Edit: This is Georgetown Kentucky
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
Where is the location? Somewhere in the midwest, I am guessing
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Georgetown Kentucky
Could be, but there are lots of small towns (and bigger cities, too) all over the U.S. and Canada which have streets that look similar. That's why the products mentioned have such widespread acceptance.
Wayne
It is impressive how even some very utilitarian buildings from an older era feature wonderful examples of the bricklayer's art.
As for Walthers' buildings, many are Wisconsin prototypes -but again there was a "look" to buildings of a certain era that one sees in old photos from Manhattan to San Francisco and in between. Peoria, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, are just examples of cities where many such buildings still stand.
Dave Nelson
Maybe it was from Georgetown, CO.
http://stearnsphotography.com/63026-Georgetown/Georgetown_Colorado_FLStearns_63026-00111.htm
I been to Georgetown,Ky several times over the years and its a beautiful city with friendly people..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Could be Main Street USA.
Hello all,
BRAKIEI been to Georgetown,Ky several times over the years and its a beautiful city with friendly people..
So is Georgetown, Colorado!
With the terminus of the Georgetown Loop Railroad it makes it even better for rail fans.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
Idaho Springs nearby is amazing too. I'm pretty sure that's where all model kits come from. : )
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_Idaho_Springs,_CO_IMG_5437.JPG
Just finished #14 of 50 downtown bldgs using mostly City Classics & Lunde models with a few Bachmanns thrown in which all work so well together. With so many duplicates from the relatively limited variey of multi-story models available, I "drive" around the SOHO district of Manhattan on Google Street View for color inspiration, and can make the similarities nearly undetectable. Jim's use of the name "City Classics" is very fitting. You & Bob play right to my passion, Jim.
Thanks for the kind words. Of course, Bob Lunde, is the undisputed king of urban structures since he created all of the Magnuson Models kits, DPM kits, Lunde Studio kits and the large Bachmann kits. i think he pretty much revolutionized that part of the hobby when Magnuson Models first came out. He showed us how realistic urban structures can look when done right. Other folks did fine work, but nobody was as prolific as Bob. I'm just grateful that modelers have liked our kits enough to keep us around a bit.
Jim S
On San Francisco's Castro Street, across from the Castro Theatre, there are two buildings painted to look the same. At first glance, they look identical. But if you look at them you notice that the windows aren't the same and the trim is very different. It's just the colors that you notice first.
Strength in diversity!
jjdamnit Hello all, BRAKIE I been to Georgetown,Ky several times over the years and its a beautiful city with friendly people.. So is Georgetown, Colorado! With the terminus of the Georgetown Loop Railroad it makes it even better for rail fans. Hope this helps.
BRAKIE I been to Georgetown,Ky several times over the years and its a beautiful city with friendly people..
About a hours drive from Georgetown is the Kentucky Railway Museum at New Haven.
Then there's the beautiful horse farms and to the West is the distilleries.
I can't think of the town name right now, but I remember taking the Empire Builder back from Chicago to the Twin Cities and it stopping in a moderately small Wisconsin town about an hour or so west of Milwaukee and noticing like five buildings that looked just like Walthers buildings. Could be someone designing Cornerstone buildings had grown up there or had relatives there and used it as the basis of some of the Walthers kits.
BTW it's been noted that some of the backdrops Walthers sells in their "Instant Horizons" line (which I think were originally done by another company, and pre-date the Cornerstone building kit line by quite a few years) show a number of buildings that eventually became Walthers kits. Check out the "Freight Yards" and "The Docks" in particular....
I believe that most of the backdrops were painted by Tom Daniel who started that business (the name eludes me right now). If you're not familiar with him, Tom Daniel is one of the most famous designers of hot rods, model kits and Hot Wheels over the last 40+ years. He also done some amazing paintings of cars, planes and trains (hence the backdrops). If you ever walked down the model car aisle at a hobby shop you probably passed a lot of kits with his name on them.
Jim
Mr Griffin
I can't answer for Walthers or DPM, but the City Classics Co. is here in Pittsburgh Pa. And if you would venture down many streets here, you would see where they get their inspiration from. Most of their building's name are actual streets in the city.
Joe C
Found this online (see link below)...Tom Daniel's company was "HO West", later bought by Walthers.
Wow, he's the guy who designed the "Red Baron" model car with the big German helmet on a Model-T! Back before I started model railroading I built model cars; I think that was my all-time favorite.
http://www.tomdaniel.com/td_career/td_articles/sae_daniel.pdf
http://s1017.photobucket.com/user/dbduck2010/media/whiskey_row_lou_03_zps0ba82bc9.jpg.html?o=2
Whiskey Row Louisville Ky
http://s1017.photobucket.com/user/dbduck2010/media/whiskeyrow_zpsqbs2toue.jpg.html?o=0
Pretty cool, huh? I was going to guess "HO West" but I was too lazy to dig out my old Walthers catalogs to confirm it. : )
I know that Tom has always been a model railroader even after getting out of the business end. I gave up trying to figure how many model cars we bought as kids that he designed.
Hi Jim and guys
Love the City Classics products, especially the smallman st warehouse #103.
As you know, that structure represents the classic 'brick curtain' or reinforced concrete with brick structure. As the blurb on your website says, it is the most common type of industrial building in North America.
I would like to put a small to medium size brick-curtain factory like this on my 2' x 4' module.However, even though this building is so common, in real life I don't really see them close to the railroad tracks where the prototype factory is being serviced by freight cars and railcar loading docks like in the modeling pictures.I usually see buildings like this as a stand-alone in real life, not close to the railroad tracks.I've spent hours on Google satellite Maps searching for a small to medium size prototype of the City Classics smallman warehouse next to tracks, without avail (don't tell my boss!)
Do you guys ever see the prototype brick-curtain buildings right next to the tracks with railcars next to the railcar loading docks?
Would you guys have some Google satellite coordinates to let me see some real (small to medium) prototype buildings being serviced by rail?
thanks
I sure think a lot of Walthers Cornerstone building look like Richmond, VA.
.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Thanks for the kind words. But technically, our website says that brick curtain wall buildings are "ONE OF" the most common types of industrial structures. I don't think anyone can say that any one type is most common.
See if this link works for you. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4507265,-79.9861349,3a,75y,201.11h,98.84t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sL3QhU4XtJD_zmhx4lZABNg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
It is actually a building on the real Smallman Street in Pittsburgh. The rails are gone now, but they ran right alongside the building where the cars are now parked. I may have an old photo somewhere showing them.
I can think of at least two more buildings of this type in my area that had rail sidings. One even had an entrance for rail cars. I'd show that, but it's been so extensively remodeled that you can't tell where the tracks used to be.
Here is another one in the area that had tracks right alongside. You can even see some of the rails sticking out of the pavement. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.454011,-80.0319737,3a,75y,143.45h,94.38t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHshIldGeIAFQOc4NihtmOQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
I hope this helps a little.
Gentlemen, I salute you all. I model a time more than a place, and the kits available now from Walthers Cornerstone, DPM and City Classics have caught my eye so many times that I've frequently designed my terrain and roadways to give me the perfect intersection for a Merchants Row block or the City Classics Diner or my favorite, that grocery store.
Thanks to all who have made this possible.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
7fdl Do you guys ever see the prototype brick-curtain buildings right next to the tracks with railcars next to the railcar loading docks? Would you guys have some Google satellite coordinates to let me see some real (small to medium) prototype buildings being serviced by rail?
No, and you won't really find them on Google Maps. The overwhelming majority of those buildings aren't hosting rail served businesses any more. In broad terms, they've ended up their useful lives as industrial buildings and host lighter industry, truck served businesses, or commercial or residential spaces.
https://goo.gl/maps/VNVqYrNA5iw
This is another example I know of in downtown Pittsburgh. You can see the door for the rail loading dock on the left side there. You'll also note that someone had all the windows bricked up at some point in the past. Bonus: that concrete shape in the foreground is a bumper from one of the tracks at the B&O freight house that once stood on that lot.
I wonder what the sign says on the bumper? If it is a sign. I'll have to look the next time I go by there.
Great posts and pictures, Jim and gentlemen!
Looking at these Google visuals certainly fires the imagination about what could make good modeling subjects and how to do realistic weathering patterns based on real-life prototypes.
It's interesting that the original Smallman building is (or was) a furniture manufacturer, according to the sign on the wall.
I stumbled on another furniture company in Chicago, IL that doesn't have reinforced concrete, but could fall in the same family:
Google Map linkIt's called Butler Specialty Co, a furniture maker. Believe it or not, it's still in business and they have a website!Butler is found on a siding not far from the famous ex-Englewood Train Station on the south side of Chicago, IL.At first I thought this factory was abandoned since it has weeds choking the siding and looks pretty dilapidated.The siding seems like it was on ex-PRR tracks that were torn out?And it seems like that old siding is raised off the ground to the second floor of the factory because it's not street level, right?Fascinating stuff!On the right is probably the ex-NYC tracks that paralleled the Pennsy.
"NittanyLion
The overwhelming majority of those buildings aren't hosting rail served businesses any more. In broad terms, they've ended up their useful lives as industrial buildings and host lighter industry, truck served businesses, or commercial or residential spaces."
You bring up some compelling points, there.
Maybe some of the industries found it was cheaper to ship their goods by truck than by rail. I thought I also read that some roads like Penn Central had disdain for servicing far-flung small branch industries, since it didn't bring enough 'bang for the buck' like some other major industries on the mainline brought to them.
It feels sad to see the abandonded rail in some of the Google pictures, but we can at least derive some satisfaction by bringing back the past through our scale models, when the prototype doesn't exist much anymore.
Jonas
The furniture company sign is pretty recent. They buy and sell old furniture and antiques. It MAY have originally been built by P.H. Butler Co. which was a large grocery distributor.