In the top one, I wanted to get some real height to my city area. Except for the REA building on the left, the other ones are all about an inch thick. The two apartment buildings are attached to the rear of the green building and are just carved out of pine boards. The windows are Lionel. They are from accessories and were very cheap to buy, even in large volume ( a necessity ). The line of laundry just seemed like the thing to do.
In the one on the right , below, I wanted to do some stone structures. I made a mold (really just a box) , poured plaster in it and added real stones. Some grey paint mixed in with the plaster. The other 3 walls are just thin plywood. (the sign says "Buddy's Place. Jazz nightly." after the famous drummer Buddy Rich )
The Lionel Trains sign on top of the Madison Hardware came from Miller Engineering and flashes. I love lights so the Miller Engineering products are a favorite - I have about 8 or them.
The left most, derelict building is carved from pine board. The Wet Paint sign was thinned out and worked into the crevices in the Sellios manner.
Like alot of people, I was fascinated by the 1949 Lionel Showroom layout as the photos appeared in the Lionel paperback books Model Railroading published by Bantam in the 50s and 60s.
One of my favorites was the Swifty Meat Packing Co on a sweeping curve in the corner of the layout. I believe it was based on a building by Frank Ellison on the Delta Lines. The book conveniently provided all the dimensions, so building my own copy was a pretty reasonable task (page 214 of the 6th edition, for example). Except for the windows, it is all scratch built.
John
