I have been on the hunt for some affordable UK style buildings for my O gauge railway. This is hard to find on the USA side of the big pond. We have high priced tinplate Hornby that might pop up on ebay or show if your lucky. Hard to find cookie tin buildings are another option but once again, not easily found. But over on Amazon there are these card stock building kits. While not up to modern standards like the stuff from Menards, they fill a void for those that want a bit of a UK theme to a vintage layout. I picked up the railway station, row house, factory and the street/side walk kits. There are other buildings in the range that are not available right now but come and go as kits are produced. Best of all, if you have Prime, shipping is free! They are made by Sam Toys, hopfully the link you can cut and paste works. Mike https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/CE2EA6BC-0967-407B-B17D-52DA878E3E55?fbclid=IwAR0OGyKERNRdV__B-sINBZ8Enq4ZBRemqrYMB3_MKtiK4Fs02dQcXO4kz38
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
How's this? https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/CE2EA6BC-0967-407B-B17D-52DA878E3E55
Since you can't tell between a small "l" and a capital "I" on most links I didn't even want to try typing the whole thing and have it go wrong! I don't need a nervous breakdown!
You can't even tell on my post the difference between a small "ell" and a capital "eye." Jeez!
Nice stuff!
Thanks for making the link work correctly. While not everybodies cup of tea building wise, they fill a void and are available stateside. I only found this out today, from the dealer in the UK that was importing them till issues post Brexit made it to expensive with import fees. I wish they were tinplate, but that would make them a whole lot more expensive. Cardstock buildings have long been part of the UK modeling world, in both OO/HO from Metcalf and SuperQuik and in O gauge thru the years. With some skill and adding a few detail parts, these can make really nice buildings on a vintage looking layout.
Honestly, those Brit buildings wouldn't look out of place on some American-themed layouts. Depending on what part of the country you're modeling and what era Old World architecture would fit in very well.
I'd be interested in hearing what Becky (Pennytrains) has to say about them, she's written the book on cardstock construction!
I would like to know as well. Been many years since I built a card stock kit, at least these are bigger than OO/HO, so they should be a bit easier in theory. I should have them in a day or two, Amazon is pretty darn fast getting stuff to me. Maybe she will share some of her tips on successful cardstock kit building. My Bassett Lowke 20v AC LMS Compound should be here next week sometime hopefully as its coming from the UK.
Three of my 4 kits showed up today from Amazon. Here is the railway depot, took most of the afternoon and evening to slowly build it up as the glue dried on each assembly. Looks pretty good, defintely has a "vintage" look to it when one is used to superdetailed plastic kits. The factory and roads/streets were the other two kits that showed up. Stilll waiting on the row house kit to arrive. There are holes in the baseplate where lights can go. I will put 3 LED night light bulbs in there, low light output, just enough to light it up, but not be offensive looking. The bulbs are frosted to difuse the light. Here is a pic of it on my building table, once the glue dries here in a little bit, I will move it to the layout. Mike
"But how does it look on the railway" I hear someone saying. But which street light looks better? The prewar Lionel(shorter green one) or the taller Russian Moskabel brand light? I need to buy a mate to one of the two so I have one on each end of the platform.
Great job on the building Mike! Looks fantastic!
I almost hate to say it, but I think the Russian light just looks better, it looks "finer," if you know what I mean.
I agee, finding a mate to it is going to be pain in the butt. That is not the original paint, they are usually all silver or green in color, but I can paint to match. The glass globe and locking ring are usually missing. Unlike the Lionel with a bare bulb, the Russian one has a glass ribbed globe on it.
These are awesome! Definitely gonna save for one. Particularly like the movie theater. I like that they look like proper buildings but also have a toy like quality. Perfect for the kind of layout I'm trying to make
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