If they're not for you, they're not for you. But they're not "somewhat appropriate." They're dead-on accurate for what they're supposed to be. Those rowhouses are all over the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic in exactly those sizes and configurations.
NittanyLion UNCLEBUTCH I built a apartment building, DPM I think. Three strory ,assumeable 3 apartments.But if you lay a scale rule by it,its not even big enought for a garage; Park a scale vehicle by it,and it looks silly If you are referring to the DPM townhouses, then...no, they're appropriately sized. They're 2.5 by 4.5 inches, so that makes them a bit more than 18' by 32.5'. The very rowhouse I'm sitting in as we speak is almost identical: 16' by 33' (stretches out to 40' if you include the addition on the rear). Even got three floors (although in DC they're configured so the first floor is a one bedroom apartment and the upper two floors make up a two bedroom apartment). Really ?!!? You folks must need to go outside to change your mind.OK so they are somewhat appropriately sized, but it still looks silly on my layout. It bothers me to the point that I'm planning to kitbash it into something else. Thanks for the info
UNCLEBUTCH I built a apartment building, DPM I think. Three strory ,assumeable 3 apartments.But if you lay a scale rule by it,its not even big enought for a garage; Park a scale vehicle by it,and it looks silly
I built a apartment building, DPM I think. Three strory ,assumeable 3 apartments.But if you lay a scale rule by it,its not even big enought for a garage; Park a scale vehicle by it,and it looks silly
If you are referring to the DPM townhouses, then...no, they're appropriately sized. They're 2.5 by 4.5 inches, so that makes them a bit more than 18' by 32.5'. The very rowhouse I'm sitting in as we speak is almost identical: 16' by 33' (stretches out to 40' if you include the addition on the rear). Even got three floors (although in DC they're configured so the first floor is a one bedroom apartment and the upper two floors make up a two bedroom apartment).
Really ?!!?
You folks must need to go outside to change your mind.OK so they are somewhat appropriately sized, but it still looks silly on my layout. It bothers me to the point that I'm planning to kitbash it into something else.
Thanks for the info
Track fiddler, I built those telephone poles and wired them up. They are posted on 'Layouts and Layout buildings', the other forum with an explaination as to how I built them.
Robert Sylvester
Newberry-Columbia Line, SC
I agree with Ed, and the Bachmann Consolidation is a good choice for customising, as it's a good runner and solidly-built, too. I have five of them in-service, modified only slightly....
...but I have another three that will be converted into specific CNR locomotives. All of the parts are on-hand, the work started, but not enough time currently available to work on them.
Wayne
Yes, his photo is inspiring. Good for him, and good for you for wanting to do it, too.
Ed
I guess I should bring up my own kitbashing plans I am starting on. I got a hold of a used Bachmann 2-8-0 from a small hobby shop up in the Seattle area during my Thanksgiving break up there. Similar to this one:
I want to strip off the domes, add a rear headlight and other prototype specific details to transform the Bachmann Baldwin looking model into my hometown ALCO Brooks 2-8-0:
I've never done a kitbash like this before, but I have a few friends who have so I will be pestering them for their guidance. In particular one of my friends (Facebook Tintic Range Railway) stripped down his Bachmann 2-8-0 and turned it into a RGW ALCO locomotive, and the success he has had with his project has inspired me to give it a shot myself (I have an image linked to a photo of his semi-finished engine below):
Thanks for the great and informantive response. Looking forward to trying my first build and I am sure I will be posting again.Lol!
Thanks for the suggestion-Imgur_ I will give it a try, anyway to post pictures would be great. Not all of us I guess can do what Dr. Wayne does, but sharing ones work is good for others, it is a way to get ideas. Thanks.
Thanks to all for the kind words.
tommy24aWhere do you get your materials from? Plastic sheets and other things...
Dave has pretty-well covered that for you, Tommy, so there's not much I can add.I was in the midst of typing a how-to for making those hydrant/hose sheds or for the even simpler pumphouse sheds for wooden water towers...
...and a closer view....
...when everything just disappeared. So, I'll instead offer a link to a thread which shows, in not quite how-to form, the construction of those crossing shanties for the watchmen, which I posted earlier.
For representing wooden structures, the method of using strip material as internal bracing/contact points for cementing the walls together, and smaller square strip material as external trim for the corners is pretty-much universally useful, no matter how large the structure. This fairly large icehouse was built the same way as the small shanties in the link (but without so many windows)...
tommy24aWhere do you get your materials from? Plastic sheets and other things to create thos great looking models.
Hi tommy24a,
The most common plastic used is styrene. You can buy it in 4' x 8' sheets from plastic wholesalers. There should be one or two in the larger cities. Buying it in 4'x8' sheets is very economical. It comes in a variety of thicknesses. Dr. Wayne uses .060" thick sheets.
You can also buy it in smaller sheets from companies like Evergreen Scale Models. In addition to flat sheets they offer a number of patterned sheets as well as strips and moldings in different shapes and sizes.
https://evergreenscalemodels.com/
You can also buy textured sheets like brick and cut stone walls from a variety of companies. The best place to see what is available is to go to the Walthers online catalogue.
https://www.walthers.com/
You can also get windows and doors in styrene. Tichy Train Group has a good selection.
https://www.tichytraingroup.com/
You will need some glue. Most modellers use very thin styrene cement as opposed to the thick stuff that Testors sells in a tube. The thin glues actually weld the styrene together. You can also use MEK (methyl ethyl ketone). It is cheaper than the purpose made hobby cements.
Styrene is easy to cut. All you need to do is score it and then bend it and it will break along the score line. You will want to have a sharp knife to cut it. Most people use a #11 X-acto blade but doctorwayne recommends a carpet knife (box cutter) because they are easier to hold on to. I have just started to follow his lead and I much prefer the larger tool.
If you are going to be doing a lot of windows, a nibbler shear is really handy.
https://www.amazon.ca/ProsKit-900-215-Nibbler/dp/B000BN60XW/ref=lp_7205737011_1_3?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1544747768&sr=1-3
Hope that gives you some ideas. If you have a structure in mind and want some tips on how to get started just ask.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
robert sylvester I do want too post pics and I have contacted the photo company, even Dr Wayne advised me about it but I can't get them to respond about my account, MR's way as described by Mr. Otte seemed complicated. I just wish they would come up with a way where you can put your pics on the desk top and place them on the MR page with a click or two. Why do they make it so complicated? I've got pictures, just got to post them on this web-site. Liked the real pictures of the yard and the up date, great buildings to kit bash. Robert Sylvester Newberry-Columbia Line, SC
I do want too post pics and I have contacted the photo company, even Dr Wayne advised me about it but I can't get them to respond about my account, MR's way as described by Mr. Otte seemed complicated. I just wish they would come up with a way where you can put your pics on the desk top and place them on the MR page with a click or two. Why do they make it so complicated? I've got pictures, just got to post them on this web-site. Liked the real pictures of the yard and the up date, great buildings to kit bash.
Hey Robert... maybe do it like I did. You need a kid, they all know how this stuff works. My daughter came over and set me up with a picture hosting site. She set me up with Imgure because it's free.
She showed me how to do it and had me post one, it seemed easy while she was there. Then she had to come over one more time until I got it.
It's not that hard after someone walks you through it TF
I as well always enjoy looking at your modeling Wayne. I always have enjoyed custom making things but I'm never too old to learn. I have picked up quite a few things from looking at your modeling through the past few years. Thanks for turning your buildings upside down, I think I learned a few more
doctorwayne was kind enough to show me a while ago, how to make bridges removable. I have those notes in my railroad log and made my first removable bridge a while back.
Thanks again Wayne, ...appreciated.
Where do you get your materials from? Plastic sheets and other things to create thos great looking models.
I can't help but marvel at the artistic endeavour I see when Dr. Wayne posts pics on the web-site. I have been viewing his work for over a decade and it just gets better. Maybe the telephone poles aren't the best example but the point for me is I wanted to build them no matter the effect on the railroad. I drive in rural South Carolina every day to ge to my practise and I am amazed at what I see, just simple stuff and you know what, a lot of it is out of order, junk, but it still seems to be in the right place.
Sometimes I just want to build something little, not to make a statement but maybe because I saw it on the side of the road or in a town and it looked great to me. So I down size it and put on the railroad.
Thanks for your kind words, UncleB.
You're right about many kit buildings being too simple or too small to represent the real thing, but I think that a lot of layouts are probably only large enough to allow use of structures of that size.While my layout is probably in the "medium-size" category, I do try to make at least some of the industries a believeable size...after all, they're supposed to be what's generating the train movements. Since the layout is mostly an around-the-room type, I usually use all of the kit walls on the visible (aisle) side of the layout, making the unseen backs from .060" sheet styrene, which I buy in 4'x8' sheets.
Languay Pump & Compressor was built using most of two Walthers Waterfront Warehouse kits...
...but the back and unseen end are unpainted sheet styrene...
...as is the interior bracing...
It's also trapezoidal in shape...
National Grocers is a fairly large collection of DPM modular walls (over a hundred bucks-worth, back when they were "affordable")...
...but it's somewhat like an old West movie set, with falsefront buildings...
Mercury Knitting Mills is a decent rendering of its prototype's general appearance, but covers no where near the acreage of the real one...
In most cases, the best we can do is to "suggest" large industries, perhaps by modelling only part of them. On my layout, GERN Industries is probably the best example of that, with the modelled part representing 1/4 to 1/3 of the plant's supposed size...
doctorwayneI hope that viewers won't be too annoyed by the surfeit of photos
Your kidding, right,, I could look at your work all day
Back to the OP;
I'm a firm beleiver/fan of scratch building or kitbashing. Of the 40+ buildings on my layout only 10 are built out of the box,per instructions.
I get my ''fix'' by building stuff and the kits just don't scratch that itch.
I have a hard time paying $30/$40 or more ,and when you open the box, theres a pille of plastic sheets with holes cut out.Not a whole lot more.The last two kits I bought were lest then $10, and only because I wanted the parts.
Another of my beefs,is the size. We don't have room for a scaled down buiding, but I try to get mine at least believable. So it looks right.
xboxtravis7992...you want to convince your viewer its the prototype and not a 'tribute to the Walther's catalog.'
Good point!
While all of my towns are named for real places, none are meant to look like their prototypes. Your mention of "Walther's catalog" reminded me that a lot of the structures on my layout are from Walthers, although most of them have not been built as Walthers originally intended.I have scratchbuilt a few structures, too, and many of the railroad-related ones were done as multiples, as many railroads had "standard plans" for their various types of buildings, such as section houses/sheds...
Same layout, but representing another (affiliated) road, hence the different style...
I have a couple of these...
...and three or four of these...
...three of these...
This one...
...will end-up on the upper level of the layout, while this coal- and ice-dealer has similar sites in almost all of the towns on the layout...
...and this coal dealer's only modelled-yard is only in the largest town on the layout...
There are stockpens in most of the smaller towns (most not as large as this yard)..
These red hose & hydrant sheds are at many of the road's larger facilities...
...and while there are a couple of smaller kit-built overhead cranes (not Walthers) on the layout, this larger one is scratchbuilt...
...as is the station in the largest town...
I hope that viewers won't be too annoyed by the surfeit of photos, but I've been locked-out of the MR Forums for what seems like ages, and was suffering from withdrawal symptoms.
Thanks Ed... I know it will be time-consuming. It will have to be broke down in segments.
PS... Great looking buildings Mel. I was zooming in on those bad boys, very nice!
Excellent building, T.F.!
I like designing and scratch building almost everything I do. I've kind of been that way since I was a kid. I like to kit- bash too sometimes. I feel like I am still scratch building, modifying pieces and putting them all together. Sometimes it's funner.
Here's my plans for a quad ore tipple transfer. I have a spot reserved for this on my layout... I'll get to it someday.
Images may be subject to copyright
I think anything you scratch build is well worth the effort, from a small tree to a big building, it's all good. I would like to see those telephone poles Robert. I'm sure they're cool. I bet you had a lot of fun with them and admire your efforts.
Dave,
I have photos of all the angles for the building, at least for more recent years. I've got some partial drawings, too.
You can see they rearranged the windows on the end facing. I have a drawing for that remodel, where they added a couple of bathrooms to the station. Before that, I think, there was an outhouse. I've seen photos of one up on the low berm to the left of the station.
Now that I look at the upper photo (I just found that one today), I see there is a VERY attractive little building this side of the station. Never saw THAT one before! And I see an outhouse to its left. Perhaps that is/was the old station, and the new one has yet to be activated. Old photos are VERY interesting. Just wish I had a high-def version.
The tower beyond the station is a pumphouse. The structure you see was for the drilling rig. They tended to keep the lower part and use it for the framing of the pumphouse building. That particular building looks bigger than the framing, so there's another mystery. Perhaps they kept the framing in case they wanted to drill deeper. Consider there's the Columbia River a few hundred yards to the left, it's hard to think they had to drill far. One could even wonder if they had to do it at all.
That is indeed Lyle WA. For reasons long and complex, it has gotten its hooks into me.
The photos are taken from a very convenient bridge over the tracks. Over your shoulder, to the right, is the Lyle Hotel, where I stay when I visit. And fall asleep to the sound of diesel locomotives at night.
Here's another shot from the same location:
I had thought/heard that these cars took out the station. The problem is, I see no wreckage from the building. But, one way or another, the station is gone at this date (January 2003).
Ed,
That looks like a great opportunity to practice your scratchbuilding skills. Have you been able to find any photographs taken from different angles?
What is the tower on the far side of the station for? Looks like it might have had a water tank on it.
BTW, is that Lyle, Washington? That's the only Lyle I could find in the US. The countryside looks similar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyle,_Washington
Thought I'd show a couple of photos of the station at Lyle that I have to model.
The first one is about 1910. The railroad is still pretty new.
Here's a shot of it in 1990:
The tracks to the right are a branch that goes up along the Klickitat River to Goldendale. The branch predates the main line. THAT'S kind of unusual.
Branch and station are gone now. Mainline still sees plenty of trains.
I just can't imagine putting a "substitute" for the Lyle station on my layout.
rrebellPut your effort into things that make a difference.
I have to politely disagree. Put your efforts into whatever you want. It's your layout. I'll bet that building the telephone poles was a lot of fun and obviously rewarding.
I don't have any scratchbuilt buildings planned for the immediate future; but I have a list of a few buildings I would someday like to do in the long term. Its pretty much needed anytime somebody is modeling a real place to have a handful of scratchbuilt structures; you want to convince your viewer its the prototype and not a 'tribute to the Walther's catalog.'
I've scratch built a few small structures, but most of my scratch building is more scenery related. It's mostly out of necessity. You can't buy a model subway station, or a pierside seawall to match the carfloat apron.
It's all part of the hobby.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Put your effort into things that make a difference. The telephone poles are a lot of effort with little gain in apperance. Just modifying the Rix ones will get the right look but with a lot less effort. I have scratch built a few items myself including one of a covered station as the kit I bought was badly designed so saved the windows and doors and scratched the rest in styrene with some modifications.