The new Marklin 89982 turntable includes two buildings: roundhouse and administration. The architectural design of these buildings follows the architectural movement in Germany called Neue Sachlichkeit (“New Objectivity”), and a movement that was ended by the Nazis in 1933. I mention the Marklin roundhouse as one option and the earlier Archistories Prussian design roundhouse as the other option. Until just a few years ago Marklin made the only roundhouse out of plastic, it was a rather generic roundhouse with remote control doors. Having two options from two different periods of railroad history in Germany gives z scalers the choice between Prussian or DRG railroading although many Prussian roundhouses continued to be in use for later DRG and DB railroads. Exposed steel cage with infill brick denotes the “New Objectivity” or “New Sobriety” in Germany. If you choose Archistories Prussian roundhouse you can incorporate a very cool loco shed also by Archistories that is of the later architecture period in Germany thus having the best of both worlds.

Save a few bucks by buying a used or dealer old stock of the 3 pole turntable or 5 pole incorporating it with the Archistories roundhouse, it has a few attributes that make it a better choice than the new Marklin set including a much more commanding structure that is expandable then opting to include the loco shed by Archistories of the New Objectivity to include two eras of German railroading in your layout. The expandable Archistories roundhouse is possible as a separate add-on, each add-on roundhouse shed includes 4 bays; I built a 12 bay comprising the original Roundhouse kit with 4 accessory bays.

12 bays is about the maximum that can be built without some trimming to the roofing material to have it cover properly, it is possible to expand further but you will need to do some modification to the roof.