Winthrop, Washington July 1, 2011

[CNR Glen]

My Wife and I took a day trip down to Winthrop, Washington on July 1. It's a very intresting town. The buildings look like time stopped there at the turn of the Century (last century I mean!) Almost all false front buildings with weathered wood. You can smell the creosote walking down the wooden sidewalks.
It's a place full of modelling ideas
Goverment Liquor Agency:

False front store

The garage part of the gas station there. I think it was a Cheveron. I love that faded sign!

A resturant with tin roof. The front roof was framed with peeled and painted logs

A Saloon with tin roof. I couldn't help noticing that there was surface rust on the valleys of the corrogated roofing but the high points were still shiney. The structure in the middle of the roof was the vent for the grill inside.

The Winthrop emporium. it's a neat structure positioned on a corner the the entrance at a 45 degree angle to the streets

Now this is a scratchbuilders challenge! This is a real working bank with the wrought iron wickets inside. The woodwork would be quite a challenge to duplicate in scale.

Another challenge. The old Schoolhouse Brewery. It's a long narrow building with the intresting bell tower on it.

Another store. I love that weathering

That's about it. I hope someone finds some inspiration here.
I also found it intresting that there were heavily (or at least appear to be) weatheredf buildings standing right next to the bank which is looking prctically brand new.

 

[Motley]

That's really neat! Did they weather them on purpose? Or did they just preserve these buildings?

Several of those photos actually look like some layouts I've seen here.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[CNR Glen]

I really don't know if they were 'weathered' on purpose of if they are perserved buildings. I do know that a hotel on that street burned to the ground in 2003 and it was rebuild with the same look as the rest of the town. Maybe the rest of the town is like that too.

 

[RW&C]

I live maybe an hour or two away from Winthrop. It's a very cool area. I always thought the western theme was a little odd, but they pull it off pretty well. They actually have a city ordinance to keep everything in character. I'm not sure if they fake-weather the buildings or just let them do that, though.

 

[broken bolster]

By any chance is this the town the TV show (of a few years back) called "Northern Exposure" was filmed? I remember reading that some Washington state town was used.

 

[CNR Glen]

You're half right. Northern Exposure was filmed in Roslyn, Washington (for location shots) , and Redmond Washington (For studio work, I looked it up)

 

[Gary B]

It always strikes me when I see these places that try to mantain a look of yesterday even though some all even all of the buildings are newer, that I'm looking at 1:1 scale modeling. So if we model them, are we modeling a model or the prototype?

 

[LoudMusic]

A view from the main commercial street in Roslyn, Washington. Roslyn is just a couple hours from Winthrop, and right off I-90 just a few hours from Seattle, WA.

Roslyn has a minor interest in maintaining the image from the TV show, but I think their tourist potential has dwindled over time.

 

[CNR Glen]

It always strikes me when I see these places that try to mantain a look of yesterday even though some all even all of the buildings are newer, that I'm looking at 1:1 scale modeling. So if we model them, are we modeling a model or the prototype?

I believe that most of the structures in Winthrop are original. I suppose you can draw conclusions from studying the differences of earlier structures through vintage photographs and the present-day pictures that we take.

 

[J Kacey]

Here are a couple pics I took in Winthrop Wa last weekend. The town was made to like a authentic western town in 1972.