My HO Train Town layout.


B

BLACK KNIGHT

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So here is what I have so far. It's a 4x6 layout, I have 2 controllers to the left, 1 for the outer track and 1 for the inner track. I have lots of work to do yet as can be seen. I plan to put in at least 2 more buildings, a gas station and a KFC drive in. Also need to finish the roads/parking lots and then need LOTS of scenery, etc.
 
Gary B would love this town, he is a big Plasticville fan. No knocks intended as I have three of these structures (and three others) on my layout.
willie
 
Yeah, I really liked the Plasticville because they're so easy to put together. The machine shop on the right I picked up at an Ollie's discount store because it was only $6! It's made by IHC, which I discovered has gone out of business, but even though it was a bit harder to put together than the Plasticville buildings I really liked it as it was a step up in quality and I still enjoyed putting it together. I wish I had painted it first though, right after putting it together I found a cool youtube video on a nice technique for painting brick buildings. Oh well. Lots more to do still.
 
That machine shop was originally released by Aurora in the late 50's or early 60's, as a school. In the 70's it was released by Tyco in assembled form, as a factory. IHC re-released it later as a machine shop. I had the Tyco version years ago, but its long gone now. I always thought it would be a good candidate for kit-bashing a few together to make a larger school.
 
Yes, nice start. I doubt there are many of us that didn't have Plasticville at one time on our layouts and many still do. I plan to do an entirely PV section if I ever rebuild.
 
I originally intended on doing all PlasticVille but like I said I couldn't pass up a building for $6 and I really like it. I also am getting a KFC, not sure who makes that, for Christmas. Also purchased a set of 6 cars...kinda cheesy looking but will be getting better ones for Christmas as well and then i'll just stick these in the parking lots or something. I'm probably going with the PlasticVille gas station which I should get for Christmas also.

That's interesting, would've never guessed that the machine shop could be a school. Knowing the history of it, I like it even more now! Ollie's has a bunch of IHC churches in stock for like $6, I passed because I already have a church, but am kinda thinking of getting it now...I don't need 2 churches in the town but wondering if it'd be better quality to have maybe for the future.
 
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BLACK KNIGHT said:
That's interesting, would've never guessed that the machine shop could be a school. Knowing the history of it, I like it even more now! Ollie's has a bunch of IHC churches in stock for like $6, I passed because I already have a church, but am kinda thinking of getting it now...I don't need 2 churches in the town but wondering if it'd be better quality to have maybe for the future.
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As Glenn "Chico" Resch, (NJ Devils Color Commentator and former Goal tender), would say, "These things Happen".

The old Revell enginehouse was also a bakery, summer stock theater, and something else. After these buildings were no longer sold under the Revel name, they were Bachmann, Tyco and Model power. If you put several together, they would make a great Industrial Age building with multiple uses on a layout. Same applies to Life Like Buildings and some PV.

Today, I found some commentary dating to 2007, about Atlas' Middlesex Manufacturing Co. kit. The prototype building was part of the Helme Tobacco Company Complex in Helmetta, NJ, (near Jamesburg), on the Camden and Amboy (CR Amboy Secondary). I was surprised, at the comments, as there were many individual ideas as to what purpose the building would serve on the posters individual layouts. The complex manufactured Snuff, and other tobacco products, miles from Tobacco country.

Strange thing was that while Helme was still in business (Into the current century); we (CR) did not serve the plant although it was adjacent to the C&A main. We did, however, serve the P.J. Switzer (Kimberly Clark) plant in Spotswood NJ, which manufactured cigarette paper.

Another interesting point is that other Atlas kits for residential homes, Barb's Bungalow, Kate's Colonial, etc. also resemble homes in the town of Helmetta, NJ.

Ollie's is the odd lot store that used to advertise heavily at Harrisburg Senators baseball games in 2005. I also see their ads when I watch Birds games at Camden yards. I never knew they also sold train stuff.

Joe
 
WJLI26 said:
Ollie's is the odd lot store that used to advertise heavily at Harrisburg Senators baseball games in 2005. I also see their ads when I watch Birds games at Camden yards. I never knew they also sold train stuff.

Joe
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Well I wouldn't exactly say they sell train stuff. Ollie's seems to do buyouts of 'stuff', since IHC has gone out of business I assume they found some extra churches and machine shops and bought them as surplus. That's the only train stuff I've seen there so far...aside from toy trains. They do have a section for models (cars, boats, etc) which is where I found these.

They also advertise in Nascar in Dover occasionally, I got discount tix a couple of years ago to a Dover race via Ollie's (they were sponsoring a car that I think Kasey Kahne as driving)...$50 tix for like $16 or something crazy like that.
 
Nice retro layout! Is the ATSF freight train in the foreground from Life-Like? (their Rail Runner train set) Good to see another user with Life-Like locos and rolling stock on their layout here, though I'm in the progress of upgrading mine to knuckle couplers. I also mostly use Atlas True-Track on my layout, but I DO also have that Plasticville train station and Cape Cod House, AND I also have a KFC building kit from Life-Like!
 
Yes it is, I believe an old Rail Charger set I bought a couple of years ago. One of my engines broke, fell off the train table one too many times. So in looking for a new engine I realized I needed a little more of everything so I just bought an inexpensive set and I wanted horn hooks to match my old cars from the 80s. It was cheaper than buying the different components I needed like an extra controller and such.
 
Coming along nicely! I got two of those KFCs with several other buildings in a bag at the DuPage show last year for all of $5. Two $5 bags netted me like 12 buildings, (3 N scale). The other in fair shape. Not a bad haul.
 
Gary B said:
Coming along nicely! I got two of those KFCs with several other buildings in a bag at the DuPage show last year for all of $5. Two $5 bags netted me like 12 buildings, (3 N scale). The other in fair shape. Not a bad haul.
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Indeed, that's awesome!

Just got a Tyco Transformers train set off of ebay! This is really cool!! My wife had the idea of incorporating some of my Transformers into my train set. So I did some research on a Transformers forum that I'm a member of and found some HO scale Transformers that I'll be incorporating into the layout. That led to the discovery of a Tyco collector's forum and that they made a Transformers Train set back in like '86 which I then had to have! ;) Funny thing I don't remember it coming out back then...but I was a teenager in '86 and had probably grown out of watching Transformers.
 
I got that set a few weeks ago myself! I love to see people incorporating their other hobbies into their layout. My gf and I are big Halo fans (the video game), and they recently started making Micro Ops vehicles, which are suuuuper close to HO scale. We were planning on having a military base on the layout, so it was a no brainer to turn that into a big Halo themed base lol
 
Sounds sweet! Yeah, it's kinda cool adding in other hobbies to the model train. At the top left of the picture is a black SUV, which is actually the Decepticon Crankcase for any Transformer buffs out there. In my previous post with the pictures of KFC, in the first picture you can see Optimus Prime in the distance. Here's my new train, then engine has a side panel that opens revealing a computer panel and a radar dish that lifts off the top, the gondola transforms to a laser cannon, the box car into a weapons center, and the caboose transforms into a space shuttle like ship:
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And I added a little vegetable garden to my farm:
farmersgarden.jpg
 
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