Hi everyone!
I need to buy a few structures and I am searching for the best places to buy good structures at a good price. I live near Montreal in Canada.
Thanks for your help!
Stéphan
Are you looking for a good price on a specific structure, or a low price on something that you will then fit in?
I don't know how much different shopping from Canada is but in the US a good place to look is modeltrainstuf.com. They are having a sale this weekend with an extra 10% off.
Rick
hbgatsf Are you looking for a good price on a specific structure, or a low price on something that you will then fit in?
Thanks for the link. I have just checked their website and it looks like an out of function website. Are you sure your link is the right one?
I am not searching for a specific structure. I am searching for some good quality and low price structures. The shipping cost is an important factor.
I just typed in the address, it wasn't a link.
Try this. https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/
xploringrailroadsI need to buy a few structures and I am searching for the best places to buy good structures at a good price.
A good place to buy means different things to different people. When I was in N scale I shopped at Tex-N-Rails for most items, but they were only in Miami, about 3 hours away, so I liked that I could just drive over and get my order.
Also in Miami is Ready-To-Roll, a good brick-and-mortar store with a ton of inventory. The trip to Miami was always a good one.
Model Train Stuff is great because they have an excellent inventory system and they will not let you order an item that is out of stock.
What are you looking for? If it is mainly Walthers Cornerstone buildings, they can be had almost anywhere. If you are seeking something special or hard-to-find, you might need to buy it wherever you can find it.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I am also in Canada, if you order anything from abroad, only have it shipped via the Post Office as courier companies will often hammer you with extra brokerage/customs fees. I order from all over the world but only use the mail. UPS tried to ding me $70.00 brokerage on a $40.00 item once, I just refused it at the door. The place I ordered it from got it back and resent it via the Post Office and I got it with no extra charges.
There are plenty of good train shops in Canada, here are three I use on the West Coast.
https://www.pwrs.ca/main.php
https://www.central-hobbies.com/
https://www.britanniamodels.com/
Britania is mostly a European MRR store but they will get North American stuff in for you as well. Also, lots of products can cover both continents such as landscaping materials.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Are you interested in kits or ready-made structures? If kits, do you like plastic models or (most likely) wooden craftsman kits. I bought my first craftsman kit and it sat in my workshop for a year. I didn't feel ready or "worthy" for this model. Finally, though, I built it. It was easier than I thought, and it came out very well.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
The N Scale Architect offers a large variety of structure kits.
Paul
Yet another option is to purchase the Evan Designs Model Builder software to design and print paper buildings. I have used this program to design and print several building flats, low-relief buildings and even complete 3D structures, as well as siding and roofing materials for other structures on my HO scale layout.
A couple years ago, I was helping a kid get started in model railroading but he only had room for a small shelf layout. I convinced him to go N scale and we built a switching layout about 6 feet long. As his budget was pretty much used up buying trains and track, I decided to "print" several buildings for his industries that could stand in until such time as he could build something better. To my astonishment, the printed building details look incredible in N scale! Each building starts with a plain styrene core to which the various facades are glued using spray adhesive or double sided tape. I built a depot, an oil dealer (with a couple of PVC pipe end caps for oil tanks), a couple of warehouses, a grain mill, a door and sash industry, a factory, a meat packing plant and a single family house. Many of these structures, especially the depot and house, may never need to be replaced as they already look so good.
I have also learned that a these printed structures can be greatly enhanced by using multple printout layers. A lot of relief can be added by first printing a facade on glossy paper. A second print on cardstock with the windows cut out can be pasted over the glossy printout giving the windows a glazed look in the now "flat" building facade. A third layer printed on cardstock with the windows and doors cut out (window cutouts slightly larger than before) can add another framing layer around the windows with a framing layer around the doors. A final printout on cardstock will allow you to cut out and paste detail trim such as cornices, pilasters, corner trim, etc., onto the previous layer for a truly 3D appearance. Weather your structure with pastel chalks and you'll have a great looking structure!
For the price of a couple building kits, you could own the software to design and print an entire layout's worth of buildings.
Hornblower
Thanks everyone, I will add those stores on my list.