Some additional omissions:
1. Brick and limestone church buildings. City churches are built in brick and limestone; clapboard churches don't meet the building code.
2. Main Street stores with modernized fronts of enameled steel panels. This was a very common modernization in the 1950s and 1960s.
3. Pseudo Georgian or Colonial buildings. Many small town railroad stations were built in this style.
MisterBeasley The City Classics grocery store is one of my favorites:
The City Classics grocery store is one of my favorites:
I have one of these earmarked to become a bar in a trendier neighborhood (current day). I have an second one that's going to be sacrificed to become the first floor of a taller building, if I ever get around to it.
Cedarwoodron:
I agree. I've looked at the Walthers Red Owl Grocery kit and while it is a neat looking building, it does not quite fit the mold of the average town grocery of the 40's/50's. They were, as you say, either free standing buildings or located on an end of some of the early strip malls. There were six such groceries in the Aroostook River Valley "triangle" in northern Maine, two in each of the three large towns. Fort Fairfield had a free standing, brick First National down at the eastern end of the main street, and a free standing, concrete block IGA on the on the hill on the south edge of town on Rt. 1A. Caribou had an A&P on the northern end of Sweeden St, the downtown district. It was free standing, red brick & had an arched/curved roof, much like an airplane hanger. (In fact, I've been thinking of using an airplane hanger kit to "kitbash" the building on my layout). The other was a free standing Shop & Save at the opposite end of the main drag. Presque Isle had a First National, downtown and attached to the same large building that housed the Sears Roebuck & Co. store. The other was at the opposite end of town. It was an IGA and was one end of a strip mall. The other key store at the other end was a large S.S.Kresge's store. All 6 of these stores had their own parking areas, just as you described.
None of these were anywhere near the size of the sprawling Supermarkets we have now, but were all far bigger than the Walther's Red Owl Kit depicts. Most of them would probably compare in square footage to the size of the average Walgreens or Rite Aid stores that we have today.
"I could never belong to any club that would have me as a member."
Model Power has some structures that provide a kitbashing basis for some the structures you seek. You have to be able to look beyond the thick windows and cheesy molded in colors to see the potential, and don't go by the name on the box -- take the Art Curren approach that a plastic kit is a bunch of parts and suggestions and that once you have a critical mass of kits then is the time to start Xeroxing the sides and ends and play around with some ideas for bashing them together.
A small school house might well be called a church or village hall on the box. For exampl, the Model Power town hall
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/490-400
is not a one room school but could be a small two or four room school such as one sees out in the country, or perhaps village hall on one side, school on the other.
I have to model a trackside liquor store on my layout -- it had two large windows (with inside paper signs covering them up advertising deals) and a covered "drive through" pick up area at the far end. It will do no good to type "liquor store" in the Walthers search engine but there are some stores and even "factories" that have the right heft and bulk.
The old fashioned brick hospital is not something I have thought about kitbashing myself but the Walthers YMCA and the Heljan synagogue both resemble some old hospitals I have seen. In my old home town the "hospital" was just a large and very substantial brick house, perhaps a rooming house, and after it ceased to be a hospital that is exactly what it became.
You didn't mention it, but the style of structure for car dealers -- lots of large windows, probably framed in aluminum, with a back area, is also what tire dealers tended to look like. In addition to cars being a common thread, tire dealers and car dealers both seemed to be the last bastion of the aluminum Christmas tree, with rotating color wheel.
Dave Nelson
Most of what I see on the HO Scale market nowadays are little industries that are too cute! Factories shouldn't look cute! Industries on my layout are modeled after interesting architecture from the prototype, not something that I made up. So in turn each industry has a different look to it. For my shelf layout, I would like to see more low relief track side industries that can handle several rail cars one time.
Yes, the market for large industries can't be very big. Most of us just don't have the physical space. So, the manufacturers stick to what sells - small structures that can find a home in any layout. They also concentrate, logically, on trackside buildings. Hospitals ang groceries typically wouldn't be rail-served, so their appeal to most of us is reduced.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I would agree that most train layouts, due to space limitations, are far more accomodating to small, trackside industry & structures and the kit manufacturers predominately stick to those types of buildings, as they are the biggest sellers & have the broadest appeal. And yes, most things like groceries and hospitals are not rail-served............TODAY!
However, if you're doing a transition era layout of the 40's/50's time frame, you have to completely re-think that. A far bigger percentage of businesses of all types WERE either directly or indirectly rail served back then. There was no interstate highway system then, providing high speed, limited access, direct routes across country. A much smaller percentage of goods were shipped cross country by truck. It took days & days of comparatively slow travel to go cross country by truck. There was no jet air service, either passenger or cargo either. And flying was something mainly confined to the wealthy. Air travel & air shipment, proportionately, was far more costly than it is today.
During that era, the quickest way to get your goods to where they were going was still by rail. Most things like groceries & other consumer goods WERE still shipped by rail, especially perishables. As a result, most business were served, directly or indirectly, by rail then. It was the building of the interstate highway system in the late 50's thru early 70's, along with the advent of jet air service in the 60's that was responsible for the demise of so many railroads.
So, my own humble opinion is that if you are doing a transition era layout, those ARE things you must keep in mind in planning your structures and trackside industries.
There are a lot of great kits out there. I think that Fine Scale Miniatures is the best. I agree that one can not find a kit for every structure that one can imagine, but scratch building will help. It is not as hard as it seems but then again I love doing it.
Craig North Carolina
AVRNUTAnd yes, most things like groceries and hospitals are not rail-served............TODAY! However, if you're doing a transition era layout of the 40's/50's time frame, you have to completely re-think that.
However, if you're doing a transition era layout of the 40's/50's time frame, you have to completely re-think that.
With a very few rare (and HUGE) exceptions, hospitals were not directly rail-served (except for giant complexes that received coal for boilers) -- that's true for the '40s, '50s, or any time, I think.
And I can't remember seeing a single instance of an individual grocery store with direct rail service anywhere at any time.
Perishable foods were typically shipped by rail to large cold storage warehouses or produce terminals in the 1940s and '50s, and then trucked to individual stores or distribution warehouses.
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
Yes, that's very true of urban areas. But I'm talking about where I grew up in Aroostook County, Maine. Unless you made the trek up there back in the 40's or 50's, you've no idea what it was like. A county the size of the state of Massachusetts, but only about 65,000 people. Seperated from the central part of Maine by a 118 mile stretch of absolutely nothing but northern forest. The only access was by tortuous roads, which few people relished driving. The distribution centers for perishable food WAS up there in Presque Isle, so it all came up there by train back then. No, the rail spurs did not go up to the loading docks of the grocery stores. The only trucking of the food was from Presque Isle distribution center to the other valley towns. So, in that sense, the grocery stores (and just about all the other businesses up there) were served by rail, because they were dependant on the BAR to get the things up there so that they could be distributed by truck.
As a general thought, while grocery stores may not have been directly rail served, my home town had the classic brick grocery store right next to the tracks. The county seat had one location where the tracks ran between two grocery stores, one pretty much like the Red Owl kit while the other across the tracks was a classic early 60s stand alone market with a full set of windows across the front and metal false front. Of course those huge windows were worthless because they were always covered with hand lettered signs in butcher paper about the latest sale. But even more important in my opinion is a grocery can set both the era and location more strongly than many other items.
Until recently most grocery chains were relatively local. Winn Dixie for example says southeast. Harris Teeter puts you in the Carolinas. Community Cash -- upstate SC. And the style of the building sets the era -- grocery stores tried to remain current it seems to appeal to wives with money to spend.
Schools are another era setter. There seem to be basic school styles that are used around the country but only for a particular period. Schools built in the 50s/60s are very distinct from those just 10 years later.