You might want to drop a note to Vector Cut http://www.vectorcut.com/accessoriesHO.htm they don’t currently make a school desk AFAIK, but they are a small company and have created some very neat laser cut furniture kits. It would not hurt to enquire as who knows they may have it on the plan, or think it is a good idea to do?
You might check Bollinger Edgelry (BEST) castings - he bought Colonial Castings when they went out of business. There are hundreds of castings on the site, maybe something there would work.
Doll house furniture [(-D] 1" scale (1:12) is too large even for our G scale layout. Although some of the 1/2" scale (1:24) items work. But thanks for the link. Some nice items on that doll house site nonetheless.
From Maxman’s link, the green steel desk is a bit modern for the era indicated by the rubber-wheelers, but the old fashioned wooden desk is similar to the ones where I parked my keister from first grade (PS71) through grades 4 - 8 (catholic school, nameless by choice) and on through my four years at the Bronx High School of Science.
IIRC, the seats and seat backs were more substantial (and a little farther from the desk portion.) They also came in several sizes, to accommodate the enlarging sizes of the students. Class sizes were larger, too - and teachers didn’t seem to think that having fifty or so students put an unacceptable burden on them. (Of course, they also had parental help with discipline, and students who wanted to learn…)
You might also consider the teacher’s desks. I remember the ones in BHSS classrooms as solidly-anchored structures about a yard wide and eight feet long. They resembled packing crates as seen from the student side.
Fast forward 60 years. Now grades 1-6 are taught to students sitting at ordinary tables in ordinary chairs - of appropriate size, of course.
Chuck (Native New Yorker modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in Southern Nevada)
Our HO layout is set in Southern California circa 1958. The school is a Catholic grade school.
Ideally I was thinking of a school desk like this:
I suppose I could scratch build some desks if I have to. I was just hoping there was an already made model out there to save time. So much left to do on the layout [;)]
If anyone is interested, the school on the layout is a kitbashed Busch Cinema.
I’m not familiar with any schools that would have those large picture windows along side a central door. Being that as it may, given the size of the windows, the distance from the viewer. and the relatively small size of that desk when reduced to HO scale, it seems to me that some smart person with photo editing software should be able to duplicate the picture as many times as needed and photoshop the picture into something that can be placed just inside the windows to give a representation of an interior without having to make three dimensional models.
I’m in agreement on these lines. You will also need to add floor, walls and other partitions of some sort to allow some sort of lighting blocks/ diffusers. The actual desks can be represented even w/ small blocks w/ only the ones closest to windows to show some added detail. Classrooms in that sort of (elementry) school would be smallish classroom w/ about 25-30 desks. Only a couple interior walls would be visible through windows and photshopping the classroom walls/ blackboards etc is all that would be needed. mrB does this on his remarkable building interiors.
You know, come to think of it, maxman is right - I’ve seen Southwest Chief’s school pictured in a number of his post, and never gave it a thought that the school looks more like a general store - Chief, did you base it off any prototype? I recall you’re setting your layout in 1950s Southern California - wouldn’t square flat-roofed sprawling brick/block schools (with or without picture windows in the class rooms) be more prototypical? What you have now is more like a modern era Charter Schools repurposing an existing former store or distributorship.
Parts of the HO layout are loosely…and I mean loosely, based on San Juan Capistrano. So while I didn’t use a prototype for the school, I was going for a California mission inspired look. Mission Revival Style.
The school sort of looks like Mission San Jose:
Or Mission San Luis Obispo:
I wanted the school to blend with the Suydam mission style station you also see in that photo. I’m using the “station” as a church. Finding an adobe and tile roof building, let alone one that might work as a school was difficult. But I though I’d give the Busch model a try.
Large picture windows are not uncommon though for schools around here. Even on the older late 50s early 60s schools. Generally these are for the principal and other administrative offices.
On the model the large windows are only in the front where I made interior partitions for the offices. The other windows are the small rectangles you see in the photo. I added lots of this style to the existing kit which as is only had windows on the front.
The school is supposed to be brand new for the layout era. So a little bit of 1960s architectural styling to a mission revival building.
But I guess I didn’t pull the look off that well [:S]
Ok, you were going for a Mission Style, and I’m sure that some schools were built in such a style - but the “picture windows” in front just make it look like a store. Now, as I said, moving into the 1990s and later Charter schools/private schools/day care centers do repurpose former stores as their school buildings, often with large bold signs in front (often with the word “Academy” in the name), and some sort of plastic/
I’m wondering if blinds might help hide the big windows. Or maybe add some styrene dividers (mullion bars) to change the store front window into a multipaned window. I was already planning on doing that for the small windows so they look like they can be opened. And I’d like to add some window mounted air conditioners as well.
Southwest, please note that I wasn’t trying to be critical of the building. Certainly what you have in your part of the country would be different from what we have in Pennsylvania where my kids went to elementary school 20 years ago, which was definitely differently from old Armory Street school in Massachusetts when I attended 55 years ago.
What I was trying to impart was that details viewed through a window from a distance really don’t have to be super accurate. Especially when the details are very small.
For example, some folks will do up a complete caboose interior which then gets viewed from a distance through small caboose windows while the train is moving. Would anyone really see them?
The Catholic School I attended from 1947 through 1951 was a repurposed building - but it was originally a Victorian mansion. There was a purpose-built addition on the street side - school office and auditorium on the ground floor, classrooms on the second. I recall the auditorium having large windows flanking the street door. That would probably be the space visible through those two `show windows’ of the OP’s model.
That auditorium was usually bare-floored, since it was also used for indoor recess/play (New York is not noted for ideal weather!) When configured for a sit-down assembly or the school play it was fitted with stackable benches - small in front, working to adult size at the rear. If Mom wanted to sit next to Junior, she had to settle for a Junior-size bench. There were also folding tables - bake sales happened, as well as immunizations (Guess which I preferred…) When not in use, the benches were stacked (nested) along the side walls and the tables stood on end in a front corner.
(I’ve dated myself terribly, and now I’m covered with dusty cobwebs from crawling around in a long unvisited part of my memory!)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with school trains, but no schools)
