Trailer Parks?

Here's the one on my old layout. Don

Wow, that's nice.  More upscale that I am planning.  Nice pool.  Clean, well cared for trailers.  Sober people!  I lke the circus train, too!

Had family live in a "Mobile Home Park" in Cali., they were far more regulated and clean than what you find in the Midwest and further east. lol.

Good idea Lee, Keep in mind one of the Airstream trailers like brooklin has in one of its models.

Lee, most of these trailers are just simple Plasticville that I lit and weathered. Also I put real wheels on them. I made the pool and lit it also. I put string lights around for the look of a summer night. Don

MTH makes a nice line of trailers in a few colors.  More to scale than plasticville, but I love the plasticville pastel colors.  Older plasticville sets come with 48 star flags on the flagpole!

LEE looks good.  Make sure you get a few old washers and dryers laying around along with a big satellite dish or two.  Also a few bails of hay for backstops for bow and arrow shooting, or maybe a deer target.  A few old wrecks that are rusted, beer cans squashed on ground by cars, a few cords of wood, old sofas next to a horseshoe pit.  Top it off with some bar b ques outside and lots o laundry poles and lines and you got a great trailer park. Don't forget a dog pen or two, along with some 90 gal. rusted propane tanks for trailer heat.

laz57

I am planning a 'park' for my layout......I have two sets of the Plasticville kits I plan to modify. Also there was an article in one of the G scale mags about making a trailer home from solid wood...and it looked pretty easy. My want to try and find that.

As much as you build and kitbash....should be easy!

Hmmm....I  will have to build a "Hooverville", for my era....a bunch of shacks with

rusted out "Grapes of Wrath" vintage cars around.  However, from the looks of your N scale effort, it doesn't look like you will need to take lessons to get a trailer park right...(I hadn't thought about providing a Hooverville station...)

When I built a trailer park for one of my modules I made it very upscale. Trailers pristine. Mercedes, Bentleys, Continentals, etc. by each. Swimming pool and playground. It got a lot of smiles, and even one "Thanks".

Jerry

THA#13-0001

Lee;

There is a set of Plasticville trailers in a To be Finished Later Park on my layout.

Might be me but I like the size of the plasticville trailers better than the MTH ones.

Perhaps my sense of scale is off. Then again, the trailer park is in a back corner on the layout, perspective works.

Lee,

You could take some pictures from various angles of the local trailer parks, then dump them to your computer. Set the scale by the windows and doors, then print them out on bristle board. Cut them out, making sure to leave glueing tabs, glue them together with a bit of painted and weatherd styrene or bristle board for a roof, and bingo, instant trailer park. Paper clips can be turned into TV antenna very quickly.

Or you could just leave it empty and say a tornado just blew through it.

I just looked at www.diecastdirect.com under "camper trailer" and they list Motor Max trailers for $6.95 and under Brooklin there are some too. I recall K-line had autos with trailers. You could also convert a old school bus into a motor home. New Ray may have made one too. And Miller Engineering has a very nice "Trailer Park" sign. Artista makes a girl w/bucket to wash the car. Nice video!!

I am looking forward to seeing your project....I need ideas myself.

Paul Goodness

Then there is the old joke from where I grew up: Q: Why is a tornado like a divorce in east Texas?  A: Either way, someone is going to lose a house trailer.

You should be able to find a few ideas here: http://missouritrailertrash.com/

Small layout - small trailer park. I have two MTH mobile homes in mine. It is Mike's retirement village.

Yep, I got a little slice o' heaven on my layout. Small trailer park with a BBQ joint and a sporting good store right close by! And a church up the street.

The trailers are kitbashed Plasticville units. Since my layout is in the 50's everything's still pretty nice looking.

We're havin' more fun than a tornado in a trailer park!! 

Aren't you guys afraid of attracting tornadoes? You know they hunt trailers.

Actually, there was an N-track module with a trashed trailer park. You guessed it -- there was a dark cloud above with a tornado that would come down and run right through the park. Complete with lightning and sound effects.

The Ace trailer park circa 1984. The trailer is a 1958 Roadmaster, 8x40 park model. 1:1 scale.

I set it up on railroad ties.

I especially like the conveniently located fridge...you can just grab a beer on the way back from the can....cool

My low class trailer park.

Somewhat on the subject..Does anyone make retro Airstream Trailer?

That would be cool.

Lee,

I could see you making a rig like this ( if available) being towed on your Superstreet  highway..always reminded me of a Zeppelin on two wheels.  Maybe put Lucy and Desi in the front seat of a vintage convertible. In terms of a trailer park, a fenced in dumpster, a green swimming pool with floating beer cans, and a el rancho office with a blinking vacancy sign would add some offbeat pizzazz...

Thanks everyone.  I started making two 1950s style mobile homes today - 45 and 50 feet long respectively - scratch.  A lot of fun so far.  I will make them and at least one other scratch (the third using another build technique, then with two trailers made/bashed out of the three Bachmann kit trailers I have, and an airstream and a small caravan I picked up somewhere,  and the one MTH, I'll have a pretty good basis for my trailer park.  

That "Missouri trailer trash" website that Southern Mike posted a link to is a source of great inspiration for this project, by the way.  

That brings back memories. I used to live in the same town in Ohio where the Airstream trailers were/are made.

They're too classy for your average trailer park. More suited to an upscale "Mobile Estates" type of location. 

A Hallmark ornament from 2007:

There's a big difference between a real "trailer park" and those campgrounds that cater to the fancy rigs.

A trailer park has those bigger, semi-permanent jobs with the tires on the roof to reduce wind noise. I spent ten very interesting, but happy, years in a true "trailer park". 

Jim

SouthernMike, very funny sight www.missouritrailertrash.com !!! Especially the "miscelanious" photos. I died laughing.

Electroliner, there are 1/48 Airstream resin castings (no wheels or hitch) for $15.00 on the bay under "toys & hobbies" "airstream". I just ordered one.

Jim, see above re Airstream. The castings are similar but easier to find I think. But that Hallmark ornamint IS very nice & complete.

Paul Goodness

Glad you guys liked it. My favorite is the one on the side of a hill with the 20 or so concrete blocks under it. That would look great on a layout.

I bought 2 of these when they came out. Perfect size behind a 1:43 car (with awning retracted) or parked with awning extended.

Besides the resin Airstream body I have ordered a couple other items. It appears that Hallmark put out three different travel trailers: 1988 "Travels with Santa", 2007 the Airstream, and in 2012 "Happy Campers". I just recieved the Happy Campers and it is nice. Looks somewhat like a Shasta Astrodome Trailer.

When the others arive I'll let you know what I think of them. Still have to get the 2007 Airstream, but they are rather expensive!

Paul Goodness

Lee, here's some ideas to help you out. Wish Miller made a trailer neon. Don

Thanks!  I like the pictures, and I will consider them.  Hope to post pictures of four or five more trailers tomorrow - made a lot of progress today.

BUT - I LOVE Trailer Tramp!  Five minutes on Google found it at a used bookstore and it will be here in a week or so.  Exactly the same cover as you posted.  I love it.  

Thanks . . . 

Don, those photos make trailer park life look positively glamorous. Well, all but the last one. 

I think I dated her once.........or twice. Thought you might like that cover. Don

If you have not seen "Long, Long Trailer" it's a wonderful movie. http://youtu.be/7mZ7luId66M

Don

Actually, Ace, that's a very enjoyable little scene you had there, to me atleast. I just learned (the details) from it, and happily so.

Every time I've crafted multi-trailer scenes, over the years, they have sold almost immediately. But that view of one trailer standing alone, complete w/ its side details is real (pun intended) interesting. Thanks!

And LeeWillis, you're right, craftig such scenes is an interesting endeavor, one I have always enjoyed immensely. I suppose impressions of such places have been absorbed by our imaginations, only to surface years later on model trian layouts. Cool.

Murph

Lee, if you have a girls Lionel set this would go well with it. Don