Dept.56 style buildings

I think they have a place.  But now that companies like Woodland Scenics offer such great scale buildings already assembled, I'd be inclined to use Dept. 56 buildings only when forced perspective is needed to give depth to a scene.

I have a number of these buildings from the Christmas In The City collection, and I still plan to use some select pieces on my new layout this year.

David

We have several buildings. probably about 80-100 in Christmas and 60-80 in Halloween. With that being said, they have worked well for the seasonal layouts we have done. However, i think it is strictly up to the individual and what their tastes are. I will be starting a permanent layout soon and have no plans to incorporate Dept 56 buildings. I will be using all of the train items acquired over the years.

One other note is cost. Like everything, dept 56 has really gone up over the years. We we first started collecting, the average building was $50-$60. Now, they are averaging $125-150, and as much as $250 for the Chrysler building. Even at 50% that is a chunk to pay for these.

Quit frankly, I would rather put that money towards trains. I might include some the brick buildings in CIC, that have no snow accents on my layout, as some are highly detailed.

Just my opinions, as it depends on what look you are going for, and what you like.

Joe Gozzo

Of Course, it is an individual decision, if you are going to Think Scale, No,  if your layout is three rail scale with some toy post war trains mixed with TMCC/Legacy,  then Yes!  I have integrated Dept 56 with Lionel Standard Gauge Buildings for Fun Effects...

I have some. Wanted to put Bedford Falls at the top of the knoll covering my transformers, and they had some decent ones about five years back. I also might have some others (not the Wonderful Life buildings) that are ceramic buildings I have been contemplating getting rid of.

I use two at Christmas:  one is a beautiful house decorated with working lights; another is an even more beautiful church.  Both came from Walmart years ago; both are 1/48 scale (judging by dimensions, sizes of doors, etc.).  The church is good enough that it would work on a modern Hi-rail layout without anyone batting an eye.

Otherwise, I build kits, some plastic, some wood.  Most get modified more or less heavily, either in initial construction or later as their purpose and position are settled.

I have a huge collection of dept. 56, I was into dept. 56 before I was into Lionel 

My wife has some, but I haven't seen one out in a long time? Not sure why? I think they do look good on layouts, as in see Larry's above, but I will be sticking with the kits, pre-built or possibly even some scratch made buildings or maybe additions to others. 

We use Dept 56 buildings throughout our layout. We have a winter theme so they work. We use a variety of villages and they vary in size depending on the village. Snow Village buildings are larger than Christmas in the City buildings and Christmas in the City is larger than North Pole Village. To compensate we group like village buildings in separate areas of the layout. The Christmas in the City buildings are highly detailed and have a flat finish. Snow Village have more of a glossy finish. St Nicholas Square Village from Kohls are similar in size to Dept 56 Snow Village and of similar quality and have a flat finish. We also have a few Lemax buildings but they are a lower quality with parts that seem to break off easier, make more use of decals for details instead of customizing the piece. We have about 50 buildings and have paid as little as $2 and as much as $50 depending on the building. Most were $10-15. I was at an auction before Christmas and a lot of Dept 56  Heritage Village buildings, trees, people, lights, et al that included 25+ buildings went for $120. Nothing we needed, but illustrates you can get this stuff for cheap if you look around.

We used them on Christmas layouts.  They look good with the snow.  Roger

While some of strive for total realism some of us still suspend reality to create our little towns.  I' have and still use use combinations of ceramic buildings and accessories and more realistic models or built up structures.  I try to keep the sizes compatible. I've got ceramic buildings and zoo, I've got lionel, MTH, and K-line styrene structures, I've got Ameri-towne houses and buildings, I plan on using a Walthers HO factory as Clydesdale Stable to go along with a Dept 56 Budweiser Brew House I even use a telephone as a diner.  I think the woodland scenics offerings are phenomenal but can't really afford them and the Menards offerings are just what this hobby needs but I have buildings than room at this time.  I've used green felt, craft shag dyed and cut to heights, and ground covers to act as grass.  All these combined with operating accessories, both whimsical and more realistic have been part of my little "O" gauge world.

Most of my layout, which I named "Moon Township," is composed of scale, hand-crafted and kit-constructed structures. Additionally, however, Dept.56 is significant in two aspects on the layout: (1) a few of Dept.56 churches have been included among the various scale, crafted-structure neighborhoods; (2) an entire third-level of the layout has been re-crafted to include an entirely Dept.56 neighborhood, done especially because we had a good number of those porcelain buildings, and because my wife had gifted all of them to me when I was first finding my way , back in the early 90's, at possibly having a layout at all.

You can see a portion of that entirely-Dept.56 neighborhood on the layout's third level, which is partially visible in the distant background of the two photos.

FrankM