Collecting Structures for Layout

[Autobus_Prime]

How many readers purchase their layout buildings and other structures on an ongoing basis as they come across them?

Or do you wait until your layout trackwork is complete before you start obtaining your structures?

I tend to buy on an ongoing basis - but I have a fairly clear idea of the styleof buildings I am likely to need given my modelling vision : switching 40’ cars in an urban/warehouse/light industrial area in the American midwest with late 1950s/early 1960s diesel switchers.

So the stuff I buy is basically stuff that would fit into that time frame and environment, a mix of 3-4 story buildings for the more urban areas/up against the backdrop and 1 story low buildings for foreground stuff.

I don’t buy light towers, barns, german castles, rustic old west plank saloons, moss covered ancient stone buildings, smalltown homes or dramatic bridges

sjr:

Not to go too far off-topic - but you know, it’s surprising how many corner bars in older industrial areas look like Old West plank saloons with a Schlitz sign and perhaps some paint. And who knows? Maybe there was a farmhouse with a barn on that land before it was bought for industrial use, and maybe both stayed there when a clump of company rowhouses was built up around them (as is also quite common in older industrial areas).

You could probably stick some tanks by that German castle and call it a brewery without going too far off track.

But what would you do with the lighthouse ? [;)]

Grin,
Stein

Add a sign. “Caution: Low Water.”

[PASMITH]

These are two of only four structures that I have purchased and are not scratch built.

Peter Smith, Memphis

[Lillen]

I’ve been collecting buildings since I started. Adding buildings that have been on sale with a general idea of what I one day will need. The only building I haven’t bought on sale was the Milwaukee station since I didn’t want to wait and wouldn’t risk it running out.

I’m now at a point where I got 90% of the basic buildings that I need. Some small things still needs to be purchased like additional water towers but for the most part I’m done.

Magnus

[don7]

i know there’s a few people on here who have what looks like a fairly well stocked LHS in their house , waiting for the right time to start construction . (my collection isn’t that big , but i’ve only been planning a layout for a few years even though i’ve been interested in model railroading for 40+ )

Know that I think about it I to have to admit that one of the shelves in the spare bedroom does like a bit like a LHS.

[gmhtrains]

I model in O scale, so snapping up structures while they are available may be necessary more than with HO kits. I kit-bash and kit-mingle a lot, and sometimes find myself building a kit that I’ve had waiting for the right spot for more than 25 years. I also scratchbuild many structures, and often need the footprint before knowing where to lay spur or siding track.

Even if I build a kit exactly as intended, I usually change the business activity and/or name. My On30 common carrier layout is set in 1950, so I’ve recently been searching the internet for 1950-era advertising (Desoto, Packard, Hudson and Nash automobiles for example) for both billboards and structure walls.

Gil

[markpierce]

I’m now at a point where I got 90% of the basic buildings that I need. Some small things still needs to be purchased like additional water towers but for the most part I’m done.

Magnus

I know how that goes. Yeah, until the next neat-looking structure comes out.

Mark, structure junky

[lvanhen]

Even if I build a kit exactly as intended, I usually change the business activity and/or name. My On30 common carrier layout is set in 1950, so I’ve recently been searching the internet for 1950-era advertising (Desoto, Packard, Hudson and Nash automobiles for example) for both billboards and structure walls.

Gil

Try this site http://www.billboardsofthepast.com/ , you’ll love the opening page!![:)]

[Lillen]

I’m now at a point where I got 90% of the basic buildings that I need. Some small things still needs to be purchased like additional water towers but for the most part I’m done.

Magnus

I know how that goes. Yeah, until the next neat-looking structure comes out.

Mark, structure junky

I fear that you might be right! [:D]

But seriously, Since last spring I have bought just a few buildings, the station and sheds and the turntable. Nothing else. So I hope that I’m out of it. That I’m clean and I ain’t going back in to that hell hole again! [:D]

Since the benchwork is almost done now and I’m busy placing the buildings I do feel that I can not squeeze in much more even if I tried to. So I do think that I’m almost at an end. A few water towers, a depot, another coaling tower and some more small stuff. Well OK, I’ll end up buying a lot of more small stuff bot no more large things, I promise! [:D]

Magnus

[MisterBeasley]

I bought more structures than I should have 3 years ago, when I was young and foolish. (Man, when I was in my 50’s, I didn’t know anything.) I’ve managed to squeeze most of them in, though, and they look OK, but I’d probably have been better off passing up that “great deal” on structures I didn’t need. Instead, there are parts of my layout which were guided by the structures, not the needs of the railroad.

Now, I watch the Walthers catalog a lot. I haven’t bought a structure for 6 months now, and I have no plans (or room) for any more. If I really get the promised clearance to expand the layout once my daughter goes off to college next year, my plan of action is to pull structures off the current layout and move them to the addition. Then I can be more patient and selective about subsequent buildings.

I’ll have to admit, though, that I’d really like a lighthouse…

[pcman43]

I tend to not really know what I really need so as I something out there strikes my fancy, and if it is not too expensive I go ahead and buy in hopes I will have room for it. The more expensive stuff I try to plan places for it to fit. And since I do not have all my railroad completed I have room for some change, I do not yet have a completed mainline. I tend to lean more towards transition period buildings since I am running two different RRs about thirty years or so apart.