scratchbuilding structures

Does anyone know any websites or have any building plans for model railroads? I’ve scratchbuilt some buildings from pictures of other scale buildings and ones that I have drafted, but does anyone know how to get actual building plans?[?]

I’ve bought books on Ebay and Amazon on said topics, usually a project type book with a dozen or so plans in detail

There really aren’t any. Building plans are something that architects get paid for, so they want you to shell out money for them. There are a very few online, but they’re mostly of limited usefulness (1920s resort cabins and lodges, that sort of thing).

Do a Google search for “building plans”, and spend a few hours digging. That’s what I did. (but soon realized that it was mostly a waste of time, and went back to digging through old issues of MR and RMC for building plans)

I like to take railfanning trips and take pictures of buildings that are of interest to me…then when i get home i drag out the styrene plastic and windows and doors from previous kits and build the buildings from the photos…

Check books from Dover. They feature a lot of old catalogs and books reprints. I have a victorian house and building plan book from Dover and it is a reprint from the 1800’s.

John

This is my method also. Be sure, however, to put some standard of measure in some of the pictures so you can guage the size of things. a 4’ pole with 1’ sections painted alternating plack and white is ideal. A yardstick works ok too. But put something in the pics by which you can compare the measuresments of walls, doors, windows, etc. This will make life much easier and models more accurate.

Ron