Old West buildings

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi,

I’ve been considering adding a small Western town on my layout. Only as a tourist attraction and because I like the style. It would not be big and would only be represented by a few buildings. This would give 4-4-0 something to do as well as my old style passenger cars. Anyways, anyone got any sugestions on where one could get HIGH quality western buildings that would look as if they belonged in a Deadwood environment?

Magnus

2

http://www.wildwestmodels.com/

3

I scratch built mine using the plans in 20 HO Scale Wild West Structures You Can Build, a booklet available from Mark J. Bigelow, DBA James Publications, 1006 Landings Boulevard, West Palm Beach, Florida 33413. His e-mail is jamespub@aol.com

4

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&catref=C6&from=R10&submitsearch=Search&satitle=wild+west&sacat=19128%26catref%3DC6&floc=1&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D1&sadis=200&fpos=ZIP%2FPostal&sabfmts=1&saobfmts=insif&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&fgtp=

Rich

5

Those where very nice. Are they available from somewhere else?

Thanks for all the help guys.

Magnus

6

What is wrong with that site? Here are the same from another source. You said you wanted HIGH quality.

http://www.caboosehobbies.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?scales_name=HO+Scale&roadnames_name=&alpharoad=&categories_id=146&inc_subcat=1&manufacturers_id=1104&sku=&keyword2=&maxrow=50&x=48&y=11

Rich

7

Thanks for the link.

There is nothing wrong with their site. Just that since shipping is very expensive on a single item to Sweden I prefer to order something that I like to look at along something else. Otherwise I’ll might end up paying 30-50$ in shipping for a 50$ building. Then comes a customs fee at 16 dollars and so on. Just for a single piece this is to expensive. I prefer making a large order now and then rather then small ones.

Magnus

8

Try Crystal River products. http://www.crystalriverproducts.com/

They make VERY high quality kits (assembly required!). Perhaps they’re more turn of the century than 1870’s…

Regards,

Charlie Comstock

9

Thank you. Those looked very very nice indeed.

Magnus

10

Kibri produced a line of wild west structures that are actually quite well done, a bit of attention with painting produces nice looking realistic buildings. Theya re widely avaialble on e-bay and likely from european sellers too to reduce your shipping charges.

11

So what buildings did you have in mind ?. The reason I ask is because a while back I had the same idea, only I was going to put in an entire old west town along a main street consisting of a livery stable/black smith shop, saloon, general store, sheriff’s office/jail, undertaker, barber shop, hotel, “Baptist” church with a grave yard, school, a few houses and a train depot. That’s basically about all your average small west town had in it back then.

Tracklayer

12

take photos you have, scale them to size and cut stock to size.

13

A lot of the old style wild west buildings were little more than a basic stucture with a fancy facade on the front. Almost Always built from wood. Simple roofs with very little detail. Very easily scratchbuilt for about 1/10 the cost of any kit. I would suggest going to Micromark.com and getting a supply of wood siding.

14

Arguably the best quality kits available…

http://www.sierrawestscalemodels.com/ckits/206/206a.htm

Karl.A

15

I would urge you to take a good look at the Campbell kits. Quite a wide selection available.

Examples:

http://www.discounttrainsonline.com/Campbell-Scale-Models-Building--Sherrys-Scarlet-Slipper-Saloon/item200-378.html

http://www.discounttrainsonline.com/Campbell-Scale-Models-Building--The-Carriage-Works/item200-430.html

http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?manu=200&split=30&start=30

16

Hi,

Pretty much the kind of buildings you mentioned. A saloon would be a must as well as a sheriff and a stable. You know the “typical”(typical as in Hollywood movie!) western buildings. I would probably want a hotel as well. Or as an alternative I just want tun down dilapidated buildings reminding the people of the “good old days” and that a Sunday special runs to or something. Not to fancy but still something worthwhile.

A undertaker would be a great idea regardless. The last job to leave town!

Thanks for all the links and sugestions, I will look into to them all.

Magnus

17

The buildings you mention are exactly what is in the Wild West Structures You Can Build booklet, but you have to scratch build them. The booklet has templates for all the structures and a list of supplies by manufacturer and part number, but finding everything is quite a challenge, especially from a single supplier. I sent the supplies list to Cherry Creek Hobbies in Torrington, Wyoming and he was able to get almost everything I needed, but it did take several months for him to accumulate them.

18

Magnus,

Search for old Yorke kits, lytler and lytler, Columbia Valley, Gold Hill, Banta, Paper Creek, BIS, S.S. Limited and Rio Grande Models. There are others but that is all I could come up with off of the top. It will be difficult to meet your shipping criteria and do the searching necessary to find this stuff. You might try Jay Cohen Models. He has a great selection of used kits for sale.

http://www.jaystrains.com/HO-HOn3/Structures/hostr.htm

Guy