What can you do with old Pola buildings that 
didn’t quite survive a hurricane? Well I had a Wells Fargo building that was in about 7 pieces, no walls left standing and broken, missing detail parts, etc. Used the railing to put one on the hotel, used walls to make the Barn’s Texaco, sand house, and building under the coaling tower, roof went to Barn’s Texaco, front doors as well for the shop entrance, the top detail front part also went there to support the 2 “red” stars. Roofs for the sand house and coaling tower underbuilding came from pretty much destroyed scankit engine house. Found that the Pola buildings to be very adaptable and easy to gut with table saw or circular saw. Plastics glued very well with Model Masters plastic glue and mixing it with cut pieces to create patching material.
This is a great idea! Have you considered sending this type of project in for our “One-page project” in the magazine? (We will pay you for it.) Instructions are near the bottom of this page: http://grw.trains.com/magazine/submission-guidelines/2012/05/contribute-to-garden-railways-magazine
To anyone with a short project, you are welcome to submit your idea too!
Rene, Bill needs to do a regular column on repurposing and reusing! His work has really opened my eyes to what other things are available outside of hobby channels that can be cheap and good looking solutions to garden RR challenges! Oh, and yes, Bill, I am putting you on the spot! - Eric