What about the Smalltown USA structures? I have never built one but I have heard that they are great strating points for projects like this.
As for DPM buildings, they are great models just a little trickey to paint because the doors/windows come molded into the plastic.
Let us know what you come up with it would be cool to see.
trainguy700
Thanks again everyone, I have to finish my Walthers Interstate Fuel and Oil project and Walthers Betties Diner, then my PO project will begin.
I did not say it was wrong to ask for more information from the OP. I just did not feel that it was right to tell others to hold up on their replies. I do apologize for the tone of my original post. It doen't look very kind in hindsight. I appreciate all inputs on this forum. Yours too.
Have a great day.
Lets not forget that in small communities (Hamlet) lots of times the Post Office was just in a porch like setting in someones house. Or a sideline business in another small business setting.
Johnboy out.......................
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
willy6 Thanks to everyone for the answers. I found a building that I can work with after a few modifications. It's the Walthers Modern Brick Santa Fe Station. The front and side loading docks looks close to my local PO. I'll remove the train platform and down size the building. Thanks again everyone.
Thanks to everyone for the answers. I found a building that I can work with after a few modifications. It's the Walthers Modern Brick Santa Fe Station. The front and side loading docks looks close to my local PO. I'll remove the train platform and down size the building. Thanks again everyone.
You are welcome.
What an interesting pick! I would never have thought of it. It looks to me to be more of a "distribution center" than a rural post office. That is, I don't see truckloads of mail showing up at the PO of greater Nowhere, Nevada.
BUT.
I'm pretty sure there are local distribution centers. And THAT building looks like an excellent candidate.
But you are saying you'll downsize it. So perhaps it will lose that "distribution center" look.
I would certainly like to see the final result.
Excellent choice,
Ed
wdcrvrto 7j43k I do not understand why you would feel the need to throw a wet blanket on a good thread. I did not pose the question but certainly was enjoying the discussion. I do not recall see any guidelines as to how many responses are allowed before the OP is required to respond or give further details. It is fine to ask the OP for further information but I feel it is out of line to suggest to other members that they should stop responding. I guess I am a bit touchy on this type of comment because it happened to me. I posed a question that drew a lot of responses with a lot of people wanting to get into the discussion. No one asked me for additional details pertaining to my question, but at some point someone decided that they needed to say that people should quit providing further comments because I had not yet responded with a thank you for the info I had received so far. I was trying to take in all of the info I was receiving and I had not decided what I wanted to say about it as yet. I really enjoy and greatly value this forum, especially since I am not aware of any other modeler in my immediate area to talk to. But I did not appreciate getting burned by someone. Enough said.
The OP did not say he posted to start a discussion. He asked for help. Various people responded with suggestions. Those suggestions were varied. Clearly, the OP was seeking to install only one post office. I threw on my wet blanket so as to get more information to help the OP. By waiting for further information, perhaps WE ALL could home in on a better solution for the OP.
The point here is to help the OP. Not to have a discussion. That is NOT to say there is something wrong with having a 12 page discussion of variations of post office architecture throughout the world, but that was not what prompted the original post.
You say "No one asked me for additional details pertaining to my question...". If you look at my post, you will see that that was pretty much what I was doing. I was expressing the need for what I thought was further input from the OP. To help answer his question. Thus succeeding posts could be of more use than if they ramble around to who knows where. Which, as I have said, is not necessarily bad--just not as helpful.
You do touch on an interesting parallel subject: I think those who originate a topic have a responsibility to it and to those people who take their time to respond. I have seen people start a topic and NEVER show up again. And I have seen people who start a topic and remain engaged in it. I prefer to take part in the latter.
I see that you bristle at being accused of not responding quickly enough with a thank-you. Food for thought. But I will remind you that we are taking our time, the time where we could be playing with trains or painting-the-shed, to respond to your request. We don't HAVE to.
Please keep that in mind.
The 1930s era brick post office in my home town looked a little like the Life Like "police station" kit that Walthers still offers.
https://www.walthers.com/products/layout/structures/woodlawn-police-station-kit-6-1-4-x-8-3-8-quot-15-9-x-21-3cm
Dave Nelson
I use a non descript building with a mailbox in front.
Joe Staten Island West
I think perhaps we should give it a break. We've supplied lots of ideas. Now we need to hear from Willy6 (the OP) to give us further guidance. If any is needed.
richhotrain 7j43k The OP asked for a"rural" post office. I guess the question might be HOW rural? Ed Ahh, yes. But were rural post offices brick and mortar or simply wood frame? Rich
7j43k The OP asked for a"rural" post office. I guess the question might be HOW rural? Ed
The OP asked for a"rural" post office.
I guess the question might be HOW rural?
Ahh, yes. But were rural post offices brick and mortar or simply wood frame?
Rich
In sparsely-populated South Dakota, where the census had to count dogs and cats to reach 100 in a given zip code, the "Rural post office," was usually a lean-to addition to one end of the general store - and the storeowner's wife served as postmistress. Such structures were never brick, but could have corrugated iron siding.
In larger settlements, not truly rural, the PO was usually a storefront, identical in architecture to the others on the block.
Rapid City, the only large concentration of population in the area, has a large, modern masonry structure - concrete columns, tilt-up curtain walls - for its Main Post Office. The bottom 40% of the curtain walls are brick, with windows. The top 60% is concrete and appears to have been poured with the columns. Note that this is a BIG structure. Uncompressed, the building and its parking areas would be about one tatami (3x6 feet) in HO scale.
The same Google search that allowed me to refresh my memory also came up with several very nice, reasonably small modern rural brick Post Office buildings. Google Armour, SD, post office, and select images. The Armour PO would be an easy scratchbuild.
I rather suspect that the small brick structures replaced wooden and wood-frame structures fairly recently, probably in an attempt to make the facilities fireproof. At least one is tacked onto the end of a retail sales structure.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Alton Junction
ctyclsscs You'd be surprised, though, at how often SLM buildings show up on eBay. Of course, not much help if you need one right now. Jim
You'd be surprised, though, at how often SLM buildings show up on eBay. Of course, not much help if you need one right now.
Jim
tstage For really nice brick 'n mortar buildings look at Design Preservation Models (DPM) kits. Here's 8 pages worth from the Hobbylinc website.
For really nice brick 'n mortar buildings look at Design Preservation Models (DPM) kits. Here's 8 pages worth from the Hobbylinc website.
I would consider First Bank as a reasonable possibility.
ctyclsscs Aoother would be this small kit if you could find one on eBay. Look at the Harford Building. http://www.slmonline.com/shoppingcart/store.cgi?action=buildingsnew.htm&uid=29864 Jim
Aoother would be this small kit if you could find one on eBay. Look at the Harford Building.
http://www.slmonline.com/shoppingcart/store.cgi?action=buildingsnew.htm&uid=29864
FYI: Just be aware that you will need to sand the edges flat in order to get the walls to be flush with one another. And they make very beautiful models when you are done with them. Worth consideration...
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Another would be this small kit if you could find one on eBay. Look at the Harford Building.
I would think that you could make a good argument for the Woodland Scenics First Bank Building serving as a U.S. Post Office building.
http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/Item/12200/page/1
RR_MelHave you considered scratch building or a kitbash?
Google Image Search is your friend here. There are many images of small town PO's in a variety of styles
https://www.google.com/search?q=small+town+post+office&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwinud_6pbbUAhXE6IMKHVfkDGAQ_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=642
Here is but one that looks like an easy build.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
This is the old Plasticville model:
I think I got it back in the Eisenhower administration. It's a very small building that's tucked away in the back of my layout. I would never have bought it for this layout, but since I had it, I cleaned it up a bit and plopped it down.
What do you want the Post Office for? Are you planning to make a full-fledged scene with customers, a loading dock and mail trucks, or is it just because you think your town needs a post office? For a more involved model, I'd look at other kits and adapt them to be a post office.
Walthers has a Bachmann Plasticville School that might work.
My town had a nice old brick post office with a cupula, as I recall. It was torn down to make more money for the shopping center's developers. The post office got stuck in trailers for a couple of years, without even so much as a lobby for the customers, and it's now a non-descript store front between a dance studio and a lame Italian restaurant. The mail carriers don't even work out of there anymore - they use space in the post office in the next town.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I surely don't know a lot about USPO buildings. My impression is that they usually lease existing structures. I know of a local one that's lost its lease and the owner doesn't want to renew.
So I went to Walthers and entered "store" in their advance search. First one up was this one:
https://www.walthers.com/country-store-kit-6-x-3-5-8-x-2-3-4-quot-15-2-x-9-2-x-6-9cm
It's free-standing and rural and brick. Just leave out the gas pumps.
Don't limit your search to buildings labled "post office"
There are lots of kits for brick buildings, many of which could be repurposed as a post office just by changing or adding signs. Some other minor modifications optional
https://www.walthers.com/search/category/products/layout/structures/scale/ho-scale/show/20?match=AND&q=brick%0D%0A
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
I've been trying to find a HO scale rural brick and mortar U.S. Post Office kit or build up. I found a Plasticville and Vollemer one, but they were not brick and mortar. Any help will be appreciated, Thanks.