We’ve all seen the classic model railroad structure kits…for instance, Atlas’ Water tower, yard tower and Hillside Lumber…but where are (or were) the prototypes? I’m curious to see what the real things looked like.
I’ll give this thread a bump, as I always presumed that there was no prototypes for many of the early ‘stock’ models from Revel, Atlas, Bachmann Plasticville and so on - I thought they were more of a composite or pastiche of various prototypes (or maybe even a real prototype as a base, but heavily modified for molding reasons or whatever), rather than a model of a real single prototype.
Things like the Revel passenger station was reused as the basis for their schoolhouse, and their Enginehouse was the basis for the Weekly Herald and I think the Bakery also, and Lifelike’s Police Station was also the basis for their bank and firehouse - you get the idea.
I’d be interested to hear otherwise, as would I also like to see a website dedicated to these once-common early building kits from the 1950s and 1960s (sort of like the Tyco website I’ve linked to before showcasing Tyco rolling stock and operating accessories from the 1960s/1970s)