I’m looking to build a farm impliment dealership on my HO layout, but space is at a premium. I’ve looked at photos of the 50s dealerships to get ideas. Has anyone ever made one on thier layout- how did it turn out, what would you do different, etc? I’m going to be placing it near a back drop and I’m trying to think of a way to make the dealership look bigger with the back drop.
Thanks
Back in the 50s, tractor dealerships were far more modest affairs for the most part. Many might be just a storefront, with the shop out back or next door. Signage might be stand-alone, but just as or more likely simply an enameled plaque to hang on an outside wall. There probably wouldn’t be more than one or two tractors on display, maybe a combine (they were tiny compared to today’s, as in two- or three-row corn heads, etc) but lots of implements. There might be some sort of flatbed truck for bringing basket cases in from the field.
Tractor dealerships often were combined with other farm needs. One I know of handled coal and grain as well as implements, all brought in by rail. Another one I can think of had a large field right behind it, as I think the dealership grew out of the farm next door. Another one was right next to the creamery, not sure if they were connected or not.
Just a couple of thoughts.
Have fun,
Richard
I’ll let you know how it turns out, but the one I will be modeling was in Coloma WI, it was associated with the Dodge dealership and the Feed Mill. The Feed Mill had extra space and a large loading dock that had an obvious ramp added for the few that they would get by railroad, with two or three sitting off the end of the ramp. The dealership across the street had the tradition 1930’s Dodge signage with a John Deere sign in the lower left hand corner of the window, and the Feed Mill was decked out as the obvious front end for the John Deere dealership.
Richard and Trynn_Allen,
Excellent point on how a tractor dealership may fit into a larger business plan that can be quite eclectic.
I have a flat car with three International Harvester tractors on it. It is delivered to the Team Track in town, where it is assumed the tractors are off-loaded and driven to the dealership.
Good morning
Here is my humble attemp and a farm and home supply store.
The scratch built shed is for off loading coal and bagged dry products, cement etc.
The old box car is additional storage. We have sand an gravel as well as propane and anhydrous ammonia (fertilizer). I turned the reversing loop into a commercial district.
These pics might trigger a thought or two.
Have a good day.
Lee
If you want to be prototypical keep this in mind. Tractor dealerships specialize in the agricultural mix they serve. That is you’ll see orchard tractors in Fl, CA and more combines in IA.
Richard
Nice work, Lee![tup]
Thanks much, this was a couple years ago.
Lee
Walthers State Line Farm Supply 933-2912 or Import Motors 933-4023 make a good kit to start with.
I grew up around a John Deere dealership in a small town in upstate New York. Every now and then they’d get in a new shipment of tractors, or balers or some other hay equipment. Once in a while they’d get in a boxcar load of parts. These shipments were few and quite sporadic. Most of the inventory they had shipped in by truck, even in the 50’s and 60’s. The structure consisted of a shop and a combined office/retail area. There was also another adjoining building that was a small warehouse for parts. in front of the parts building, (which had only one window, as I recall), there was a loading dock (earthen with timbers along the front where the trucks backed up to), where they would bring in the tractors and dozers for repair. They did quite a tractor/dozer repair business, as well as sales of new tractors, dozers and other farm equipment. The tracks were on the back side of the buildings. They were also a Sunoco station.
The town I grew up in had a tractor dealership that also sold trucks, GMC and International. My buddy’s dad bought a Cub Cadet lawn tractor there when they moved out to the country as the farms were being turned into housing developments.
The dealership is still there, but now it sells Kubota tractors to the lawn and garden maintenance companies, and the truck franchises are gone.
Here it is on google maps: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Doylestown,+PA/@40.3272664,-75.1277161,199m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c6a813fc65777f:0x33be38988a8c48b3
The building looks the same, just the inventory has changed.
Eric
Thanks for all of the replies. There are some great ideas there. I’m wondering what I would have to use to make something like this http://images.wisconsinhistory.org/700003050116/0305002034-l.jpg Obviously some sort of kit bashing (hopefully). Got any ideas on what types of buildings I could mash together to make something like this?
Sorry if I’m being a PITA.
Thanks
Dale,
That’s pretty spiffy looking for an IH dealership. They usually look like the horses were just retired last week…[;)]
Just kidding. I can’t think of any kits right off hand, but maybe a kit for a fast food joint or something similarly shiny looking could be found. Other than that, I think Plastruct is a good place to start.
Walthers makes an International (Semi-Truck) dealership that could just as easily be a tractor dealership. It’s kit 433-4025:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-4025
Personally I would love a CAT Dealership on my layout but I can’t seem to locate any modern CAT equipment in N Scale…
Good luck and happy modeling!
Don.
Doesn’t look like any tractor dealer I recall, esp from when I was a kid. A quanset hut would make a pretty good representation of of several near where I grew up. One other thought is the type of dealer for the area. It seems beck then that certain brands were bigger in some regions than others. Where I grew up, Ford, Farmall, and Massey seemed the big brands. With IH, Allis Chalmers, White, Oliver as the smaller quantities. John Deeres were few and far between.
Daniel! You are not being a pain in the behind. This is where you ask exactly the sort of question that you are asking.
I am going to assume HO scale. I just spent the better part of an hour looking through Walthers HO structures (all 4029 of them) and there doesn’t seem to be anything that captures the flavour of your dealership. However, I do see the dealership as a fairly easy scratchbuild, not that I would suggest attempting it as your first scratchbuilding project.
The building in the picture is not small by any means. However, you can scale it to fit your available space and still get the effect, or maybe leave off the back shop and just model the showroom and a bit of the lot.
Here is a suggested list of materials:
The dominant feature is the red tower with square cladding. That could be easily replicated using Evergreen Scale Models sidewalk sheets:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/269-4517
or tile sheets
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/269-4061
Sorry, they don’t show a picture but the sheets have 3/8" x 3/8" squares with V grooves in between. They could be used for the tower as well as the rear side walls where the large door is shown.
The front side walls look like some sort of horizontal cladding, perhaps like this:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/269-4061
The large windows can be made up using .060" square styrene stock (or there abouts), and clear styrene sheet:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/269-9006
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/269-8606
The roof and rear walls can be made from plain .060" styrene
That’s actually not a bad find. The front part could be backdated, in fact looks like one from the 60s we have locally. The signage is all recent, new image International, and not IH. But that’s no big deal. Simplify the alos very modern entry and the rest ain’t too bad up front. The building in back looks too modern in detail, as if it was added when the front entrance was updated. So the kit has possibilities, if you’re willing to bash a little and live within its architectural theme.
Otherwise, it’s a big scratchbuild project, but that should yield good results.
Thanks guys. Lots of great info. to get my mind going- just what I needed.
