The Seedy Side of Town

[CNJ831]

How one goes about depicting the "seedy side of town" depends largely on whether you are attempting to render reality or fantasy. For the most part, the steam era concept of rundown, grimmy shacks, hole-in-the-wall bars, and dilapidate houses of ill-repute, seen so often in Hollywood films and modeled on grand-scale layouts, rarely existed in the real world. During the steam era the industrial areas of town near the tracks often showed significant weathering because of the soot but were rarely as dilapidated as most laser-cut model kit illustrations would have you believe (broken windows, missing clapboards, severly damaged roofing, no paint, etc.). Such conditions would deter, rather than invite, new customers and was avoided.

Regarding redlight districts, during most of the steam era, Kingston, NY had the reputation of being the redlight capital of New York State. But the illustrations in books written about it indicate well kept structures of all types that, except for the numerous bars, outwardly gave no particular hint of their true purpose. It was more the women in windows and on porches, the men in the streets after dark, plus the sounds (loud piano music, etc.) that gave indication something unusual was going on.

Yes, from the late 1950's into the 1970's many inner-city neighborhoods and even some less affluent suburbs, did decline into areas of rundown or ruined buildings, grime, litter, and lost hope but there were no Wicked Wanda-like establishments or other model railroad "caricature" buildings to be found there.

CNJ831

[AntonioFP45]

Interesting points. This type of realism can really be appreciated by many modelers and non-modelers.

However, I guess having grown up in poor areas, I'd rather model a "cleaned up" version of it since its "my little world" and I don't constantly want to remember the:

Garbage in the streets,
Litter and dog poop on sidewalks,
Bars where people puked or urinated outside of them after heavy drinking and damaging their livers & kidneys.
Drug addicts shooting up (they were around, but I was fortunate enough not to see them.)
Dirty city buses with graffitti on them,
Dilapidated buildings in "desperate" need of paint jobs and clean windows.
My mother pushed and knocked down on a cold sidewalk as she held me while a low-life thug ripped her purse off her arm. (Thankfully she survived!)

I was very blessed in that I had parents that kept our home "ultra clean" and fortunate enough that I was always near rail lines that saw lots of action after we moved twice.

In my model world, there will be weathered buildings, cracked streets and sidewalks but the streets and alleys will be light on the litter and the "skid bars and cathouses" won't be a part of the scene. Even the "lower income" people will have a reasonably clean neighborhood.

For me, I model to relax and "get away" from the very things that cause me saddness and/or stress.

Peace.

[krump]

welcome back Emeraldisle! - been a while since I repled to one of your posts, good to see you back at the forum. how is your layout project coming along?

this is a riot... complete with junkyard dogs etc, those barmills kits are great...[8D], I'm thinking a Saloon at some point. panhandlers and squeegie kids would be more modern era
then again, if it is a country theme - a large country garden, acres of greenhouse, or a hayfield might present as quite seedy in itself (relax, I'm punning [swg])

[PennsyHoosier]

OOOOHHHH, a PC basher. [:D]

[chutton01]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tatans

Hey ! Hey ! All you plutocrats, are you making fun of us, just where do you think WE live? I can hear you now "OK kids in the car, were going to gawk at those poor slobs on the East side of town" (By the way--"Wanda" is my Aunt) Well, just for that , I'm going to model on my layout some $350,000(and up) houses in suburban nondescript neighborhoods filled with SUV's and basketball hoops on every driveway, Say, didn't we see you down here hanging around some of our "finer" areas of town?

Hey, Bachmann has had Plasticville Ranches and Cape Cods for decades now, and strip mall stores too.
But no abandoned apartment buildings or decaying farmbuildings, like you would need for a Penn Central layout...

[PennsyHoosier]

LOL at this thread. I'm glad I live in the country. [:D]

[tatans]

Hey ! Hey ! All you plutocrats, are you making fun of us, just where do you think WE live? I can hear you now "OK kids in the car, were going to gawk at those poor slobs on the East side of town" (By the way--"Wanda" is my Aunt) Well, just for that , I'm going to model on my layout some $350,000(and up) houses in suburban nondescript neighborhoods filled with SUV's and basketball hoops on every driveway, Say, didn't we see you down here hanging around some of our "finer" areas of town?

[rrinker]

Two thoughts. One, George Sellios has a great skid row modelled on one end of the Franklin and South Manchester. There was a two-page item in MR some time ago with Mike Tylick photos of the area. Don't have the issue handy, I belive it was late 80's.
Second, concering the availability of items like Bar Mills' Wicked Wandas, there was a half page article in the local newspaper covering the train show this weekend (Allentown, PA, if anyone's interested) and the article OPENED by talking about this seedy influence. There was a little fluff about people looking for more accurate models these days (hmm, but Virginian Berkshires?), but the main focus was on the availability of kits like Wicked Wandas, and various figures. Even poked some fun (although I think the intent was to infer some sort of racism) at the names of the rock climbers in the Scenic Express line. Why the hostile tone of this article I do not know, but anyone who had actually been to the show would have seen that this hobby cuts across all race, gender, and age lines.
Maybe the author (female) was offended by the modelled scene (which was nothing more than a structure and a figure in part of a town scene). Well, there is indeed a trend for more realistic modelling these days, and all you need do is drive down to that part of town and see for yourself what's really there.

--Randy

[Anonymous]

Ok guys, lets have a little fun with this, keep it clean, you know, youngsters on here too, but with all the great kits currently on the market from Woodland Scenics to Barmills, one could really have some fun modeling the bad side of town, especially if you model the Steam Era. This IS the side of town where most Rail Roads went through up thru the 60's, then Urban Renewal began to clean things up. In the North Eastern Cities, this was pretty typical. So the deal is this, if you were to model the wrong side of town, you know, "SKIDROW" etc, what would you model, what kits or buildups would you use, and to what extent would you model this most interesting side of town? I know, earlier this year, we kicked around "WICKED WANDAS" from Barmills, but we have alot of new people on here since then and it might be interesting to hear from them on this subject too.