Has Model Railroader ever made a book on some of the best scratch build articles that have appeared in the magazine? The reason I ask is that I really enjoy scratch building. I am looking to build a one or two stall engine house from scratch and I am trying to find some HO scale plans on building one. I just had the idea of a couple of books with some of the coolest scratch builds that have been in MR. If it has already been done or a dumb idea let me know and I won’t do it again.[:P]
Easy to Build Model Railroad Structures - 1965 - 2-stall enginhouse, station, triangular shaped warehouse, crossing gatemans tower, general store, other buildings - not all are from magazine - Useable plans but most of the actual models crude by todays standards .
Railroad Station Planbook - 1977
Model Railroad Stations (Scratchbuilding & Kitbashing) - 1978
Long time ago I bought an 8 1/2 by 11 thin softcover book entitled “Prototype Railroad Plans” from Bill Rule’s shop in Lancaster PA. It was mostly decent line drawings of rolling stock, with dimensions, black and white, few to no photographs. I scratch built several cars from those plans, a couple of which I still have. The book disappeared over the years (an Air Force sponsored tour of south east asia and five moves since will loose a lotta stuff) and I’ve never seen it again, or anything like it. Wish I still had it.
Yes. In the early 1970s Kalmbach put together a compilation of 24 of the best “Dollar Model” articles from prior years into a booklet: “Easy-To-Build Model Railroad Freight Cars: 24 Dollar Car Projects.” I think they did something similar for structure articles.
Whether the projects are really “easy” to build I leave up to you. If you have the All Access Pass to the digital archives you’d have access to all those articles by Eric Stevens, H.O. Williams, and Gordon Odegard.
By the way when you read MR from the 1950s you’ll see some concerns starting to be raised by various authors that the word “scratchbuilt” was being misused to describe using commercial parts other than wheels, couplers, screws, and such. I think these days most of us would accept a structure as “scratchbuilt” if the modeler fabricated the ends, sides, roof and base, but used Tichy or Grandt Line window and door castings. In an earlier era that would not have been regarded as scratchbuilding. And in that earlier era, a good craftsman could scratchbuild better windows and doors than the commercial castings of that time. Now that the quality of parts is so high, I suspect most guys are more interested in getting the best possible looking results than in saying that they scratchbuilt every part.
I no longer recall the NMRA contest and achievement program definition of scratchbuilt but I think it accepts a limited use of commercial parts.
A model is considered “scratchbuilt” if at least 90% of the model’s pieces/parts (other than those specifically exempted in the list above) are fabricated by the modeler. This is a quantitative assessment based on the number of pieces with no weight given to complexity. This is a separate determination from the scratch building score.
Personally, I use whatever works best for me. But then I’m not into contests, achievement programs, etc.
It is called Choo Choo Nuts (444 E Roseville Rd, Lancaster, PA 17601), he goes to shows too. I have seen him at the Timonium show a few times since he started the shop. Depending on the last time you were in the Lancaster area I know Rule’s use to be in Lancaster, but then he moved to Manheim, had a fire then moved to another location in Manheim. He was a great source of knowledge.