Searching for N Scale Building Footprints

[Benjamin Maggi]

This is a long shot, but you never know. I want to model a farm scene on my small N scale layout (2x3 feet) and was thumbing through the Walthers catalog and they list the dimensions for most Model Power buildings, BUT not the #490-1517 which I am interested in. It consists of a seperate Barn and Chicken coop. I plan to only use the barn, but they don't list the dimensions and a call to Model Power was no help. Does anyone have this on their layout and could they measure it?

Also, I want to use the Model Power #490-1551 Wayside Station and the same thing exists. I need to know exactly how tiny this little station is before I buy it, and the dimensions are not listed.

Finally, I want to use the Life Like Rural church #7464 and would like to know the footprint of that. I don't plan on using the molded plastic base, but if I even knew that I could plan ahead. Calling Life Like put me in touch with a kind woman who couldn't understand why I needed to know this information.

Can anyone help me out. I need to know this before I buy them, as right now I am laying track and building mountains and on a tiny layout like this 1/2 inch is a big deal.

Thanks. [:)]

Ben

[Seamonster]

I've got the Model Power barn set. The barn itself is 3 11/16" X 2 11/16".

[Benjamin Maggi]

Bob, you have come to my rescue again. I don't suppose you have a sound circuit that would represent mooing! Ha ha. Thanks. Ben

[Benjamin Maggi]

If the Life Like HO scale church is 5" x 6", then how would I scale that down for an approximate for N scale? Thanks.

[Adelie]

Multiply the HO dimensions by .54375.

[Benjamin Maggi]

Thanks Mark.

[Benjamin Maggi]

By the way, Bob, how big is the barn with the silo and pen area. In other words, how big is that plastic base total if you don't mind, or if you haven't separated them. Thanks. Ben

[Seamonster]

Ben, it probably could be done (the mooing sound cct., that is)--I've seen plans for circuits to imitate many things, so why not cows and chickens? Actually, if you're serious, I recall seeing ads in MR years ago for cassette tapes of sound effects like countryside, farms, industries, cities and the like. Don't know if they're still available. Maybe someone knows. I also recall seeing an article in MR years ago of someone who had multiple tape players on his layout with intermittent sounds on the tapes and multiple speakers so that you'd hear a cow once in a while from the farm, the noise of machinery off and on from an industrial area, etc. Many,many, many years ago I took a portable recorder to a farm and recorded the sounds there, but lost the tape long ago. You could make your own that way. I don't know if endless cassette tapes are still available or not (I used to have some). Another thought is one of those sound chips or electronic note-takers if they could be rigged to play continuously. Just throwing out some ideas.

[Anonymous]

I hadn't thought of sound before, but some of the comments in this thread (& others) got me to thinking about it.....

I'm kicking around getting a collection of sounds via the web, or recorded, bring them into GarageBand (an Apple/Mac application), and then layering a variety of sounds/noises.... then potentially using the computer for playback, or just burn a CD of "random scenery noise".

Of course, I should fini***he layout first. [;)]

[Seamonster]

Isn't it amazing how we can get distracted and sidetracked? Just writing that message got me thinking about adding sound to my layout (I've always planned to do it) but I have to keep reminding myself that first I've got some benchwork to build, track to lay, scenery to build, wiring to finish, a control panel to build ..... phew, I'm exhausted thinking about it. And yesterday I just couldn't resist taking the grain elevator out of its box and starting to assemble it--or at least paint it. Time to regroup and set some priorities. But then again, it's more fun this way. [:D]