Plasticville & Nostalgia

Arnold - your posts are the best! I didn't realize you had two ball parks on your layout!

You're correct - Plasticville structures are great and for me evoke some fond memories.

Here's a couple you didn't include in your photos.

Very nice, Don. I do not remember seeing the radio station before, which is very cool (especially the way you nestled it between the trees), as is the manufacturing company with the loading dock.

Here is the Church on my layout (I had broken and lost the cross so I made a new one out of plastic flashing from another model):

This Plasticville Church looks a lot like the Presbyterian Church my wife and I attend, which is very near where we live.

Another classic is the Barn, already on my layout:

It is very appealing to me to get the complete versions of these models with all their details. IMO, the details, like the antenna on the chimney of the Split Level Home, have a lot of charm. Arnold

Arnold,

You sure brought back some wonderful memories. Although I modeled in HO back in the 50s and 60s, my layouts always featured Plasticville. I remember hand painting the fruit and vegetable baskets for the roadside stand. When I jumped into O gauge with my young sons in the 70s , Plasticville was still the easiest way to bring our trains to life.  The first ones that we added to our layout were O versions of the HO models that I had when I was a lad.  I still have a few on my layout today.  Thanks for the great post.   

Earl     

So glad, Earl, that you are enjoying this thread.

Another thing that I particularly appreciated this evening is how the Plasticville snaps together so the pieces usually do not need to be glued. At times, it was a little challenging; there was a need to be firm but not force anything too much for fear of breaking the little pieces of plastic on the edges that hold the structure together. However, this evening I was able to fit everything together by being firm, careful and persistent, and without the need for a drop of glue.

While l had P-ville on my childhood layout, l have been impressed by some of the bashed of it, and really like the bashed coaling tower l did, as the several different 200 ton coaling tower kits l tracked down were too big for a jerkwater short line.  But some P-ville bashes displayed on here have been works of art .  I did a number of wild and whimsical bashes of the P-ville RR station, but decided not to use them... although the scale stations eat a lot more room.  Plasticville can still be put to very good use....

I like both bashed and pristine Plasticville. By bashing it, one can make it more realistic, but I also like keeping it in its original condition, which is more toy-like. I particularly love those pieces with all the original fine detail.

One possibility I am considering is using chalk dust to temporarily weathering it to remove the shininess when putting it on the layout, then wiping off the chalk dust when removing it and putting it around the Christmas tree.

Would love to see more Plasticville you folks have, and know about the nostalgia they trigger in you and why.  Arnold

I will share a little nostalgia.

Here is the Split Level Home again:

My Aunt Ruth lived with her family (my Uncle Bill and 3 cousins) in a gorgeous sprawling split level home in Pennington, NJ. I spent a good portion of my summer vacations there when I was growing up, and I was treated like a prince there. This split level model reminds me of Aunt Ruth's Pennington, NJ home.

Incidentally, Aunt Ruth may have given me my original Plasticville Split Level home as a Christmas gift, together with the many Lionel trains and accessories she gave me as Christmas gifts. She loved Lionel trains, and helped my cousin Billy with his gorgeous Lionel train layout in the basement, including making the mountain and tunnel on it.

In my new "retro" layout (all 40's - 50's power and trains), the farm scene cried out for Plasticville buildings.

Peter, can we see more of that "retro" layout?

Doug

This is a few shots and overview of my current 5x9 foot layout, with mostly Plasticville buildings. While this part is “retro”, with O-27 track (but O-42 curves and switches, I’ll be expanding with a 5x10 foot addition with Gargraves track, and Ross switches. Plasticville will still have a home there, with the under-construction modified coaling tower and future pieces.

@Artie-DL&W posted:

This is a few shots and overview of my current 5x9 foot layout, with mostly Plasticville buildings. While this part is “retro”, with O-27 track (but O-42 curves and switches, I’ll be expanding with a 5x10 foot addition with Gargraves track, and Ross switches. Plasticville will still have a home there, with the under-construction modified coaling tower and future pieces.

Very nice, Artie, thanks for sharing.

Most of the buildings on Warrenville are O/S gauge Plasticville and Plasticville type buildings such as Littletown and Marx/K-line.

Some original, some bashed and some painted. Even though many are small for O, they present well and, with their small footprints, a lot can fit on a layout.

As a youngin' I remember having the Motel, Frostybar, Bungalow, Barn, church and crossing gates.

I fondly remember painting Plasticville people with my mom when I was around 6 years old - the only train related thing she ever did with me

My layout has about 70 Plasticville structures on it, along with similar buildings from Marx / K-Line. I have more in boxes. I grew up with PVille; it was on my original layout, and I wanted to recreate that 50s vibe, but larger. I love the stuff.

John, your post reminds me what a great time I had painting little people 25 years ago with my then 9 year old and 7 year old son.

Those unpainted little people were plastic but may not have been Plasticville. There must have hundreds of little people parts (heads, arms, legs, bodies) connected to plastic flashing in a bag. We painted quite a few and many of them are now sitting in the bleachers in my baseball parks, but I still have many of these unpainted body parts left in the bag.

Speaking of the bag of body parts, my 7 year old son liked putting those body parts along the railroad tracks showing that there were some unfortunate ones who didn't make it when they tried to cross the tracks. LOL, Arnold

@jay jay posted:

My layout has about 70 Plasticville structures on it, along with similar buildings from Marx / K-Line. I have more in boxes. I grew up with PVille; it was on my original layout, and I wanted to recreate that 50s vibe, but larger. I love the stuff.

Jay Jay, I was hoping there was someone on the Forum, like you, who has many, maybe all, of the Plasticville structures. I see you have refrained from weathering them, and instead opted to keep them all in their original pristine condition with all their charming detail. It looks like you have every little chimney.

At the moment I can go with either their pristine condition or temporarily weathering them, but having all the detail is very desirable IMO.

I rediscovered Pville about ten yers ago.  The local model railroad club has a multi gauge swap meet once a year (except for 2020) and I have stumbled onto some unbelievable deals, like twenty two complete Pville kits and a small hoard of Pvile parts, lot of Smallville, K-line.,Marx and Little Town stuff and a few Marx and Lionel items, plus one AF building that I haven't even opened up yet

I'm laying out plans to bash most of it and use some scratch built items.  Some is underway, like a factory complex, a police center with police and sheriffs offices and two story jail, modified urban train stations. a 15 unit motel, an Armed Forces Recruiting Center, and a tourist park with log cabins, tepees, tent space, and a trailer/camper area.  It will include an office/store/laundromat/showers/and kiddie center.  On the outskirts will be saddle horses for rent for trail rides.  A gas station will be adjacent to it and a cafe.

It's going slow because my workshop has no heat or A/C and half of is being used for storage, but I have almost nothing else to do with my time.

@jay jay posted:

My layout has about 70 Plasticville structures on it, along with similar buildings from Marx / K-Line. I have more in boxes. I grew up with PVille; it was on my original layout, and I wanted to recreate that 50s vibe, but larger. I love the stuff.

John, I Zoomed in on your Plasticville and see you have every weather vane, lightning rod and antenna, as well as every chimney. Very cool, Arnold