Best Of Your favorite, less common, city buildings.

[Roger Holmes]

These are etched brass kits from Miller Engineering.  I built the Savings and Loan and still have the scars to prove it but it built into a beautiful and unique structure.  The first one is out of stock but can probably still be found in shops, on-line or eBay.

http://www.microstru.com/N-202ex.html

http://www.microstru.com/N-303.html

http://www.microstru.com/N-404.html

[Roger Holmes]

Also this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-Structures-Kit-505-Crestline-Theater-Kit-505cl-Chase-Light-Kit-rare-/151968388572?hash=item23620595dc:g:ozkAAOSwvUlWrXcV

[sirenwerks]

Pizzaland, as seen in the Soprano's opening credits: http://www.blairline.com/pizzaland/

[Ed Kapuscinski]

What about the rowhouses at http://www.custommodelrailroads.com/hampden-end-N.aspx? I think those are based on prototypes in Baltimore.

I have 3 boxes of the Northeastern Scale Models Earl Smallshaw tenements that I'm trying to decide what to do with. I'm trying to determine if they make any sense for a layout set in Chicago near Dearborn Station, but I think most structures like that would have burned in the Great Chicago Fire.

Ben

The Hampden Houses are indeed good and useful.

And that's the problem with a lot of the craftsman wood kits. They're all very wooden...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

These are etched brass kits from Miller Engineering.  I built the Savings and Loan and still have the scars to prove it but it built into a beautiful and unique structure.  The first one is out of stock but can probably still be found in shops, on-line or eBay.

http://www.microstru.com/N-202ex.html

http://www.microstru.com/N-303.html

http://www.microstru.com/N-404.html

Those are all good. Adding them to the list.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Pizzaland, as seen in the Soprano's opening credits: http://www.blairline.com/pizzaland/

All I'd need is the black Escalade...

[daniel_leavitt2000]

All I'd need is the black Escalade...

Got ya covered:
https://www.shapeways.com/product/D436J5XS9

[wm3798]

Kitbash, kitbash, kitbash.  Take that which is and make it into that which is better.  Easy peasy.

[loyalton]

Don't forget all the Faller, Piko, etc. buildings, some of which will have the look of what you want. Check out an old Walthers catalog for these. A favorite is Faller 232262, useful as circa 1900-built US structures (2 buildings!) that cover a lot of real estate:
https://www.reynaulds.com/products/Faller/232262.aspx

[peteski]

@CacheJunction
Dave makes superb industrial brick structures. Maybe we can talk him into making some brick residential buildings? 

[thomasjmdavis]

I'm trying to determine if they make any sense for a layout set in Chicago near Dearborn Station, but I think most structures like that would have burned in the Great Chicago Fire.

Ben, keep in mind the Chicago Fire was 1871, and housing that went up after was all late 19th century- so timewise the models you are talking about might still fit in.  And Chicago, like many cities, was originally much smaller than it is today (North Ave and Western Ave got their names as borders, once upon a time).  While the core of the city was rebuilt primarily in brick and stone, outlying "suburbs" (later absorbed into what is the present city) had more lenient building codes, and wood structures were more common.  I did part of my growing up in a neighborhood in the "near north" (near Armitage Ave) in a wood frame 2 story that at least by legend had been built shortly after the fire as "emergency" housing- as many of the buildings nearby were quite similar, my best guess would be that the area was company housing or tenements thrown up quickly for factory workers.  By the time we were there, the factories were gone, and much of the housing replaced or modified- so it had lost the uniform look from the front due to residing or facades.  But when viewed from the alley, the rear view of the buildings and porches were almost identical except for paint color and the occasional porch being enclosed.

Whether this would be true anywhere in the vicinity of Dearborn, I can't say. That close to downtown, I would have anticipated brick.  But the station area had several wooden structures (the CEI switch tower at Roosevelt Road comes to mind), so there might be some wood residential structures, especially west of the tracks.   Most of my time at Dearborn in my youth was spent looking at trains, I didn't spend much time on local residential architecture.  Many of the buildings that would have been around while Dearborn was still in use as a station were leveled in the intervening years (as was the train shed) but there might be some surviving photos of the neighborhood immediately south.

[johnb]

http://micro-trainsline.com/nscale/nkits/49990943

Micro Trains makes a few older wooden kits.

Also, fires do a ton of damage. In Tombstone, AZ, there were two fires that destroyed downtown....only the famous Birdcage Theatre survived both.

[thomasjmdavis]

Here is a photo taken in 1956, of the area southwest of downtown (note the Lee Jeans sign, which will locate it in relation to Dearborn Station.  There really isn't much "residential neighborhood" to be seen.

I'm planning a Dearborn based layout myself and have been collecting structures.  I do wish that Walthers had produced their brick tenements in 3 stories rather than 4.  Most of the Chicago residential neighborhood apartment buildings were 3 story.  I've had mixed results trying to modify them.  But they do evoke that urban multistory backporch look that is the common view from the coach window as you approach downtown of many cities in the midwest.

[mu26aeh]

Speaking of history of York, here is a snippet I found interesting:

First locomotive

    The first coal burning locomotive was built in York by Phineas Davis in 1832. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad had offered a $4,000 prize to anyone who could invent a successful coal burning engine. Up to that time only wood could be used. Davis built his coal-powered steam engine at his foundry on the northwest corner of King and Newberry streets. It was finished in July, 1832, and taken by wagon to Baltimore (no trains connected the cities until 1838). Soon after winning the contest, Davis was made manager of the B&O shops, and set about building more engines. While testing one of his creations, on Sept. 27, 1835, he died when a wayward rail caused the train to wreck. He was 40. The B&O Railroad and the Engineering Society of York placed a commemorative bronze plaque in Penn Park right across from William Penn School entrance. Almost 100 years after he started his invention, a school was built in his honor in York's east end.

It's on the internet, so it must be true 

http://www.yorkcity.org/history/

[Ed Kapuscinski]

And, tying this thread somewhat together, the B&O museum just acquired a reproduction (I think) of the York from the museum of science and industry in Chicago.