Looking for opinions for the best structures. my little poll.

[Anonymous]

I am sort of taking my own personal poll. I am looking for what people think is the best building manufacturer (barns ,houses,factories etc). Example: Walthers, Plasticville etc. I am looking for quality, colors, how easy it is to put together and how real does it look. I am sure a lot of "NEWBIES" like myself, who are building a layout would like some opinions/suggestions etc... I am running a Lionel O guage fastrack about 14x8 L shape if that matters any.

[Roger Bielen]

Cooker,
It's all a matter of preferrence, if your looking for a nostalgic toy layout where scale is unimportant Plasticville has a lot of variety and is usually readily available. I've also taken some of their almost scale kits and kitbashed them. For me next on the scale would be the kits by IHC these can be built as intended, detailed, kitbashed, et al.

When you feel a bit confident you could move up to the plan and build it panels, i.e. DPM. As you get more advanced more is required of the builder: painting, fitting, etc. The final step is scratch building where you might attempt to model a structure that's caught your eye.

The easiest is to buy the ready build structures by Lionel, MTH, and K-Line.

Don't be afraid to try building something, no matter what it is your guests, unless real nitpickers, will be unaware of the little faults and will probably be quiet complimentry since few would have any idea of where, or how, to start.

This is a hobby where we are always learning something new, otherwise there would be no need for this forum.

[Anonymous]

Build your own from scratch. The structures I need are not being produced and never will be.

[Anonymous]

My wife collects Dept 56 houses, and they are used now on my layout. My favorite is the Lionel train station.

[brianel027]

As far as price is concerned, I vote for Plasticville first and the K-Lineville kits next. Neither of those are as detailed as other kits and pre-assembled buildings go. Not as costly either. Both the Plasticville and K-Line kits offer the possibliites of kitbashing and easy repainting. I've taken the Plasticville Firehouse and turned it into a bakery and a factory. I added a second level to the firehouse for the factory. The gas station could easily be made into a shipping office or convenience store - prototypical too. The airplane hanger can be part of a factory or a foundry. I made my Plasticville Coal Tower into an operating one. I took the K-Line Diner kit and gave it an artdeco paint job, replaced their molded windows with my own custom made windows, added a neon sign and smoking chimney and made it operate with a man going in and out the door.

Some of these kits are a little undersized. The Plasticville Water Tower and the K-Lineville Police Station come to mind. But you can use the Water Tower on top of a facotry as a water tower. The Police Station can be placed at the back of the layout for some forced perspective. I took my Police Station, added a loading dock and loading door, put a water tower on the roof and made it into a small factory. The regular K-Lineville Factory is one of the nicest and smallest industrial buildings out there. I took mine and did custom window inserts, added new loading docks on the side and back, added roofs over the docks with lights beneath, replaced the undersized front door with a custom made new one, replaced the side and back doors too, added a smoking chimney and a moving forklift - I did this long before the newer operating K-Line one came out.

There was a great article years ago in CTT about turning the Plasticville Hospital into a factory - another great idea. That was a good article for a beginner who wants to try this kind of thing.

Anyways, the possibilities are endless. Kitbashing is a great way to build your confidence up to the point of scratchbuilding, which I have also done.... including my own custom designed operating icing station and operating coal mine.

[Anonymous]

Please don't leave out ERTL of Dyersville, Iowa, as a source for structures, though they do mostly farming related things. Their buildings always include detail parts such as fences, animals, implements, etc. Although everything seems to be 1:64 as far as included die-cast vehicles and human figures go, the "artistic license" and forced perspective of a lay-out can be greatly enhanced by some of these fine structures, as they generally bulk up a little bigger than their counterparts in the Plasticville or KLine lines.
I do collect structures from a lot of the lines out there, including the Walthers "Cornerstone" series, Atlas, IHC, Lionel, Model Power, MTH, and the like, and have had a lot of fun with adding detail to commercially manufacture structures with parts from Grandt Line, Plastruct, Kibri, Woodland Scenis, and Evergreen Styrene, to name a few.
Ah, Styrene. With the sheet goods, as well as the many detail parts, available in our "O" gauge (some would say SCALE), this is a fun meduim to work in. The trade magazines that we all peruse are full of project suggestions, and there are booklets on the subject. What could be easier than scribe and snap? Enjoy.

[overall]

Lately, I have been on a Walthers "built-up" kick, although I have bought several of the new "Lionelville" buildings too and like them alot. I guess I like the convienence.

George