I am looking for sources of plastic or wooden kits to build houses, rr stations, bridges, villages, etc. I don’t know what scale my old train is called. It is an old American Flyer built back in the 50’s. It is a large train. The cars stand 2 to 3 inches tall, the track rails are about 1.5 inches apart. I would of course like the the buildings to be to scale to the train.
Web sites are preferred as I live in rural Wisconsin and my driving ability is very limited. Magazines would work also I guess.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. ArtR
Welcome to the Forum. The thing is, you are in the right church, but the wrong pew. Post your question under the Classic Toy Train section and you will bet much better served.
Unfortunately, your information is inconsistent. IIRC, by the 1950s American Flyer had stopped producing anything larger than S scale, which has a track gauge of 7/8" with 2 rails. Furthermore, some of their pre-war (pre-WW2) production was O gauge, which has 3 rails with a gauge of 1.25". I don’t know of any toy trains that had a gauge of 1.5". There was:
O gauge (3 rail) at 1.25" (inside of rail head to inside of rail head). Used by Lionel, AF (pre-war) and others. Nominal scale 1/4" to the foot, 1/48. Especially in the '50s, most O gauge toy equipment is less than full scale.
S gauge (2 rail), 7/8" gauge. Used by American Flyer (post war). 3/16" to the foot, 1/64. Most items were more accurately scaled than in O gauge.
#1 gauge, 1.75", 2 rail. Used by LGB, now called G. Rarely used by US toy train manufacturers until LGB made it popular in the '70s. Scales range from 1/32 (accurate) to 1/20.3 (accurate for narrow gauge).
Standard Gauge, 2.125" gauge, 3 rail. Used by Lionel and others pre-war, no particular scale.
Keep in mind that until the '40s, with a few notable exceptions, there was little effort by toy train manufacturers to use any particular scale for their products, with Lionel probably being the least consistent on scale. Even today, traditional Lionel accessories and rolling stock vary all over the place from being large enough to use with Standard Gauge to small enough to be suitable for S.
There are plenty of detailed structure kits for O and S scales, and some offerings in the various G scales, aimed mostly at scale model railroaders. These may or may not fit in well with toy trains, depending on what look you are trying to achieve.&nb
Go the Walthers.com website and search for structures in S and than again also O. There is a surprisingly nice selection. Some of the Walthers O scale structures are small for true O and are quite usable in S.
Not the sharpest looking scale models, but the Bachmann Plasticville Line of structures is a sort of O scale/S scale compromise. The selection is broad; a bit toylike but you might find some things you’ll like.