I’m trying to model one of these from that time period, the ones that you would find on some lonely dusty road out in the states just west of PA.
I could really use some help on constructing one or finding out where I could buy something similar to what I have in mind. I’ve never scratch build anything, I’m willing to try if any of you have and could give me some instructions and pointers. I have a phobia of scratchbuilding or kit bashing because I don’t want my stuff on the layout to look tacky. I’m not talented in this area.
Kinda something like this? Might not be from the area I’m talking about, but you get the idea.
A simple stand in would be any type of streamlined passenger car or it could be a starting point. A Con-Cor or or Rivarossi smoothside car, cut and add the door, enlarge some windows, plate over others and change the ends. You would probably have to shorten the car a bit too. Add some thin styrene to the side to represent the flutting like the one in your picture. Or start with a fluted streamline and let the fluting stand as is.
Looks even better if you add some diners to the window seats and brush on stainless steel paint in places. Hard to add interior lighting unless you use surface mount LEDs (available on e-bay).
Question for the OP: are you limiting only to “Rail-Car” style diners (like your image), or are you including the squarish pre-fabs (well, OK, the rail-car diners were also mostly pre-fabs) like the Walthers and City Classic kits mentioned - because I don’t recall any kits/built-ups for the rail-car styles in the last few decades (they would look cool).
Obligatory wiki-link; I noted on some stories regarding the moving of one of Manhattan’s last ‘real’ pre-fab diners (the Cheyenne - the Moondance left 2 years ago) they call it a rail-car style, but to me it looks like the squarish restaurant-layout style common to most of the Long-Island diners (of which I am familiar w/ many).
I have the Walthers Miss Bettie’s Diner. While the interior is detailed, I found out a couple of months ago that HO-scale people do NOT fit in the booths because the spacing is way too cramped. If you plan on putting people in the seats, you’ll need to spread the spacing of the tables out.
I have it mostly finished, although there still is some important detailing left to complete. I’ll try and post a couple of pictures tonight after I get home.
Here’s what Walther’s Miss Bettie’s Diner looks like:
It is nice kit, although the booth spacing is too cramped inside. The plan is to eliminate 2 or 3 booths then space the remaining ones out a bit so that there’s more room. I’ll also add a few patrons - most of them being RR employees.
The linoleum flooring and the wood floor planking behind the counter I added myself. I’ll also be adding interior lighting and probably a small neon “DINER” sign out front. The grill area will definitely need to be “greased up” a bit. Also, since the roof is flat, I’ll add some stone on top.
Man, Tom, that looks nice. Great job. I wonder if a structure like that will fit in my modern era set in the midwest. Even if doesn’t I think I could make fit in.
Absolutely! There’s still a number of these diners around the midwest, as well as the rest of the country. If you do a Google Image search and type in “stainless steel diners”, you can find a slew of examples. And you can keep it “retro” as little or as much as you want. I’m trying to keep mine in the 40s.
