Tomix Roundhouse, Before and After

The Tomix 3-stall roundhouse is a preassembled Japanese toy train item made by TomyTec Co. Ltd. I liked the proportions and figured, with some work, it would make a nice American roundhouse.


The first job was to take the building apart. I removed the base (8 screws), which revealed 6 deep screw holes (inside the roof support columns).


With the roof off, you can see the spring-loaded bumpers at the back of each stall that close the doors. My original thought was to trash these, but they are kind of fun, so they are staying. If they cause problems they can be removed later. Engines up to 85 scale feet long should fit nicely with the doors closed.


The window castings are great. I plan to use them pretty much as-is.

 

I placed the roundhouse on a large sheet of paper and traced around the outside edge and each track opening with a pencil. Then I used a straightedge and extended track center lines to the point where they intersect. The turntable center is about 7-1/8 inches from the front wall of the roundhouse, and exactly 14 inches from the outside of the rear wall. I plan to use the Peco turntable.


I decided to trim the edges of the roof so that it fits inside the side walls. First I cut down the top edge of both the rear wall and the front wall by about 1/8 inch. The columns and side support brackets also need to be lowered. It takes some trial and error to get the roof to fit right.



Adding clerestory windows left over from a Walthers kit. This is time-consuming work with drill, knife, and files. I’m going to be lazy and leave half the louver panels in place.

 

Most American railroads parked locomotives in the roundhouse head first, so the smoke vents should be close to the rear of each stall. I removed the round vents from the front roof section and filled the holes with styrene. Those vents are really nice details. I’ll save them for a future project.


New smoke vents made from square brass tubing and .010” sheet brass.


The boiler room addition is a simple styrene box with 3/16” tubing for the smokestack. You can add a window or door if you want to get fancy.


Next, I added Chooch Enterprises peel-and-stick cut stone to the walls. This stuff is fun to use. I discovered that it sticks better if you clean the wall first with a little alcohol or contact cleaner.

 

I added .060x.060 styrene strips above and below the windows. The cornices are .060x.060 strips topped with .040x.080 strips. Simple and quick, but effective.


I airbrushed a light stone color as a base coat. I had Modelflex Sand on hand, but any similar color will work.


I tinted individual stones with various earth-toned acrylics mixed with matte medium. The main roof is painted Railroad Tie Brown. It took two coats to cover the dark green. The boiler room roof is covered with strips of masking tape to represent roll roofing and painted black. The clerestory area and door framing are Special Oxide Red.


Another favorite quick-and-easy detailing trick: coat the roof with white glue, then apply a mix of fine gray ballast and roadside silt through a tea strainer. Instant tar and gravel roof.


And here’s the reassembled roundhouse. I still need to add interior lights and do a little weathering.

 

Well done, Steve. I've been contemplating something along these lines but instead of cut stone going with regular brick sheet. I'm wondering if something similar could be done with the forthcoming Kato roundhouse to Americanize it.

Bob

 

FishPlate:

You did a very nice job kit bashing that Tomix Roundhouse. You did a great job weathering the stone work. Looks like you really had fun with the build.


Shades

 

This is a very interesting topic with the Kato round house arrival in the US coming soon. The Kato round house is similar to the Tomix one, but not identical.
I have been brain-storming on how one might American-ize the Kato version. The idea of brick or stone veneer on the walls seems to work for you.

 

Brick would be easy enough to do, but there are already several nice brick roundhouse kits on the market. The idea of a stone roundhouse has been percolating in my mind ever since I saw Jim Findley's MR article on scratchbuilding one, way back in 1981.
How about metal siding? There are a number of roundhouses in the midwest with frame construction and metal siding. i think that would look cool on either the Tomix or Kato structure.

 

My thoughts are focused on American-izing the Kato roundhouse. I have the old Heljan roundhouse and the modern Walthers.

 

It sure would be nice if the picture links did still work!

 

Wow, Mike -- that's a fantastic transformation! The prototypical smokejacks on the roof and boiler room on the side are such excellent additions too.