i’m ready to start purchasing structures for my layout. ho southern pacific era early 50 to late 60. two mainline routes, passenger station, yard, turntable and loco facilities. i like the walthers interlocking tower builtup and cant find what color towers were most used. cream and green or yellow and brown. i remember seeing some at the englewood yard in houston tx in the early to late 60’s but my fading memory believes they were white stucco/cinder block appearing?
or; should i go with what ever color suits me. it is my railroad. prototype perfect is not necessary.
looking for suggestions and maybe pics of your if any. all input would be appreciated.
thanks,
michael
like the ‘built up’ version. will save me time to get the rest of the layout finished sooner. 4 heart attacks, lower back disc problems and prostate cancer get in the way. i want to get as much done as i can as quickly and with as much ease as i can. have several not so good days and bad days.
My old unreliable memory, growing up in the Houston area in the 1950s, was that Southern Pacific FRAME buildings were frequently yellow and brown. Concrete block of course would be another matter.
If you aren’t sticking to a prototype then I would pick the color that is the most pleasing to your eye. They also make a two-tone gray:
And…it looks like Walthers is having a sale on them, too. (Although in appears that they only have the yellow and brown in stock)
Michael, if you don’t end up ordering it from Walthers directly, be sure to check with your LHS. Although they don’t have to, many times dealers will honor the Walthers sale price - even if their own price is more.
Generally in that period a railroad would paint all it’s wood buildings in the same color scheme. If you’re modelling the SP you need to find out which colors they used during the time you’re modelling. If it’s one of the three paintschemes that Walthers offers you’re in luck; otherwise you’ll need to buy a kit version and paint it yourself.
How easy is it to detail the interiors of the built up interlocking towers? I’m thinking about getting one for my layout, but I’d like to put an interior in it so that I can light it up for nighttime operations.
I kitbashed one to be a Big Four tower with the steel angle legs and all. It is a real nice kit, and I did include a full interior and train order signals on the front. I snaked the wires down through the chimney in the back and use a toggle switch on the layout fascia to turn on the dwarf signals I mounted on the tower. The Walthers catalog has an interior for interlocking towers. It is for europian models. It has enough parts to do two or three towers and includes desks, chairs, map board and the lever plant. The lever plant looks like no american prototype I have ever seen, and I have seen several up close and personal. It is relativly inexpensive. There was a thread about this interior. It includes page number, part number and manufacturer. Search for interlocking tower interior on this site and you will probably find it.
