Engine House 1950 and Earlier


logandsawman

logandsawman

Well-Known Member
I am shopping for an engine house for a single engine that will fit my layout for 1950 and older stuff.

Check these out and comment if you like them, or give me some other ideas:

Branchline, $98.98:

Branchline.gif


JV models, 45.98; does not include box car shed:

JV Models.gif


Lineside, $59.95

Lineside.gif


McCartney's, $39.60:

McCartneys.gif


THANKS for your input!!!!! lasm
 
Hey LASM,

I like the last one, the stone building looks great and 2 bays are better then 1. You can have one bay for major work and the other for routine maintenance.

Any of them would look good, I just prefer the last one and it is less expensive.
 
I think the engine house you need is going to depend on the length of your locos. What is the longest loco that you think you want to put away in it?

Personally, I like the stone building; if your longest loco fits it and you like the look, then there's my vote. Two is better than one, and the extra bay gives you more options. It's also not unrealistic to have a two bay house.

Photoman475
 
photoman475 said:
I think the engine house you need is going to depend on the length of your locos. What is the longest loco that you think you want to put away in it?

Personally, I like the stone building;

Photoman475
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I will be parking a S-12 switcher in the house, so any one would work. It would be most appropriate not to have a bunch of extra length with the engine house, I think.

I like the stone one, too; and it being the cheapest helps.

lasm
 
I'll throw a wrench in things and say I actually like the stone one the least. The wooden buildings seem to have more character, and maybe even not really look like what you'd expect an engine house to, which appeals to me.
 
Mike,

I thought about scratch building as wooden shed, since there doesn't seem to be that much to them, but would like some details to put around it. Any ideas of some package deal of junk that would go around the engine house? Not necessarily just junk but real stuff that would be piled or stored around the outside of the house.

lasm
 
logandsawman said:
Mike,

I thought about scratch building as wooden shed, since there doesn't seem to be that much to them, but would like some details to put around it. Any ideas of some package deal of junk that would go around the engine house? Not necessarily just junk but real stuff that would be piled or stored around the outside of the house.

lasm
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It's funny...I decided to just browse some pictures when I read that, and while model railroaders tend to pile a lot of junk around the engine houses, the real life ones seem to have been kept pretty tidy externally. BUT here's some things I did see...

Wheels and rails. That was by far the most common thing, to have rows or stacks of those. Also something that would be appropriate, I would think, is maybe some 50 gallon drums and 5-gallon buckets of oil, grease, solvents, etc. Some sort of small bulldozer or backhoe wouldn't be out of place. Cut a radiator assembly off of another switcher body and lean it up against the side. Maybe some light machine shop supply, such as some rod or bar stock and some metal plate and/or sheet metal.
 
MikeOwnby said:
Wheels and rails. That was by far the most common thing, to have rows or stacks of those.

Cut a radiator assembly off of another switcher body and lean it up against the side. Maybe some light machine shop supply, such as some rod or bar stock and some metal plate and/or sheet metal

.
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Interesting that you pointed out these, among the other things. I have been keeping my eyes open and notice that everywhere stuff is stored, there are piles of rails. Usually neat piles with some sort of order to it.

However, I hardly see them on anyones layout.

The sheet metal and metal plates wouldn't be too hard to make.

lasm
 
Thought I'd explain the backhoe/dozer thing b/c looking back it seems to come out of left field. I just figured that a small railroad would have something like that or a tractor around to move the equipment if need be when it wasn't under its own power. Since it's 50's it might be more realistic that a small short line would have that rather than anything riding the rails.

I did have another brainstorm (brainfart?) but not sure how much it would occur in real life. I was thinking about engine access door(s), maybe something that was take off the locomotive hood because it got bent/damaged or a hinge point broken off? Put the appropriate partial decal on that piece and weather it up; could be leaning against the building waiting to be scrapped or used for sheet metal repairs. Seems like that wouldn't be too hard to fabricate. You could cut a rectangle of hobby sheet metal that would bend realistically (damaged) and even simulate latch handles and hinges just with some micro-mask that you trim up to leave the appropriately shaped "hump" under the paint.

Then of course you make it even more interesting to have the switcher with one or two "new" doors on the hood winking out from the otherwise weathered body.
 
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I personally like the Lineside one (3rd one, for $60). I think it has the most potential for looking good with some work put into it (weathering, supply stacks outside, etc). If it's on a shortline, would a small company spend the time and money building a stone structure to repair an otherwise beat up switcher? Also, the stone one seems more Alamo -ish to me. If that's what you want, then it's perfect. Scratch building would be a fun project. Before reading that post, I was thinking a kit bash of a barn and an old box car for the side structure. Might look pretty cool. In my opinion, wood structure is the way to go no matter what - just personal opinion.

Mike had some really good ideas too. I might steal a few of those myself :).
 
Depends a lot on where your railroad is located. Where trees were plentiful and lumber was local and cheap, wood would be the preferred building material. The stone building would be more likely in a great plains or desert location where imported wood would be more expensive.

For model railroading, a more important consideration may be what material is the kit made from? Wood, plastic, resin, plaster? Which one do you prefer to work with?
 
alcoman said:
Depends a lot on where your railroad is located.

For model railroading, a more important consideration may be what material is the kit made from? Wood, plastic, resin, plaster? Which one do you prefer to work with?
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Good point about the location. Where I live and am modelling, the stone would work because there used to be a huge sandstone quarry here and some of the turn of the century buildings actually look like the stone model. However, was also a big timber area.

The old crane or backhoe idea is a cool one, I still see stuff like that is the back of old farms, used to dredge out wetlands and stuff; but also used for installing bridges. I can see having one to move stuff around or could also load on a flat car for emergency bridge repair.

I have modelled out of all the mediums and think they all have a place, although most of my structures are scratch built wood or wood and cardboard (cereal box) combination. I like the resin stuff to get a brick or stone look, and the hydrocal for the highest level of detail in a brick or stone structure; not really necessary in every building.

lasm
 
That is one that I checked out but it is overkill for my layout. I think it would look great on a bigger layout like a club layout, but I am going to have a sawmill and logging area where a small wood engine house would be appropriate. There is also going to be an industrial area with a meat packing/slaughter house and some transfer warehouses in the foreground, where the stone on e might work.

My total layout is going to be about 24' long and a folded dogbone for continuous running with a couple 5' bump outs for the loops. There is only enough room for a couple industries, plus I like to have a bunch of green space with trees, rocks, and grass; also a stream.

I think a simpler shed with the right stuff around it will look cool. The more we talk about it, the more I am thinking building a wood one for now, copying some of the best elements of the above commercial products, and maybe later adding the simple stone one on the other end of the layout by my industrial area.

I have some cool old box cars that are junk and I will pick one of them to put buried in the dirt by the engine house for storage, as a starter to cool up the structure.

lasm
 
I like the stone one, too, LASM -- but I also agree that maybe for your context scratch building your own wooden one would be the way to go.

alcoman said:
Depends a lot on where your railroad is located. Where trees were plentiful and lumber was local and cheap, wood would be the preferred building material.
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As it happens I've been mulling this issue over re my own road. Bought a 2-stall brick enginehouse last summer (came from Walthers, it looks to me like it used either the old Revell tooling or else copied that model somewhat), but the more I think about it the more the intended location for it should have a wooden enginehouse, not a brick one. Brick architecture isn't unheard of in Northern Wisconsin of the 1930s, but for an enginehouse in that region, I see no indication that it was used.
Which is too bad because the enginehouse I got is one I've wanted a long time and was a real find...I've still got a lot of time to dither on this one, though...
 
From Louis to Erik and everyone inbetween, thanks for your input!!! If anyone has a photo of their favorite engine house for this time era, I would like to see it.

Thankyou,

lasm
 
MikeOwnby said:
Thought I'd explain the backhoe/dozer thing b/c looking back it seems to come out of left field. I just figured that a small railroad would have something like that or a tractor around to move the equipment if need be when it wasn't under its own power. Since it's 50's it might be more realistic that a small short line would have that rather than anything riding the rails.
Click to expand...

Back in the 1950s my 2 local grain elevators each used a farm tractor with a loader to move things around. They even pushed empty boxcars for grain loading. The full cars required the car pullers that they had. A regular tractor gives you another option on what you could use.

As to wood, stone, or brick construction just remember that wood structures were vulnerable to fire and so were replaced.
 
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These ae 2 pix of the Los Angeles Junction engine house. It's gone now. Will be building a model to put on my LAJ layout.

LAJ 21 HOUSE SE.jpg\LAJ 21 HOUSE SW SIDE.jpg
 
Great photos, Andy. The left one gives me some good ideas on piling some more stuff around it. Must be corrugated steel siding? Wonder if the roof is the same?

I would have never thought of putting the bars on the windows, keep the robbers out.

Thanks for posting!!! lasm
 
lasm
Haven't seen any pix of the roof but the RMC plans show them to be corrugated sheets like the sides. One of these days when I'm "rich & famous" (lol) want to get a historicaerials.com pic of the whole house area showing the turntable also
 
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