Do all engine houses, big, small, round, rectangular have pits between rails inside ? Thinking of simualting it by slicing out ties and adding flat black ...
Well I dunno, but it seems to me that a pit would only be used in a repair facility. I believe some smaller roads have engine houses just to keep an engine out of the weather. And they would contract out major repairs requiring a pit. Just my opinion. Jim
A work it is common, but not a necessity. Inspection is normally done underneath locomotives and a pit lakes things a lot easier. View attachment 52069 This picture was taken at Milwaukee Roads roundhouse in Deer Lodge, MT. A pit makes it so much easier for mechanics to work underneath .
In the steam era, inspection pits were required for the routine maintenance, medium to large engine terminals would often also have an inspection pit on the inbound service track to see if it needed to go to the "house" or could just need fuel, water, lube and sand. Often they had a small cart with lights to help the inspection. Robert
Mark, I wonder if a flat black square would look like anything other than a flat black square? To me, the appeal of having an inspection pit is being able to see it and its actual depth, as you can see in RWC's photo.
Jerry, I now model in N scale, and have built several roundhouses and do not build actual pits in them. Indoor pits won't be visible unless the roof of the building is removed. Also, if the track and roadbed is on top of a wood base, over time the walls of the pit will warp. In HO the flat black square will look ok, in N scale, I just paint the ties and space between the ties flat black. Door opening is too small to see the lack of pit. Robert
Robert, I think you meant Mark ,not Jerry, but, yeah, its dark in there so maybe pit is not worth it..Oddly, just now typing I had a thought: What if we added lighting inside ? It would most likely be on during day ,too ..I've seen welding simulation depicted but don't recall a lit up engine house, roundhouse ....Well, then I answer my own question, huh ? ! Very nice TT and outside pit....Mark
Robert - I see your point. Thinking about it, the pits I have seen have all been outside of engine houses, allowing viewing. I imagine it would entail a lot of work to put a pit under every track in a roundhouse too!
Mark, I just saw a roundhouse like you describe at a train show last week. it had a couple of welding lights in it, but it was also relatively dark inside - so in retrospect your thought of using flat black squares would work fine.
If you want to have a pit, go ahead and build it. Not all sites had them. Sometimes the small, outlying facility was just a place to get things out of the weather and do very minor daily maintenance.
