HO scale building & structure kits have come a long way in the past couple decades. There are now highly detailed, quality, craftsman kits for almost any type of structure…Almost! There are a few areas of classic Americana that for some unknown reason have gone totally neglected by the kit manufacturers. I’ve always wondered why. I’ve searched the catalogs and online offerings of just about all of them & keep coming up with nothing.
Those of us that grew up in the transition era well remember the mid-size Grocery Stores that dotted the landscape of every town in America. There were the type of “supermarket” that pre-dated the huge, sprawling ones we have today. They were usually false front, brick structures, roughly about 60’ wide & perhaps 80-100’ long. The store marquee was usually located along the false front. Predominate among them were stores like A & P, First National and IGA. Just about every town had one or two of them. They are classic Americana, yet there are virtually no kits of these types of stores, that I know of.
Why does every manufacturer insist upon putting out a kit of “the little red one-room schoolhouse”? I live in the northeast, where there are a considerable number of these one-room schoolhouses still standing. I’ve seen very few that were red. Most are white, gray or just stained shingle. What about the typical school found in most small to mid-size towns of the transition era. Usually brick, two or three stories and intended to accomodate two or three hundred kids. Here again, I find almost no kits for these type of structures, yet they existed in nearly every town.
I can find virtually no kits of the typical mid-size town Hospital, yet most towns had one. In fact, except for a couple European versions, I can find no HO kits of any Hospitals.
Automobile Dealerships: If you grew up in the post WWII era, as I did, think back. Remember what the typical car dealership was like? Ofte
I’ve been a kit builder since the '50s (planes, ships, cars, but primarily RR stuff) and have seen a remarkable surge in the number and variety of kits that have come up in the last 20 years.
Cornerstone has (in my opinion) been the leader in this for plastic kits. And of course there is a plethora of laser kit manufacturers that have started producing many new types of structures as well. The problem with many of the new laser kits is that they are not as well advertised as the Cornerstone kits and one often has to do some serious “looking” to find the various offerings.
The kits that you find lacking are probably right around the corner, or already out there but “hidden”. I’ve found that by doing an “advanced search” on the Walthers site (leave mfg space blank) one can get a good idea as to what is out there. And of course, a Yahoo or Google search might pick up what Walthers doesn’t carry.
Thanks for the welcome & the search tips. I’ll give it a try on the Walther’s site. I’m also looking for a reasonable facsimile of an engine house kit that I can kitbash into the engine house partially visible in my avatar photo. No luck yet. It’s the engine house of the Aroostook Valley Railroad in Presque Isle, Maine. It was a shortline that operated from 1910-1996 in Northern Maine. Probably going to have to scratchbuild it. I have a few photos of the whole building & can get a good idea of scale dimensions from the 44 tonner parked in front of it. I have an undecorated Bachmann Spectrum 44 Tonner that I’m going to do up as AVR #12, as in the photo. The building itself is still standing & being used now as a truck terminal/maintenence shop. I’m hoping to take the 5 hour drive up there this summer & get some more good, detailed photos of it.
I grew up in Aroostook County, Maine & well remember the Aroostook Valley Railroad & their little 44 tonners shuffling freight cars up & down the valley. I’m primarily building a layout based on the Bangor & Aroostook. The Aroostook Valley Railroad had their yards right alongside the BAR’s mainline in Presque Isle, so I’m incorporating their yards into the layout too.
Yes, we still have a few of those mom & pop roadside “homemade” ice cream stands up here in rural Maine, but they are fast disappearing. Also rapidly vanishing are the independently owned mom & pop type roadside burger stands & drive in eateries. There are still a few, but the chain fast food places have pushed them out. When I was growing up in the 50’s, about the only “chain” fast foods we ever had up here were A & W Rootbeer Drive-ins and Dairy Queens. Everything else was pretty much local owned, mom & pop.
I think the answer to where to find these kits is to consider kitbashing. I rarely build structures without making some kind of modification or just totally re-purposing the kit.
Here are a few suggestions
This one’s a five-and-dime, but with new signage would make a credible grocery store:
So my tip would be to ignore what the box says it is supposed to be and consider if the parts have possibilities for conversion to what you need. With plastic, it’s usually a pretty easy deal to move things around, add on, or cut off things as needed.
This is one area that seems to be a problem for many modelers; a lack of the specific models they want to model, and it reminds me of my days as a drag racer; if there was something we needed, we made it. There are plenty of pictures, plans, etc. of a plethora (ya like that word?) and plenty of modeling materials. I’m going to model our little church. There are NO models that come close, so I’ll be ordering the materials to scratchbuild it.
The City Classics grocery store is one of my favorites:
It’s a simple kit to build. I added my own interior because it has nice, big windows to see through.
A lot of structures are what they are just because of the signs you put on them. DPM’s “Pam’s Pet Shop,” for example, is just a small two-story building with a storefront. It doesn’t even come with signs, so I made mine a train shop. With some signs and perhaps a reconstructed Emergency Room entrance, the DPM “M.T. Arms Hotel” kit could easily be a hospital.
Wow, I didn’t know anyone else knew about the AVR . I know several ex AVR employees and spent a good deal of time “chasing” the AVR right of way. It would be neat to add some trolley cars !!!
I usually do ignore signage & minor kit details and look at any given kit for the kitbashing potential. I recently bought the Walther’s Cornerstone kit if “Bill’s Glass Shop”. With the exception of the signage & the need for a few additional side windows, the building is virtually identical to the offices co-habitated by the Aroostook Valley Railroad and the now defunct Maine Public Service Company.
Thanks for the tip off on the new Walthers Car Dealership kit. That is VERY much like a Chevy/GMC dealership that once stood up in Caribou, Maine back in the 1950’s. Some very minimal kitbashing will do the trick on that one. I’ll be buying one of those when they’re released. I make a lot of my own signage. Making your own signage decals is actually fairly simple. All you need is any good computer printer, some clear-backed decal paper (available through Staples & other office supply stores) and microset decal solution. Properly size your decal image, print it out, treat it with micro-set solution, let it dry a couple hours & you’re good to go!
Hi Randy. Yes, I well remember the AVR. There IS a book on it! It’s called “Aroostook Valley Railroad-History of The Potatoland Interurban in Northern Maine”, by Charles. D. Heseltine and Edwin B. Robertson. Small, paperbound book of 92 pages, lots of photos & a copy of their rolling stock & loco roster. I just recently found & bought a copy on Ebay.
My layout is transition era (mid 1950’s) after the AVR dismantled their overhead electric lines & went all Diesel. But, one of their Brill Trolleys sat on a side spur near the engine house for many years, well into the 50’s, before it went to the Kennebunk Trolley Museum where it now resides. So, eventually I’ll pick up a Brill Trolley (a dummy unti, if I can find one), redo it in AVR markings & put it in the layout.
AVR’s last Caboose, #7, was a wood, 2-window Caboose they had purchased from the CP. Looked for a long time for a DECENT kit or RTR of one. (Don’t like True-Lines version). Finally found on Ebay (and I was the winning bidder) a partially finished all wood kit made many moons ago by Custom Trains of Dartmouth, NS. It’s THE exact Caboose type as AVR’s #7. A man in New Jersey had the kit. The body is all assembled & he did a fabulous job. Need to complete the detail parts, railings, ladders & roof walk. I will do her up as AVR #7.
The real AVR #7 still exists. She’s privately owned & sits in a guy’s back yard up in Blaine, Maine.
I’ve driven past the caboose a few times I think , Is Blaine between Mars Hill and PI ? Last time I saw it the car was for sale and needed paint BADLY. I’m not familier with brill trolleys on the AVR , I know that they had a snowplow that was built from a GE steeplcab electric. I assume you will be doing the interchange at Washburn ?
Blaine is just south of Mars Hill, going towards Houlton on Rt.1. Hope somebody will buy that Caboose & restore it before it rots beyond the point of no return.
We’re still in the early construction stages of the layout. While it’s going to be a pretty large one (20’ x 12’ x 9’ outside dimensions, somewhat “J” shaped), I will have to compress somewhat to get all the elements I want. I will have one fair sized town area, incorporating the AVR yards. Would love to be able to scale all three major towns in the valley, Presque Isle, Caribou and Fort Fairfield, but I’ll have to settle for having one major town on the layout. So, I’m taking a bit of license by incoporating elements from all three towns into the one. I want to leave room for the Aroostook County countryside, the AVR bridge over the Aroostook River & hopefully some representation of the Washburn interchange.
Spent much of my growing up in Fort Fairfield, out on the Center Limestone Road. My family had several Potato Farms out there. My grandfather also had a camp up on Mud Lake, near Sinclair. Going to try to incorporate those elements in the layout too.
You do have a fascinating prototype in the AVR. I vaguely remember a trackplan from 30 or 40 years ago that depicted it and/or the BAR, which I found charming?? Already committed to Colorado NG, so not in my life time, but I think you’ve made an interesting choice.
We’re having fun with it. Fortunately, my wife is also a model railroad enthusiast. She had an HO layout when she was a young girl. We’re both approaching retirement, so we will gradually have more & more time to devote to it. Our main obstacle here is that Maine is now almost totally devoid of Hobby Shops. There were once a bunch of them scattered about the state, but most are gone now. Nearest one in Maine is roughly 90 miles away & they are more into R/C stuff, but do have a train section. There IS one in Intervale, NH about 65-70 miles from here that we are going to ride over to & check out soon. There is a Model Railroading Museum there & they have a full service Model Railroading Shop on site. My wife is a High School Teacher. This Thursday is the last day of school, so once she’s done, we’re going to drive over & see what they have that we can’t live without.
That sounds like Ray & Robins Hobby??? If you go there, you are not far from Maine Modelworks located in Rte 1 in Falmouth. One of the best around, and trains only http://mainemodelworks.com/
Maine Trains in Kezar Falls closed last fall. Train & Trooper is in the process of moving from Phillips to Readfield, about 20 miles from Augusta. OOPs - I just checked his website, and the domain is up for sale - don’t know whats going on there!!
There are a couple of shops located south of Porland, but I have not visited tham.
Highrailer has closed his storefront, and is doing only shows and direct internet sales http://www.highrailer.com/
Add to this the fact that most of us are really short on space especially for non-railroad stuff and you wind up with too little demand for hospitals, etc. Personally, I doubt that I’ll have any of the 4 you listed because of a lack of space.
Kitbashing, parts building, or scratch building appear to be your best options.
I’m in Andover, Maine. Western mountains, northwest of Rumford, northeast of Bethel. I was aware of the one that was once in Phillips, but wasn’t sure what happened there either. Maine Trains is still selling online, but according to the website is selling out of self storage bins somewhere down in Massachusetts. Haven’t been down to Maine Modelworks yet, but I understand it is good. That’s a good 90 miles south of us here.
There was once a Hobby Shop in Lewiston (can’t remember the name of it now), but it was fair. Also used to be one in downtown Bath that was okay, but it’s gone now too. A small one once in Rumford that had very limited stock, but it closed a few years back.
Oh, for the days of Woolworth’s! Back in the 60’s-70’s, a lot of the Woolworth stores had surprisingly good & well stocked hobby departments, especially for trains. In the last few years Maine has become a LHS wasteland.
