Small Town Business District - How to Arrange Buildings?

[Missaberoad]

Preiser makes a "ladies of the night" set too, but as with all Preiser figures, it is pricey.

And for the most part they look more "Amsterdam Red light district-esk" then the seedy side of the USA...   

[Kisatchie]

A forum member sent me an email saying Walthers has the crime scene in stock, so I emailed MB Klein requesting they email me when they're in stock again (they're sold out now).


Hmm... Kiz is redundant...

[mmyers]

I built this row of stores by using common walls. Used apiece of styrene instead of the kit parts. Second photo is what I built with the leftover walls. Lot of detail painting to go.


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This ia  current photo of the block I'm modeling for a street car module. Street car tracks were removed in 1he 70's. Serviced stopped 1965.
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[mu26aeh]

It's always important to remember that buildings are subject to the available real estate.  Sure it's nice to have those straight lines and right angles, but how dull!

Hey, I got a picture to see what it used to look like now.

20160624_191558 by Adam Henry, on Flickr

I was thinking about putting a major highway on the high side where the tracks used to be to showcase some of these great new vehicles coming out. 

[John]

drive down main street of your local small down Louisiana ...

[Kisatchie]

drive down main street of your local small down Louisiana ...

I live 2 blocks from one...


Hmm... and not a single
store sells bananas...

[chuck geiger]

My HO layout in mid-2000's

[John]

I live 2 blocks from one...


Hmm... and not a single
store sells bananas...

I've struggled with designing a plausible street as well .. thats what I did .. camera in hand to capture details

[jpwisc]

The answer to this question is... It varies.

Main Street in One town I lived in had buildings tight to each other. The alley ran behind the buildings and was access to the rear entrances. In another town there were passthroughs mid block. They weren't alleys, they were a mini park, with trees and sitting benches.

In another town the buildings formed a tight U around a block, with a communal parking lot behind.

[Miles]

Usually commercial buildings where space was at a premium would maximize their storefronts to the edges of their lot lines, oftentimes filling them in.

If there needed to be an alleyway, or some sort of vehicle access, it was usually accommodated for. Typically, most model blocks are too short to warrant one, and they'd more often be found on side streets or running behind the structures instead.

[Bobster]

Greetings,

While usually seen more in larger towns and cities there is the elevator that comes up through the sidewalk out front.  This was covered by steel plate doors which functioned as sidewalk when closed.  When the elevator came up the frame on the top and sides opened the doors.  The place where I worked as a kid had one of those.  We kept a bolt on the underside.  The elevator had its little room under the sidewalk.  There was a heavy door that was kept locked from the inside in the basement storage area in case someone pried the sidewalk doors open and got into the elevator room.   That's what we used it for.  The building was quite old so it could have been the coal dump or chute for a boiler room at one time.

Hope this helps in some way,
Bobster.

[Hamaker]

I remember those sidewalk elevators very well.  The downtown area of my hometown, Bakersfield, was full of them !

[johnb]

You really have to look at what you want to model. Here is downtown Tombstone, AZ.

[nkalanaga]

Then there's downtown Wall, SD, in the ex-C&NW Rapid City line.  One block, and it looks like nothing else I've seen.  Anybody else been to Wall Drug?  I never took a picture of it, but have quite a few of the grain elevator a couple blocks over.

As for those sidewalk elevators, I've only seen one from the inside, and I think  that was the only one in Pasco, WA.  It was in the restaurant I worked in while in school, and the elevator was long gone, if there had ever been one.  What was left was a hole under the sidewalk, half full of sand, which was pouring out in a heap on the basement floor.  Pasco used to be noted for its sandstorms, every bit as bad as southern California and Arizona, and no one had cleaned the basement in years.  The rear part, near the stairs to the kitchen, was used for restaurant inventory, while the rest had a multi-decade collection of junk and debris.  While I was there, we actually found a working milkshake mixer, that the management didn't know they had, which worked better than the one they were using.

[OldEastRR]

Greetings,

While usually seen more in larger towns and cities there is the elevator that comes up through the sidewalk out front.  This was covered by steel plate doors which functioned as sidewalk when closed.  When the elevator came up the frame on the top and sides opened the doors.  The place where I worked as a kid had one of those.  We kept a bolt on the underside.  The elevator had its little room under the sidewalk.  There was a heavy door that was kept locked from the inside in the basement storage area in case someone pried the sidewalk doors open and got into the elevator room.   That's what we used it for.  The building was quite old so it could have been the coal dump or chute for a boiler room at one time.

Hope this helps in some way,
Bobster.

Actually Bar Mills makes a kit that represents one of these things. Can be built open or shut.