Tall Buildings Tuesday

How about some more of the NJ HighRailers Layout from the OGR 50th Anniversary Party?

I am blown away from the work many of you have done in creating unique tall buildings. Right now and for the foreseeable future, I am limited by commercially available buildings that I can easily take apart and detail.

This is a Railking building that I mortared the bricks on (Roberts Brick Mortar) and detailed the first floor. As the base brick color was kind of rosy read, I spray painted the windows a dark evergreen color, giving the building a Christmas look.

Nice work to pop in here Paul. I'll see if I get time tonight to pop some more of the NJ HiRailers.

More from the Tall Buildings at the NJ HiRailers from October 2019.

The Chrysler building is absolutely outrageous. Actually most of the buildings I see here are outrageous. Great work fellas.

@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:

More from the Tall Buildings at the NJ HiRailers from October 2019.

On closer inspection, this appears to be a Chrysler/Empire State hybrid building, an Emprysler Building – body of the Chrysler, head of the Empire State – a mythical beast that haunts the Garden State.

@Darrell Martin posted:

On closer inspection, this appears to be a Chrysler/Empire State hybrid building, an Emprysler Building – body of the Chrysler, head of the Empire State – a mythical beast that haunts the Garden State.

I believe that Ben had said elsewhere on the forum that this was indeed another model of the Empire State Building that was installed some time ago. They got a different Empire State Building which was bigger in size that was installed where this one was, and that one got moved down. I am trying to think when that was exactly as I don't remember if the new one was installed in 2019. I'll have to see if I can find them on the forum tonight.

@Darrell Martin

Over here are some pictures that Ben took back in 2022 of the Empire State Building(the new one) and some other structures around the layout of the NJ HiRailers.

Some pics from around the layout

That Empire State Building is huge. Have a look.

That Chrysler building looks like the one TW Design sells. I'd love to have that building or better yet, Skip's custom version, though both are way out of my league.

Since it is Tuesday, how about some more of the NJ HiRailers Layout from back in October 2019?

Great far shot of the Twin Towers.

Every time I see the Esso Refinery I think of my late Uncle Eddie. He had an Esso grease gun which he used every time he had to work on my first car(which was a lot).

Hey, you can still see the Twin Towers. Who shot this photo? Oh, me.

Is anyone feeling like today is Tuesday? Are there any tall building to be had today or what? I'll be posting some more pictures later on this evening of the NJ HiRailers layout as usual. I wonder if anyone will pop some interesting buildings in this topic today?

More from 2019's NJ HiRailers Layout from the 50th Anniversary of OGR.

I love that beach resort and Food Truck Row.  Is Superman still watching over Metropolis?

@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:

Since it is Tuesday, how about some more of the NJ HiRailers Layout from back in October 2019?

Great far shot of the Twin Towers.

Every time I see the Esso Refinery I think of my late Uncle Eddie. He had an Esso grease gun which he used every time he had to work on my first car(which was a lot).

Hey, you can still see the Twin Towers. Who shot this photo? Oh, me.

A Wonder of the World.

I can't seem to get enough tall buildings in this hobby, and here's one of my latest almost-completed projects. It consists of 7-floors from 3-3-story Railking buildings, where I gained extra floors by removing the roofs which are screwed on and then cutting off the cornice of the top floor and (used fine-toothed hand saws and filed down the irregular edges).

Goal was to create an industrial-style building. Because the stock building colors did not match, I stripped them all down and painted the shells a brown primer; and since the sills and lintels are cast in, I had to mask off the brick in order to paint them. I painted all the windows a drab green color. Bricks were mortared using Roberts Brick Mortar (I love this stuff).

Getting a couple of the floors to fit flush was a major challenge; don't know why, possibly because the structures were made in different factories. Eventually, I had to say 'this is good enough.'

I am debating on using the structure as-is or adding details to the base floor, figures, etc. If the latter, I would have to cut the base in order to get it to fit in the area where I need an industrial building.

The building may not look special, but it is to me and that's a neat feeling. I must over 40 hours of work into it. BTW: If I can do this, anyone can as my modeling stills are average to below average.

Everything here is over the top. Great job guys

How about some more pictures from the NJ HiRailers Layout from 2019?

It's not Tuesday but I needed some inspiration...I've been battling Lyme disease and working half days and finally got the building I posted last week on the layout today and wanted to share my achievement with fellow tall building enthusiasts. It's in the middle background. The two buildings on the right are my custom paint and weather jobs - took me forever though I really like their industrial aspects, mainly the colors I chose. The building on the left is the Menards Hotel, with brick mortared on two sides done and two other sides to do. At this angle it appears as an industrial building. If you're familiar with what used to be the industrial waterfront along the Delaware River these kinds of buildings were commonplace, as were copious amounts of smokestacks and billboards and water towers.

Great scene Paul

Here we go, more fun from 2019 at the NJ HiRailers.

Next week is going to be great because the shots will be from upstairs looking down.

It's Tuesday, that means it's Tall Building Tuesday. More from the NJ HiRailers from 2019. Some topside views from high.

C'mon everyone, let's keep the tall buildings' thread going. Here's a 9-story kitbash project that I recently completed. It'll make a welcome addition to my city of Pretzelvania.

@Paul Kallus

Nice of you to pop some in here. Unfortunately I was tied down last night with a lot of S___. Mostly work stuff so that stunk. I still have photos of the 50th Anniversary of OGR at the NJ HiRailers, but I will eventually run out. Hopefully at York I can get some other tall buildings, but it will be even less than what I have now. See what comes, be here next week for sure.

Hey Dave, other than custom builders, is there anything to find at York in the way of tall buildings? Unless I missed them last year at the October, meet, I only saw a limited amount of structures for sale, of any size. In the meantime, check out the now famous George Sellios Franklin & S. Manchester RR - tall buildings galore (HO scale). I first saw the RR a couple of decades ago, and given my own urban city-living years when I was younger, I became fascinated with city RR's, despite the fact that I now live in the country and love country life

Oh yes Paul, there are a bunch of folks that do make tall buildings at York. There is quite a list that are there, I can only think of three, one being Todd Model Architecture a forum sponsor. He's always there and has a wide variety of things he has built and can fabricate. The other two I'd have to look at my York pictures, or possibly way back in this topic.

Here's one of two buildings I recently completed. This one is a hodge-podge of Railking buildings that I assembled into one 8-story building using wooden connecting girders and various O-scale details to cover the holes where the signs were placed. As usual, the structure was painted a uniform color, in this case, a brown brick, and windows were painted a colonial red, awnings a dark green, and lastly bricks were mortared. Lots of work but well worth it. I'll likely use this building in my industrial area, though I have to fabricate a custom base as the Railking base is too deep for the application, even after trimming

A little more from NJ HiRailers.

Twin Towers just hiding off of this shot. Never forget.

East Coast Enterprises from October York 2021

These are from October 2017, my first York. I don't remember whose buildings these were, but they were down towards the old car that had the trains running in it(up from the Lionel booth a ways).

Heading to Ohio on Thursday to deliver this one. The first 6-story version of the WH-03 Paterson Silk Mill project. 28" x 6" x 20-1/2" tall.

Ameri-Towne hotel on THE SOUTH FORK RAILROAD

Here's a couple of fairly straitforward projects, though I will say unequivocally, 'nothing is easy'; RK buildings painted/mortared and stacked to create taller structures, ten and eight stories respectively:

@Paul Kallus, that Brunswick building looks fantastic. Amazing.

Dave about the time you run out of pictures of NJHR tall buildings I'm sure there'll be new ones on the layout.

I bought the Ameritowne Hotel during last year's sale, hopefully I'll get it built some day.

One in the works. Downtown Building #1; 9" x 9" footprint, 10-stories.

And one side of Corrigan Station (Kansas City) with added ducting and shed in shadowbox format.

Here's a hodge podge industrial scene that can be any number of industries that I choose, left to right (my custom cement factory, Menards silos, Golden Gate coal tower, Todd's Architectual McLain background, Lionel coal tower, and my custom Ameri-town background). This was challenging to build given the depth of the cantilevered section of layout is only 12" deep and the 2-track mainline takes up almost half of that. I want to install some Lionel storage tanks in the foreground and an MTH operating tank station that will require building out the fascia a bit. Most items have been wired for lighting, and can't wait to route some power and add some figures!

Lots of tall there Paul.

This is our new Downtown Building #1. It has a footprint of 9" x 9" and stands 25-1/4" tall at 10-stories. The first and top floors are recessed back 1/2" all around. There are approximately 200 laser scored and cut pieces per elevation. The model has individual floors and ceilings and comes complete with ten individually lit floors. You may choose from four window glazings: clear, translucent, Roscolux 97 (light gray) and Roscolox 98 (dark gray). 97 allows partial (tinted) viewing to the interior when not internally lit. 98 does not allow viewing to the interior when not internally lit.

The model features scored block joint lines that wrap the window openings and corners, marbled half columns in between windows, and a removable back to allow for interior decorating access.

Downtown Building #1 is now in limited production for April 2024 TCA York delivery. Pictures of the pre-production model are shown below.  Five models are being produced and two are spoken for. If you are interested, please contact the shop directly by email or telephone.

Roscolux 98 glazing

Clear glazing

Clear glazing

Fully developed AutoCAD elevation

A couple of recent projects using the Railking Harley Davidson 2-story buildings to make a 6-story and 10-story. The motorcycles are various brands, different scales and even some Indians made their way into the HD facility as did a K-Line Diet Coke machine...did they have diet coke back in the 1930s...and if they did, would any self-respecting biker drink it?

Paul, being a Harley rider,I love what you have created. Where do you get the brick mortar from?

Thanks Harley, I use Roberts Brick Mortar. Very easy to use and a 4 oz container goes a long way. These days I buy it directly from the distributor...South Side Trains.

Thanks for the info Paul, I think the mortar makes the buildings more realistic. Harley rider,Dave