Edit: This is Georgetown Kentucky
Where is the location? Somewhere in the midwest, I am guessing
Georgetown Kentucky
Could be, but there are lots of small towns (and bigger cities, too) all over the U.S. and Canada which have streets that look similar. That’s why the products mentioned have such widespread acceptance.
Wayne
It is impressive how even some very utilitarian buildings from an older era feature wonderful examples of the bricklayer’s art.
As for Walthers’ buildings, many are Wisconsin prototypes -but again there was a “look” to buildings of a certain era that one sees in old photos from Manhattan to San Francisco and in between. Peoria, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, are just examples of cities where many such buildings still stand.
Dave Nelson
Maybe it was from Georgetown, CO.
[:-^]
http://stearnsphotography.com/63026-Georgetown/Georgetown_Colorado_FLStearns_63026-00111.htm
I been to Georgetown,Ky several times over the years and its a beautiful city with friendly people…
Could be Main Street USA.
Hello all,
So is Georgetown, Colorado!
With the terminus of the Georgetown Loop Railroad it makes it even better for rail fans.
Hope this helps.
Idaho Springs nearby is amazing too. I’m pretty sure that’s where all model kits come from. : )
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_Idaho_Springs,_CO_IMG_5437.JPG
Just finished #14 of 50 downtown bldgs using mostly City Classics & Lunde models with a few Bachmanns thrown in which all work so well together. With so many duplicates from the relatively limited variey of multi-story models available, I “drive” around the SOHO district of Manhattan on Google Street View for color inspiration, and can make the similarities nearly undetectable. Jim’s use of the name “City Classics” is very fitting. You & Bob play right to my passion, Jim.
Thanks for the kind words. Of course, Bob Lunde, is the undisputed king of urban structures since he created all of the Magnuson Models kits, DPM kits, Lunde Studio kits and the large Bachmann kits. i think he pretty much revolutionized that part of the hobby when Magnuson Models first came out. He showed us how realistic urban structures can look when done right. Other folks did fine work, but nobody was as prolific as Bob. I’m just grateful that modelers have liked our kits enough to keep us around a bit.
Jim S
On San Francisco’s Castro Street, across from the Castro Theatre, there are two buildings painted to look the same. At first glance, they look identical. But if you look at them you notice that the windows aren’t the same and the trim is very different. It’s just the colors that you notice first.
About a hours drive from Georgetown is the Kentucky Railway Museum at New Haven.
Then there’s the beautiful horse farms and to the West is the distilleries.
I can’t think of the town name right now, but I remember taking the Empire Builder back from Chicago to the Twin Cities and it stopping in a moderately small Wisconsin town about an hour or so west of Milwaukee and noticing like five buildings that looked just like Walthers buildings. Could be someone designing Cornerstone buildings had grown up there or had relatives there and used it as the basis of some of the Walthers kits.
BTW it’s been noted that some of the backdrops Walthers sells in their “Instant Horizons” line (which I think were originally done by another company, and pre-date the Cornerstone building kit line by quite a few years) show a number of buildings that eventually became Walthers kits. Check out the “Freight Yards” and “The Docks” in particular…
I believe that most of the backdrops were painted by Tom Daniel who started that business (the name eludes me right now). If you’re not familiar with him, Tom Daniel is one of the most famous designers of hot rods, model kits and Hot Wheels over the last 40+ years. He also done some amazing paintings of cars, planes and trains (hence the backdrops). If you ever walked down the model car aisle at a hobby shop you probably passed a lot of kits with his name on them.
Jim
Mr Griffin
I can’t answer for Walthers or DPM, but the City Classics Co. is here in Pittsburgh Pa. And if you would venture down many streets here, you would see where they get their inspiration from. Most of their building’s name are actual streets in the city.
Joe C
[:O]Found this online (see link below)…Tom Daniel’s company was “HO West”, later bought by Walthers.
Wow, he’s the guy who designed the “Red Baron” model car with the big German helmet on a Model-T! Back before I started model railroading I built model cars; I think that was my all-time favorite.
http://www.tomdaniel.com/td_career/td_articles/sae_daniel.pdf
http://s1017.photobucket.com/user/dbduck2010/media/whiskey_row_lou_03_zps0ba82bc9.jpg.html?o=2
Whiskey Row Louisville Ky