Position of turntable in engine yard

When planning an engine yard with a turntable, it is easy to forget that the whole idea of a turntable in real life is to save space, by turning locomotives in a small area instead of running them through loops and turnouts.

One often sees turntables placed on a layout that tends to waste precious space, specifically one sees the roundhouses placed beyond the turntable like this:

Collection of BR 18 locomotives

I noticed a growing number of BR 18 type locomotives in my locomotive collection, so I got them out for a photo shoot...

All are Märklin models. I started off in the engine yard around the roundhouse.
Baden IVh, 18 434, Rheingold, Bavarian S3/6

Betriebswerk lighting mostly reconnected again

I have now been able to reconnect most of the lighting in the Betriebswerk.  The big yard lights are dead, not sure if the LEDs have blown or what so they will have to wait for later....

Power!

Now that I have the Betriebswerk in place, I am able to run the power cables along to where the control center is, and actually connect the Intellibox to the layout.


I fetched a loco to test that the track actually has power and it does... loco lights come on and the loco moves...

Scenes around the Bw

Here are some scenes from the engine yard, taken when the yard was in the old layout.

Faller 120146 Sand bunker and sanding tower

The sand storage and sanding tower make a nice contribution to the engine yard.

This kit is very easy to put together. Not a lot of pieces.

I painted many of the pieces before assembling them, for example some weathering of the tower foundation:

and all the walls etc:

Water Tower (Faller 120166)

Before working on the third engine shed, I need to get most of the work done behind where the shed will go so I have installed the water tower (Faller 120166) and done most of the ground preparation.

Water crane lamp signal Ve7

Water cranes, used to supply water to steam locomotives, had a signal lantern mounted on the arm that could swing over the track.

These lanterns had red on the sides and white on the front and back. This means that if the arm was over the track, a red signal would be presented to any locomotive on the track in either direction, warning the driver that the arm was over the track. When swung away off the track, white lights would be presented. The official signal designation is Ve7

I explored the possibility of creating illuminated replacement lamps for the water cranes I am building.

I used transparent styrene to create a lantern the same size as the original solid plastic items supplied with the Faller 120137 kit. Into that I inserted a surface mount LED. In order to keep the brightness very low I used a 47K Ohm resistor at 12V - resulting in a current of only 0.2mA!

Here is the first lamp with the Faller original lying below it. It is supported only by the two wires going to it.

Faller coaling station 120147

This is a small kit (20.7cm x 8 cm) that consists of two coal bunkers and a small raised crane for lifting the 3 small coal skips that are also included.

Second roundhouse installed

The second roundhouse is now installed on the layout and wired up!

Christmas in the roundhouse

Some of the workers in the roundhouse like to decorate a tree during December...

First Roundhouse

The roundhouse is at last installed on the layout and all wired up...

Loco shed smoke catchers

Loco sheds have large funnels above the tracks to help direct smoke out the chimneys. Since I was creating interior details of my roundhouse I have made smoke catchers. I need two per track. This allows a steamer to be parked head first or tender first, or even two small locos on one track.

I made mine out of a thin card and used a 6mm drinking straw cut to 30mm lengths for the new chimney. This allows the catchers to be positioned 60mm above the rails. The chimney caps from the Märklin 7288 roundhouse kit can be made to fit in the top of the drinking straw.

Roundhouse interior details

I put a lot of effort into the interior detailing of my roundhouses. 

Arc-welder in HO

I designed and made a welding machine out of thin card

Roundhouse construction (Märklin 7288)

I have started constructing one of my two roundhouses. It is an old Märklin 7288 kit that does not have any interior details.