Well, here I go again!
Since it doesn't look like I'm going to have the funds to rebuild my permanent layout the way I'd like to any time soon, I figure I might as well put the table to use. At the moment it acts as a summer storage spot for the largest Disneyland modules. However I'd like to trade off the standard gauge trains and the shelving they occupy 9 months out of the year for the Disneyland stuff.
So with all that in mind, I started building some of those "wish I had's" I never had the space to tackle before. Up first was a 129 terrace and 124 station.
The light fixtures are (from the bottom up) a grommet from an old belt, a piece of brass tubing, another grommet, a piece of plastic tubing and a brass washer ton top. Inside one wire is twisted around the base of the bulb and thd the other is attached to a bent nail in the center of the tubing to make the other contact. Goofy, but it works!
The "urn" started life (believe it or not) as a king from a chess set I purchased in ChonBuri Thailand. I cut the top off and hot glued rope into it to create the flowers. The unraveled rope is coated with glue and then dipped in groung foam. The flowers themselves are bits of loofah.
After completing such a large project, I went on to smaller jobs:
A villa Lionel never made.
A firehouse based on the villa.
This Hornby style signal tower and the 2 bungalows below are available at bigindoortrains.com. However I modified them a bit. On the Hornby tower, the original version was just a rectangular box with the stairway drawn on one end. I separated the top and bottom sections of the tower and made the base smaller than the top. I also took athe stairs off the wall and rendered them fully.
Also, the villas as downloaded lacked the "fachwerk" (exposed wood beams) many lithographed Lionel villas had. So I decided to add them back.
I also printed the front porch piece a bit larger.
Up next, a Lionel factory based on the 6-32905 from the 1999 v3 catalog. I decided to go with white walls, blue windows and orange trim. (gee, wonder why? ) My plans also include the 840 power station, 300 Hellgate, 444 Roundhouse, 140 Tunnel, 189 and 191 Villas, 440 Signal Bridge, 438 Signal Tower, 104 Bridge, 436 Power Station, 437 Switch Tower and a Diner based on the 442. I've done several of these before, most of them back in the 90's.
But it's time to redo them. Thanks to the internet, and Ebay more than anything else, I've accumulated a good database of photos of originals up for sale. Since many of the items on my list are high value collectables, many sellers provided close up photography of scratches and dents on the items which gives someone like me a great view of details that I might otherwise overlook in most photos. I also have a lot of colors of cardstock at my disposal that weren't so available when I got into standard gauge. Plus I have about 20 years worth of experience under my belt that makes things go a lot faster!
Well, that's what I'm up to!
Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Stunning, Becky. The 129/124 came out absolutely beautiful! This post is another one from you to put store in my favorites. Your imagination is awesome. Since you got me started on "fake tintypes" a couple weeks ago, I've modified offerings from bigindoortrains, also, including a staircase like yours on the station tower. I'll never approach your ability, but I'm satisfied with some of my results and I continue to learn.
Thanks, Swede
Becky - You could have saved a lot of time and trouble and bought these items, or close to it, on ebay for maybe $1,000 or so!
Ray
Bayville, NJ
Life is what happens to youWhile you're busy making other plans - John Lennon
Believe it or not I originally started building these things as "place holders'. It was my intention to build a Christmas layout with the fakes and trash them as I got the real thing. That was around 1993. The economy was good, I had steady work and hardly any expenses. It all seemed perfectly possible back then especially since Ebay was just being born and prices weren't anywhere near the level they're at today. But MTH O gauge struck my fancy back then and several times a year I was able to buy a starter set so I could play with protosound. Today all of those engines have been stripped of their electronics and run on DC and I wish I had put my money into postwar Lionel and prewar standard gauge.
Becky, YOU ARE AMAZING! If there's a man in your life I hope he realizes how blessed he is!
Awesome. I love it. The station - fantastic.
Thanks guys!
Nope, not attached. Still looking for the right guy. Maybe I'm just too picky. There aren't a lot of guys out there with large Lionel collections and large bank accounts that would tolerate my mania for layout building!
Well I have the first par tbut not the second and I'm already married so thats probably why I don't have the second part lol
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
Penny Trains Thanks guys! Nope, not attached. Still looking for the right guy. Maybe I'm just too picky. There aren't a lot of guys out there with large Lionel collections and large bank accounts that would tolerate my mania for layout building! Becky
I've got more Lionel and AF than I know what to do with, but no bank account because of that along with my avatar. Two expensive hobbies can't be good.
Jim
Still looking for the right guy? OK, tell you what. The next time there's a mega-train-show in your area put on your most fetching railroad theme outfit, dab a little "Mega Steam" scented smoke fluid behind your ears, maybe on the back of your wrists as well (the scent is your choice, but I like "Coffee" the best), and take a demure pose on one of the stools at the snack bar. Hey, you never know, do you?
Becky,
Again, wow! Fantastic does not describe your work. I think Cowen himself would have hired you in the 20s and 30s to make mock ups for the production items. Your approach could literally revolutionize tinplate railroading. I am surprised Mike Wolf has not tried to buy you out before knock the market out from under his feet. Wow! I hope CTT does you justice.and gives you several pages (and articles!) to display your craft work.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
That 129/124 jumps out at me the most. At a quick glance, I thought it was the real thing. After seeing your work, I wish I would've sent a model to you that I was working on and given you some $$ to put it together. I don't have the steady hands (or temper) for that kind of delicate work.
Another one done! Here's my factory:
It's not easy to see, but the letters under the keystone are cut out from the orange so the white shows through from behind. I used some peel and stick letters on a piece of card to create a template. I cut out the letters then traced them backwards onto the back side of orange piece. Then I cut them out of the orange card.
This one's to show the scale of things. The bungalows I built last sunner for the O gauge layout you can see in the background would fit inside the standard gauge versions if not for their front porches.
Up next: little pink houses!
Absolutely stunning work, Becky. I just wish you would buy a sheet metal brake and shear... and start building your creations out of steel!
Thanks for posting such inspiring pictures of your project.
- James
Once again, you've blown me away. Every thread you post is a joy. Simply amazing work, and the colors are incredible.
I've thought about it quite a bit. The cutting and bending is easy enough, just slightly tougher than what I'm doing now. It's punching that I don't know anything about. And without it my windows and doors would look pretty lame.
BUNGALOW CITY!
AT BUNGALOW CITY WE CAN SATISFY ALL YOUR BUNGALOW NEEDS!
WE HAVE RED ONES, BLUE ONES, GREEN ONES, PINK ONES!
IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A BUNGALOW, YOU'D BETTER VISIT BUNGALOW CITY!
CONVENIENTLY LOCATED AT THE SLAUSSON CUTOFF!
COME ON DOWN TO BUNGALOW CITY TODAY!!!!
Ok, now that you've all cut off your slaussons...
I want to echo the sentiments offered by other folks. Your work is amazing. If you go into business I'd be proud to have some of your work on my layout.
The Northwoods Flyer Collection
of
American Flyer Trains
"The Toy For the Boy"
Hey Northwoods, I don't mean to get political here but that song "Little Boxes" is one of the meanest-spirited pieces ol' Pete ever put out. I know it was offered in fun but there's nothing "ticky-tacky" about Becky's work.
Point taken
Well, I don't know what you guys were talking about but that song's hillarious!
Good evening all,
Becky, again, wonderful work. Thank you once more for sharing your talent and work with us here. As an admirer of all that is Standard gauge, it is good to see someone who can make it more accessible to all.
Well Becky, the song "Little Boxes" is a satire on suburban conformity, but the really ironic thing is the satirist (Malvina Reynolds) and others like her were quite the conformists themselves, just with a different world-view. The "Little Boxes" THEY lived in were apartments in the "artsy" sections of the big cities.
I still think the song's mean-spirited, and I'm surprised Pete Seeger covered it to begin with. I like Pete's music and find him a VERY interesting man, and I don't think he's got a mean-spirited bone in his body.
Anyway, I'm glad you didn't take offense to the post. I was concerned considering the quality of your work.
Like I said, I don't want to go political here, this just isn't the place.
Believe it or not I was whistling Little Boxes while I was making those bungalows! It's kinda what I had in mind. One of our local TV heroes even used it in a skit (way back when) and the film recently ran on the Big Chuck and Lil' John show. It's a great anti-conformity song. I also like Sherman's "Crawl Out Through The Fallout" by the way.
Mike, I"ve always loved the display layouts Lionel made, especially the Scenic Railways of the 1920's. I get such a thrill when I discover the tricks, techniques and construction secrets they used and figure out ways I can do it myself. Since I'd love to see a resurgence of layouts being built using classic techniques, it only makes sense to me to spread the word. Even if it's only as simple as someone learning how to make a tree or two to make their layout look more authentic it's all worth the effort.
OK Becky, good for you! Looks like I was worried about nuthin'! Keep up the good work!
In a world that's ever-growing more technical, I find I'm appreciating more simpler things. These structures are wonderful, and I feel they would produce the funds you desire. Trouble is, when you turn your hobby into a business, it does take away some of the joy (from a former custom painter of trains).
..........Wayne..........
True fifedog, boring is a constant. It doesn't even have to be for someone else in my case. All repitious tasks, like making palm trees for Disneyland for example, drive me batty.
But more importantly, there's the cost to value ratio to consider when you sell any craft. Take something small like a bungalow for example. #1 I wouldn't be able to sell the litho style bungalows as-is because I didn't design the graphics. I could however sell solid color versions like the pink or blue ones shown in this thread. So if we go that route, here's a list of materials used:
So we're at about $6.20 for materials and I haven't included lighting yet because at the moment I don't have it. But a rough guess, add another $5 and bring it to $13. If we take the standard model and add 300% of cost for labor, glue and other incidentals, we're up to $52 for a paper and cardboard house with a lightbulb inside. Add 2 trees and hedges on a landscaped foamcore base and you add another $12. So now we're up to $64 and the question remains, would anyone actually pay it?
And remember, we're just using a little 8 1/2 x 7 x 6" house with little detail and extremely low durability as an example. Move up to something larger like a 124 station (never mind the terrace) and then everything goes up by at least 20%. Once you cross that line, you enter the realm of bad condition original Lionel steel accessories which most of us would rather have. With the materials I'm using the cost to profit ratio turns negative at about $100. Beyond that point consumers (even in the target audience) wouldn't be willing to pay true worth for a cardstock structure.
I've been asked to make Sleeping Beauty Castle models in the past as well. For that, I had to consider a special set of issues:
Let's assume I did try to sell a Disney castle, never mind the Disney lawyers on my backside, my best guess of what the true value of the fully landscaped diorama would be, is $500. Too much to ask for a simple paper structure.
So, unless I find a way to bring costs down to a workable level, there just wouldn't be any point in trying to sell them. Anywhere. Ebay, train shows, craft shows, no matter what I wouldn't be able to make any money let alone survive on it. That's why I give away all the secrets for free.
NOTHING COULD BE FINER,
THAN DINNER AT:
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month