bakersfield and Tehachapi. My first drafts included only the climb from the bottom of the hill to the summit, but after reading more on the subject, I grew fond of the packing operations, and later, the AC-12s from IM. I then began looking for ways to include more of the area between Bena and Bakersfield, but hopefully still retain the rest of the hill within the deck limits I had already set.

The plan currently is sketched with a total of three levels (36", 51", and 66"), with looped staging past Bakersfield, and a staging shelf and return loop past Summit Switch. At some point I wish to expand the building, so I haven't focused too much on details beyond Bakersfield and Edison. My thought is to build this area first and see if it fulfills my desires for running trains. If not, then I can continue to Bena, Illmon, Caliente and beyond.

I have a page that shows my original sketches of Tehachapi, albeit backwards from what one might normally railfan the line. It also includes a basic sheet on my givens and druthers:

http://www.3dtrains.com/mrr_tehachapi

I wasn't too keen on the reverse-viewing, so I set about redrawing the plan from a southward to northward view. I like how it's shaping up so far, but was stumped about the turntable since this was not part of the original plan.

Thank you again, Dan, for your thoughts on the subject. When I get something cobbled together I'll be sure to post images of my progress.

Cheers!
Marc

Whatever you do

Whatever you do.. if you include a turntable, make sure it is very easily accessible.They are a place where maintenance is oft required and locomotives gleefully leap from the tracks.

Good luck, the need for turning locomotives is the bane of steam era layout designs.

Chris

Turntable

I guess I am confused.  Where are you wanting to put the turntable?  You don't show Bakersfield on any of the 3 levels of your plans.  The turntable is the least of your worries, the yard will take up 10 times the space of the turntable, where is it going to go?

See my previous post...

Hi Dave,

As mentioned in my previous post, I wasn't too keen on the southward view as shown in the images, which is why I'm currently redrawing the plan from a more "natural" northward viewpoint. Aside from adding the yard and turntable, another concern is accessibility of the loop track. The original drawings in the above link allow fairly good access, to the loop, while my new attempts at reversing the viewpoint are becoming a real challenge. I'm half-tempted to forgo the loop altogether (just skip Walong - go from Woodford to tunnel #10 and Marcel), but then I'll probably have to explain my reasoning to each and every visitor. When someone mentions "Tehachapi", most folks immediately think of the loop, but in N Scale (and 50% compressed) it takes up more tan 30 square feet including the approaches from both sides.

I'll post images of the new plan soon.

Cheers!
Marc

response to your original post

The late John Armstrong wrote a bit about turntables and engine facilities in his book track design for realistic operation. His recomendation was to put the turntable and engine facilities on a penninsula so it could be viewed from 3 sides. In addition to viewing it also allows maintanence and rerailing to be accomplished easier. I happen to like engine terminals and having them viewable from three sides allows up close viewing of the motive power as well a plus in my eyes.

With that said I think their are some published plans on the web site for model railroader that might help as their were some recent articles, past 5 years about atsf, in bakersfield, los angles etc. from other modelers layouts or discussions on the subject that might be of interest to you.

Good luck with your design.