The Fundy Northern 13 stall roundhouse was scratchbuilt entirely from heavy styrene, with the .080" styrene salvaged from old signs. The six center stalls are non functional "dummy" ones. A few have short portions of plastic diesels and one steam engine to give the illusion of being in use. Windows were salvaged from a Pola enginehouse - as in the main photo of this website with the shot of the Shay.
Everything had to be sandwiched in a 2 foot wide module, and still leave room for the two main lines that pass in front. These main lines were curved around the structure to make more room.
Everything had to be made heavy duty as the modules when packed take a lot of abuse in transport. The roof on the far side of the structure was made removable, being held on by magnets. This allows access to the interior for photography and to retrieve problem rolling stock.
The Heljan turntable is manually operated by a string pulley arrangement under the table. The pulley is turned with a hand wheel that can be seen just inside the building. The backdrop on the modules is open in this area to allow a hand inside. |
