What Type of Structures Would You Like on Your Layout?

[Anonymous]

What type of structures would you like on your layout? I like back-woods rustic type structures. Structures that add charactor to the layout. Structures that add operation and purpose to the railroad. The more detail the better. Kits that are simple and fast to build, but have the final appearance of a craftsman kit. For the mainline, I like SP stations and long transfer docks with tons of cargo piled on them.
Happy Railroading, Keith

[cwclark]

I like a variety of structures...mostly modern large industries with lots of junk piles, old and modern structures, lots of loading docks...(the more docks the more switching fun)..i like to mix heavily populated areas with wooded and country scenes...and whatever structures are on sale from the LHS and mailorders...Chuck[:D]

[leighant]

I think I am going to end up writing a long post on this subject, because I am crazy about structures that create a sense of place, and a sense of time, and other mixture of different historical and cultural forces. A mix of scale (not modeling scale but size of building), and a mix of typical ordinary scenes with an occasional unusual element. I always more more layout space to model different neighborhoods and different types of towns. My East Texas piney woods town has a Methodist church in it,
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aah.jpg
but I would want my German heritage blackland farm town to have a Lutheran church with a high-pitched roof. (Probably was appropriate for snow in the Old Country.) And in my Spanish-flavored big city, I would want a Catholic cathedral with a hint of the mission style about it.

Rows and rows of cargo sheds with upper portions of ships visible over their roofs, behind the passenger terminal in a multi-story railroad office building...perhaps with a little art deco flavor. (Computer visualization)
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/abt.jpg

But the island seaport would also have downtown commercial buildings dating from the Gay Nineties. They did not recover fast enough from the 1900 hurricane to replace them all in the 1920s.
The island seaport has a cemetery with "above-ground burials" like New Orleans. Can I find a place for it.
And a beautifully-landscaped "garden warehouse district" with rows of palms and oleanders lining the sheds. That's a "feel" I need to get somehow.

But besides the big scenes, lots of little things,
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/ack.jpg

maybe to give the impression that everything on the layout has the detail.
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/acn.jpg

I use kits, but I build what I feel. Which often is not what the kit-mftr had in mind.

[CBQ_Guy]

I like structures that "look right" for their setting and use. Whatever detail and weathering is needed to accompli***hat is what I will add. I don't mind if it's obvious that this structure is Walthers, or that one is Model Power, whatever. It's just not a concern for me. As long as it serves it's purpose and looks right, that's "good enough" for me.

I'm planning a basement filling layout so will need a lot of buildings. I have about 8-10 cartons of them packed away at the moment! However, I am purposely leaving some empty areas around the layout so that in the future I can "play around" with using craftsman kits or scratchbuilt structures in those areas.

[AntonioFP45]

Cornerstone, DPM buildings. Style from the 1900s thru today. Buildings that you would see in a typical eastern U.S mid-sized town around 1968.

[Anonymous]

I like the rural Wisconsin setting with some old wooden grain elevators & some 50's & 60's era type concrete style elevatores & a small saw mill setting . With some small town America train stations & businesses & very few scattered homes.

[Jetrock]

I model an urban belt line, so structures are my scenery, along with trees.

The kind of thing I like: Brick warehouses, the grimier and seedier the better. Elaborate art-deco buildings for the business district. Victorian and Craftsman-style homes, small and large. Cruddy falling-over decaying industrial mess with lots of rust, dust and dried-up crust.

Seedy bars, grimy gas stations, and the inevitable trackside greasy spoon (I can't wait until I can build BRIDGE LUNCH, a tiny diner right in between two fruit-packing warehouses, a riverside wharf warehouse, and a freight yard--not to mention the track and industries around it!)

In the real world and on the model railroad, I like older-style buildings that make it hard to tell what date one is looking at without external cues (nearby cars, signs, etc.)

DPM modules are fun, but I even like old-school Suydam kits.

[darth9x9]

Whatever structures that set the time, era, and place that I am trying to model. I will say that done of them will be straigh out-of-the-box stuff.

[Anonymous]

We at Pine Canyon Scale Models have been producing theme type structures in both built and kit forms. We are now in the process of creating a new line of structures to fit into a tight space. More pics on the web sight in a few weeks. http://www.pinecanyonscalemodels.com/
Happy Railroading, Keith

[ericsp]

I like the Pikestuff buildings and anything that has lots of pipes and reactor vessels.

[BRJN]

I have a switching layout set in 1900, so I need lots of industries. I probably need a few houses, and Victorian-era houses have the advantage of being pretty and kewl to look at. Brand-new ones should look even better than the century-old ones I see as I drive around town. [;)] (If my modeling skills are any good, that is.) I would like to think that the people who built a Victorian house would also have built neat-looking factories, not just a plain box with a roof on it.

Where should I start? As fill-ins, I'm using some commonly available kits for my primary inductrial customers.

[railman]

yep. Give me plenty of 50's & 60's small town stuff.

[ckape]

I have to say I've been impressed by the variety of rather large industries that Walthers offeres in its cornerstone line. I can hardly walk by the structures section of LHS without wishing that I had the space for something of theirs or vowing to buy something once I do get the space.

[Anonymous]

Large ornate victorian Hotel ,somewhat urbanized with the pasage of time. This scenic structure and the grade crossing next to it will form the basis for my next set of modules. While not outside my range for scratchbuilding, I just can't seem to get up a head of steam to tackle this project. Does anybody know where I can contact the scenery knomes?????[?]

[CNJ831]

Modest-sized, visually complex, businesses or industries, circa 1900-1950, similar to the HO kits Bar Mills is currently putting out. Such building kits also need to have reasonable prices (under $100), unlike the FSM kits that are currently being traded like top grade stock certificates on eBay.

To offer an example based on general appearance, I'd suggest something along the lines of the old Jefferies Point Stave and Heading Co. produced by FSM years ago. I've just completed a scratchbuilt version and can see that, although complex looking in its number of roofs and walls, it really need not be all that expensive to make and yet turn a nice profit for the maker.

CNJ831

[BRAKIE]

Since I prefer to build industrial switching layouts I prefer industrial buildings of course.
So in that light I prefer the larger industrial buildings like Walther's Corner Stone series and use some Pikestuffs and kit bashed DPM buildings as well.
I do have some small railroad type buildings such as tool sheds and a small freight agent office (known as a Customer Service Coordinators in C&HV speak) that doubles as a break room for the assigned switch crew..

[FThunder11]

Woodedareas like along the NEC, wth the catneary and ststions spres out. I like to have little buildings all over the sides.

[Anonymous]

I love the DPM series in N scale but need some very shallow backdrop buildings to compliment the DMP's. I have had some success with the DPM modular but wouls like more variety such as a warehouse with a "barrel" profile, like the western sawmills had.

[Anonymous]

DPM kits are great, full of detail but about the easiest kits to assemble. Cornerstone kits are ok, and are really good for kitbashing, but are a pain in the neck to assemble. I don't have the patience for craftsmen kits, and since my layout is in a shed temperature variation tends to warp wood kits. Heljan makes some nice kits that are easily modified. I built a DPM module kit recently and love how it turned out. Those module packs a kitbasher's best friend!

As far as type of structure, I am a big fan of anything brick, because it's so easy to bring out realistic detail easily. Mostly I prefer late 19th century stuff with lots of architectural detail. I think lots of smaller, 2-3 story buildings, say in an urban scene, looks better than a few big structures, although having one or two big factories or warehouses gives the scene great depth. Height variation in the structures helps add visual interest because your eye goes up and down as well as horizontal as you're looking at a scene. (yes, I like urban scenery the best).