I have a few of the Pola buildings on my layout and am in the process of building a couple more. I enjoy detailing the interiors and I also like to add lights, which makes a removable roof important–it’s much more difficult to replace the lights or fix anything that goes wrong in a glued-shut structure (ask me how I know 🙂 ) However, this is tricky here in central Kansas, where the prairie winds regularly gust to 40mph and a roof can’t just sit on top of the walls.

Anyway, I’ve come up with a method that holds the roof firmly, conducts power to the lights in the ceiling, but is still easily removable. In the corners of the building I placed small-diameter brass tube with wires soldered to the ends. Then I wired the lights to brass rod that fits into the tubes. Power applied to the wires runs up the tubes, into the rods, and thus to the lights.

It works pretty good, but the real test will be some windy days. Once I’m sure the roof will stay on even in the wind, I’ll use this for roofs on other kits I have in the future.