OK, It's way to early for Halloween... But...

[BobbyDing]

It's way to early for Halloween, I know. But I'm trying to plan ahead for next Halloween, so I was Googling the net for O scale Haunted House structures and I came across this (if anybody is interested):

http://www.haunteddimensions.raykeim.com/index301.html

I measured one printed door and it was 1.5" Good printer drivers will let you scale up just a bit (or down for smaller gauges). They'd make great templated for modelling it in other mediums too. I sent him a few bucks because I think it's great work.
I'm not affiliated with him. I just remember one or two posts here about Halloween layouts. And he's got more coming!! That Phantom Manor will be great on a western layout [:p]

Forgive the off season intrussion. But I thought a few here might find it useful for next season.

Bobby

[cmrj]

It's a realy good site for the haunted mind. Mike

[Dave Farquhar]

Very nice model and a nice site. With a door height of 1.5", the house is about right for S scale (1:64). Enlarge it by 15-20% and you get it into O scale neighborhood. If you have access to a large-format printer that can print on 11x17, it's easy. Otherwise you might have to print it on what you've got and take it to a copy shop. But if you're not a scale purist you can probably get away with using it as-is. Plasticville is 1:64 with 1.75" (1:48 O scale) doors. As-is it'll loom large and chew up more than a square foot on the layout anyway.

I see nothing wrong whatsoever with having a haunted house on the layout year-round... Gives the layout some mystique. And with a little window work and different surroundings, it wouldn't necessarily look haunted. Put a nice car in front and a servant standing at the door and it'd look pretty aristocratic to me.

One tip for paper models: Get a can of Krylon Fixatif from your local craft/hobby store. It'll be in the same aisle as the glues. It stiffens the paper and makes it nearly waterproof, so it'll be a lot less likely to warp and will hold up better.