So what is out there?

MODIFYING TOY STRUCTURES

Until a manufacturer such as Design Preservation introduces high quality, inexpensive structure kits, we hobbyists must rely on our imagination and ingenuity. If we keep our eyes open, we never know when we may discover a toy we could convert to scale or even use "as is". The Sesame Street buildings in the photos are an example. They come as a set of two. One has arched windows, the other rectangular. As you can see, the difference between "before" and "after" is striking.

I scrapped everything but the fronts when I built my models. The originals had "block" siding and no glazing. The roofs were of marginal appearance; they might be suitable for a background model. For foreground use, you should add detailed sides and roofs from sheet styrene. My models will sit farther back so I detailed only the fronts. You might also overlay the fronts with Plastruct brick sheet or plain styrene. The plain sheet could simulate concrete construction. My modifications affected the entire facade and the "after" photo shows two variations of the arched window version. By the way, I bought the buildings at a flea market for under five dollars apiece!

TOYS AS PATTERNS

I recently found a toy McDonalds® Store with bricks cast in reverse. By that I mean the mortar lines protruded instead of being recessed below the surface of the brick. The bricks were close enough to 1:22.5 scale concrete blocks to be convincing and I realized they would make a good mold. I filled them with plaster or concrete and used them to cast structure and retaining walls. The cost was under three dollars! The photo shows how I dammed the ends with scrap styrene. The mold is flexible enough to allow me to twist it slightly to release the castings as simply as if they were ice cubes.

OTHER SOURCES

Dolls and dollhouse accessories also provide fertile ground. One photo shows figures of three women and two men, all costing a fraction of what we usually pay for model railroad figures. The female figures came from a dollhouse shop. The male figures, the Coke machine, and the lamps came from a Christmas shop. The Coke machine was a tree ornament. I am aware of no other such model of a similar vintage and it looks great at my main train depot.

The station lamps are closer to scale than most I have seen and cost only about $1.20 each. They came from a Coca-Cola village set at a Christmas shop. Most towns seem to have some kind of year-around Christmas shop and, after the holidays, many offer their inventories at reduced prices.

Lionel makes a few accessories for their O scale line so grossly oversize they work well for us large scalers. The fire hydrants are perfect examples. They are models of American prototypes and all you have to do is glue them down.

The double traffic light signal head also falls into that nebulous size between 1:24 and 1:20.3. Mount it on a brass or styrene post, add light bulbs, and you will create a unique detail for your layout's business district. I picked up both the hydrants and the traffic lights for under a dollar at a railroad flea market.

One day, at my local drug store, I found two Strombecker 1:25 scale 1930-era Ford automobiles for 99-cents apiece. I added paint and window "glass" and now they compare favorably with kits costing ten times as much.

A few final ideas: Craft shops have glass bead insulators for scale telephone poles and power lines. The aquarium section at your pet shop has a variety of useful plastic tubes, shapes, and fittings. I used some to detail an oil refinery on my layout. Buttons from your wife's sewing kit can serve as the tops of cafe stools or as hatch covers. The possibilities are limitless.

I hope I have offered some helpful ideas you may use on your own railroad. But I'll be happy if I have only tweaked your imagination.