Saturday, December 26, 2015

It was a productive Xmas Day

With no kids and family far away, "traditional" Xmas activities are a non-starter around here. So what better way to pass the day than building a roundhouse?
The St Thomas yard requires a roundhouse, but since I'm modeling the post steam era, a functioning roundhouse is not required. So I chose to truncate much of the structure to save on layout space. I'll have 2 stalls open for SW-8s that call St Thomas home and an open air track and the rest will be up to your imagination.
I started with laying out the floor, orienting against the backdrop and centering off of the turntable.
With that laid out and cut it was to the bench.
It took careful geometry to get the doors centred and square to the tracks. From there I cut Evergreen Board and Batten to form the exterior walls, using photos to estimate the actual dimensions. With the long wall determined I cut partitions using the exterior wall as a guide. One partition per bay, to help support the roof panels which will come later.
With the cutting done and square in hand the partitions were glued in place.
From there the door headers were cut and glued in place as well as the only set of posts and beams was created and glued in place as well.
Now I have to sit down and create the 9 pairs of doors, and paint the interior.
The roof will be simple enough, just a lot of careful cutting.
For now it sits in it's place of honour waiting for another "me day".
And now back to work. Stock cars await me.




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