Building Wishlist

My add-on to this would be a neat packing plant, with a separate companion stock pen.

If they did any of those as a building flat with a nice dock the correct height for a boxcar I would be in.

Looks like a great scratch builder's to-do list!!

Of course, the easy way out is to take a commercial pre-built and slap some new labels/overlays on the building sides and/or rooftops.  As an example, Morrison Doors or a Tide soap facility can become a Sherwin Williams paint facility with new signage, and maybe a couple/few adjacent vertical tanks and mock feed pipes,

Another low budget, no time, tepid/trepid skills confidence approach is to do as some professional architects.  Make some mock-ups using foam core board, decorate with colored pens/pencils, photographic cutouts.     This is often an especially handy approach if your building site has limitations or irregularities that require something besides a 4-wall rectilinear facility. 

Look at the availability of kits/pre-builts in other (read: more popular) scales...like HO.  They may have something that can be replicated in 1:48. 

Here's a good reason to look through some old, say...pre-1950's...hobby publications.   Back then there were NO pre-built (or few kit-form) structures of any sort.  How-To-Build articles used common materials, developed basic skills, often gave amazingly realistic results.  Frank Ellison...the Delta LInes...was one of several masters of this approach for new structures/industries for the layout.

Then, of course, there's the custom builders route.  Lots of professional talent out there in this area.  It probably ain't cheap, though.  I wouldn't know...never asked...haven't heard.   My cardiologist would prefer I keep away from further revelations of this sort.  Which leads me to...

Besides, just how long are we willing to wait for someone else to commercialize what we want??  Tempus fugit!  When 'yours truly' stands at the brink of octogenarianship, I've all but given up on this sort of waiting game.  (My last...and probably final...appeal to manufacturers in this wish-list approach was 3rd Rail's production of the early ATSF/B&O E-class diesels!  As Gomer Pyle exclaimed, "Surprise, surprise!!!)

Just some random thoughts...FWIW.

KD

@dkdkrd posted:

Besides, just how long are we willing to wait for someone else to commercialize what we want??  Tempus fugit!  When 'yours truly' stands at the brink of octogenarianship,

All good thoughts and ideas, but this particular one stands out. Wait no more and DIY whatever it is to get what you want now!

Duplex company house.

Many company towns had duplex houses (and duplex outhouses).

I'd settle for a laser wood kit since wood kits are so relaxing to build and laser cut makes it easy for those of us with two thumbs to make something that looks professional.

Then again RTR makes it easy to build a village quickly.

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to pop in to let you know I was reading your suggestions. Keep them coming!

I love seeing all the great ideas! Feel free to post photos or anything you'd like to see made.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

- Mark the Menards Train Guy

A paper mill. I have seen them done in other scales, but not O Scale. It could be similar to buildings that Menards has offered in the past: the Pepsi bottling plant, the American Power & Light and the National Power & Light plants.

- Nate

A WWII-era barracks building. Many of us have military-themed layouts and/or items which likely include Menard's military vehicles and Quonset huts. 1940s style barracks are unique, were in every post imaginable, and would certainly complement a military collection. Besides, it would be a pleasant (ahem) reminder to all who spent time cleaning, scrubbing, waxing, and fire guarding these structures.

Failing that, some steam service facilities would be nice: service platforms, ash hoists, and maybe a Milwaukee style sand tower - the square one.

I would like to see a modern era gas station with multiple pumps under a canopy and a convenience store.

@Jim Brenner posted:

A WWII-era barracks building. Many of us have military-themed layouts and/or items which likely include Menard's military vehicles and Quonset huts. 1940s style barracks are unique, were in every post imaginable, and would certainly complement a military collection. Besides, it would be a pleasant (ahem) reminder to all who spent time cleaning, scrubbing, waxing, and fire guarding these structures. ...snip...

And if "you" do; please, please make it proper 1/48 scale. Not down-sized like some Plasticville buildings.

Even the Navy had them, I was in one at NAS Memphis for training so they should appeal to almost anyone who served; at least through the Vietnam era.

How about a creamery (w/ ice house) or a dairy to go with all those milk cars (refers) running on so many layouts?  How about both for pick-ups and deliveries? 

I don't care what it is,  but the structure needs to be either brick or steel siding faced.  Too many buildings in O SCALE are wooded or clapboard,  from the early 1900's.  Since the 1920's or so commercial buildings were required to be built of brick or some other fireproof construction. You look at present building kits  from a general store to a mine or roundhouse and the majority have a wood siding on them.

@Menards @Jim Brenner @PRRMP54

Here's a prototype for a WW II to 1970s style wooden military barracks.  This one was used as a recruit barracks at the 3704th Basic Military Training Squadron, Lackland AFB, TX.  (3704 BMTS) (I didn't get to stay in one of these barracks; I was in the 3704 BMTS 1,000 man Recruit Housing and Training (RH&T) dormitory.)

As a young airman with only two stripes on my sleeve, I worked in a nearly identical building at the 1st Transportation Squadron, Langley AFB, VA in 1977 and 1978 that had been converted from a barracks to an office building.  One of the 1 TRS building's reminders of its origins was the large latrine on each floor with multiple commodes and showers.

Menards could conceivable offer two versions of this building, one as a barracks with an appropriately scaled and furnished interior and one as an office building with appropriately scaled interior and furnishings.  (In the case of the 1 TRS building, the entrance was on the side of the building because the latrines were on one end of the building a fire stairs at the other.)

I hope this info is helpful.

Here is a link to some very interesting photos of those barracks:

https://armybarracks.army/2020...1/old-army-barracks/

The first row of photos, the barracks on the right is just like the one I was in at NATTC, Memphis. Note the awning-style "roof" that shades the first floor windows, we had that style at Memphis.

There were still a few at Fort Meade when I worked there as a civilian that were still in service as offices around 1975 > 1977. At the time, when I worked in the base drafting office and ran the ozalid machine making copies of drawings, I remember finding drawings for these barracks buildings and making a set of blue-line prints for myself; this was back around 1976 or so. The prints have long since submerged into the morass that my files became!

Barracks like those in the pictures above were in use until at least the late the 90's. ROTC cadets at summer camp at Fort Bragg (1992) and Fort Lewis (1999) were quartered in them. We were put up in them upon returning from Bosnia in 1996.  In addition to the barracks, each company/battery area had a single-story orderly room, and each battalion area (I think) had a chapel. Fort Benning's Museum has a representative cantonment area as part of its display - pictured above.

With the computer, 3D printers and all the new products that are out there I'm sure you can create any building you need or want. I prefer scratch building from photos or plans and all my buildings are custom to fit the space that I have available. I use Poly-styrene and Precision Board for most of my buildings and the computer is a great sign maker.

My suggestion would be smaller one-story early 20th century Craftsman-architectural style houses.  There were a lot of those found all over the mid-west and Plains states and there are still a fair number of those around in small towns and small towns now engulfed by suburbia.  An alternate suggestion would be one of the smaller Sears catalog houses, like the sorts our forebears were able to order from their Sears catalogs.

Off-topic, I once thought about sending you all pictures of the real-life Menardville, Texas railroad station, located on a long-abandoned Santa Fe branch, except that the catalog Menard station is much nicer looking.

I second the Generic/made up tool/die factory (Threading, Machining, Fabricating,) and the flat with a dock.

Rare O-scale, building kits, from Walthers, (Cornerstone).  Krazy Ken's Kar Town.  Brook Hill Farm Dairy.  Both are brick.   OGR has some very good brick detail building and store fronts.   Check the OGR Web store top of this page.   Have fun, Mike CT.   

Jared,

Scratch-building is a lot easier than you might think.  Start small and give it a try.  You might really like it.

And it gives you exactly the building you want.

George

I agree that scratchbuilding is probably the right way to go for more skilled modelers seeking to place out-of-the ordinary on their home layouts, but for newbies and for those of us who want structures that can handle the rough treatment set-ups and tear-downs that modular, portable, and other temporary layouts go through, nice plastic buildings have their positive points.

I like Menard's buildings.  I think they're eye-catching, clever, and often different from what W___ and L___ are offering.  I only have a couple in my collection but that's not because I don't like Menard's buildings, but because my collecting is set for scenes set in the 1935 to 1952 era and much of what Menard's offers is too modern for me.

But then again, I'm probably an outlier not a more typical O scaler.

I am glad to see Menards is monitoring this topic. Note that the York Hotel was one of their best city buildings, and the prices on e-bay for even used hotels is ridiculously high. Those sales alone show how desperate some O-gaugers are for ready to run buildings. Personally, I prefer buildings like the York hotel, anything that could've been seen in the 1930s. The best Menards buildings were the very early structures that were made out of wood...I can think of 3-4 but I cannot recall their names.

In my area, there are or were lots of early American log homes -- they usually had two stories and multiple rooms as opposed to log cabins which were usually single story with only one or two rooms.  Many of these houses had siding added later and wouldn't be recognizable as a log house from the outside.  Some examples in my area include the McCully Log House, which was originally built and owned by either one of my 5th great-grandfathers or 4th great-granduncles (they had the same name, so there is some uncertainty as to which one is the right one), and the Staymates Cabin (which is really a house), which was not far from my grandparents and may have been built and owned by distant cousins.  These homes can be found all around the Eastern and Midwestern states and especially in the Appalachians.

Houses like these would be ideal as old farm houses, or preserved historic houses, and they could be offered in both exposed log exteriors and with siding exteriors.  In addition, they could be offered with or without porches, or with a detachable porch included to make them more user-configurable.

Andy

This building is cardstock (photo paper) on a balsa wood frame/shell.  I created depth with multiple thicknesses of cardstock.  You can create buildings with your favorite graphic software package.  I use Microsoft Word.

Some more customized buildings.  The White Castle is a cardstock building with signage off of the web.  The Plasticville post office and 5 & 10 cent store are building fronts with customized signage.

Plasticville Post Office with customized signage.  The cornerstone is based on a building built by the WPA in the 1930s with some whimsy.

I'd like to see commercial strip buildings that are era correct for the period from 1910 to date.  In a commercial strip today you'd see buildings of various vintages:

1. 1910 - 1930 commercial buildings in original condition.
2. 1910 - 1930 commercial buildings modernized between 1950 and 1980.
3. Buildings built between 1945 and 1980.
4. Buildings built after 1980 (the style differs subtly from 1945 - 1980 construction).
5. Fast food restaurants or bank branches on former gas station lots.

@Pat Shediack posted:

@Menards @Jim Brenner @PRRMP54

Here's a prototype for a WW II to 1970s style wooden military barracks.  This one was used as a recruit barracks at the 3704th Basic Military Training Squadron, Lackland AFB, TX.  (3704 BMTS) (I didn't get to stay in one of these barracks; I was in the 3704 BMTS 1,000 man Recruit Housing and Training (RH&T) dormitory.)

As a young airman with only two stripes on my sleeve, I worked in a nearly identical building at the 1st Transportation Squadron, Langley AFB, VA in 1977 and 1978 that had been converted from a barracks to an office building.  One of the 1 TRS building's reminders of its origins was the large latrine on each floor with multiple commodes and showers.

Menards could conceivable offer two versions of this building, one as a barracks with an appropriately scaled and furnished interior and one as an office building with appropriately scaled interior and furnishings.  (In the case of the 1 TRS building, the entrance was on the side of the building because the latrines were on one end of the building a fire stairs at the other.)

I hope this info is helpful.

My mom's cousin's bought two similar to this but single story from Kelly AFB in San Antonio and moved them down to Inez, TX. and built their house with them.

I'd like to see the Texaco station made into a Mobil station, an in n out burger, a steel mill. Also 0-80 curved track.

@Mister_Lee posted:

My suggestion would be smaller one-story early 20th century Craftsman-architectural style houses.  There were a lot of those found all over the mid-west and Plains states and there are still a fair number of those around in small towns and small towns now engulfed by suburbia.  An alternate suggestion would be one of the smaller Sears catalog houses, like the sorts our forebears were able to order from their Sears catalogs.

I second this.  A Sears Craftsman house (kit delivered by boxcar) would be great.  Bachmann made one in styrene in HO in the 80s.

Bob

@Paul Kallus posted:

I am glad to see Menards is monitoring this topic. Note that the York Hotel was one of their best city buildings, and the prices on e-bay for even used hotels is ridiculously high. Those sales alone show how desperate some O-gaugers are for ready to run buildings. Personally, I prefer buildings like the York hotel, anything that could've been seen in the 1930s. The best Menards buildings were the very early structures that were made out of wood...I can think of 3-4 but I cannot recall their names.

Really, any tall city building that won't break the bank would be welcome.  I think I paid around $120 new.  A quality 8-10 story building would sell well today in the $150-200 range.

Bob

@GAN Railroad posted:

I'd like to see the Texaco station made into a Mobil station, an in n out burger, a steel mill. Also 0-80 curved track.

I scratch built an ESSO station and turned it into a TECACO station because I had a TEXACO truck.

@cbq9911a posted:

I'd like to see commercial strip buildings that are era correct for the period from 1910 to date.  In a commercial strip today you'd see buildings of various vintages:

1. 1910 - 1930 commercial buildings in original condition.
2. 1910 - 1930 commercial buildings modernized between 1950 and 1980.
3. Buildings built between 1945 and 1980.
4. Buildings built after 1980 (the style differs subtly from 1945 - 1980 construction).
5. Fast food restaurants or bank branches on former gas station lots.

Most of these buildings were built 1900 t0 1940, I copied them from photos of the original buildings.

This is actually where I used to work in my small town. Originally called Landis Machine Company. The oldest building which is seen in the first photo next to the street just had the windows replaced. This was where my department was located. It was built in 1902. At one point there were 4 tracks that crossed here. Rail service ceased in the 80s. At its height over 700 employees. Currently around 90. I digress.

I used Google Earth so it should be free from any copyright issues. Let me know if it's not, and I can take real pictures. I know it's a big complex, but at least people could take ideas from it.

This part was still being used despite the broken out windows.

Employee entrance with guard shack and overhead walkway. Note the Fallout Shelter sign.

This is on the other side of town. Abandonded Wayne Tool Company building. Note the angled skylights.

Few other buildings in my area.

Im hoping Brennan will come out with another tribute to Ellison kit.

I see a few people commenting on wanting a barracks, which looks similar in size to another building I've designed and laser cut but that would be around 140 mm high by 300 mm wide as a guess to match the photos.  Would that be too large for your plans?