From: Alan Lambert Lone Star Flyer club Arlington, Texas Bob, I can relate to the lack of basements in models. It must be a Texas thang. You know we don't have basements In Fort Worth or the whole state for that matter. One thing I really miss. I guess that is where scratch building comes in. Add our own basement. Come up to our lo.cal train shows sometime At Plano we were on the local CH. 11 news from unloading til we had the layout up and running. Plugging this years show's. Thanks , Alan
________________________________ From: Bob Werre <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, March 12, 2012 10:21 AM Subject: Re: {S-Scale List}old structures/new structures Friends, I also have been somewhat overwhelmed with the quality and quantity of structure kits in our favorite scale. Back when I started my layout it was pretty much FinesKinds, Mini-structures, and Leigh Valley. And like everybody at the time, I inherited the basic Mini-structures single story station and I built the Leigh branchline station. It didn't take me too long before discovering that everybody else had those same structures. But over the years we've added so many neat buildings. I enjoy building structures so if you add up all the false fronts on my layout I bet I'm in the 150-200 range. So I have a 1:1 ratio between cars and structures (that was for Jim King). I probably have a dozen car kits to build and only two structure kits waiting in line. I'll agree with Jim here, and say simple buildings will work in most situations. I too have one Bar Mills buildings...love it, but one goes a long way. I often stop along roads less traveled, stop in small towns and photograph all the neat and varied buildings on mainstreet. I did that when coming back from Bob Jackson's layout in Illinosis, I did it in Fort Worth near the stockyards, covered some neat buildings with Bill Click a few years back in some East Texas villages. I photographed some basic buildings near my hometown in South Dakota that garnered an award with a local graphics society. I look at all the detail that you can add to a kit from Plasticville on up, to make it look like it's been there a long time. However, one thing most kits/final buildings seem to lack is provisions for a basement. Many areas have basements and I've only seen one, the Monon Shop provided one on his Bob's Barbershop kit. I'm talking about a raised building with small windows near ground level and around the perminter. Often there was an outside stairway leading down to the basement level. That stairway usually had a pipe safety railing and the local guys would sit on that railings--a great place to add character! One thing I wish for is a windmill. I've seen an etched brass version in HO while I have two of the earlier Woodland's scenic's soft metal versions. Even though windmills differ vastly in height these don't even match the smallest I've seen, so they only work really far in the distance for S. A windmill would work for any isolated water tank until the late steam era, and many farms still have and use them today. I feel one would have to do a tremendous amount of work to solder one together and I need 2-3 on my layout...so that remains on my wish list! Bob Werre >Guys: > > >At the risk of growing the thread, my random, non-critical thoughts on >others' thoughts: > > >The elephant in the room that seems to be so often overlooked, is that we are >very small numerically speaking, with widely varying architectural needs and >wants While a lot of guys on this list complain about how little is available >in structure kits, I marvel at how much there actually is. If you were to add >up all the S scale offerings, past and present from various structure >manufacturers, I'm sure it would number into the hundreds. > > >Personally, I enjoy scratch building specific (to my needs) structures, but I >do buy the odd kit if I think I can make it fit the scene I want to create. >When considering a kit, I prefer simple, typical structures. > > > >I love the look of Bar Mills structures but but too many on my layout would >make it look like a theme park. I have purchased their "One Kit" because it's >a clever concept I can probably use in the future without have to scare up a >lot of scratch building materials > > > >Back to the typical, I will be ordering Altoona's branch line water tank. >It's close enough to what I need. Typical sells, At least to me. > > >As for those who can't find a structure kit specific to their needs, try >scratch building. The fact that you're willing to tackle a kit at least means >you have no" tool allergies" > > >My two cents > > >Cheers' >Jim Martin. > > > >
