Does anyone remember Skyline structure building kits? If so, a question...

Yes, Skyline did make a cardstock church....a nice white colonial style.  I've seen it pass by on Ebay occasionally. 

I had Skyline structure kits to complement my first Lionel, given to me in the late 1940's, but not the church.  They're shown in all their glory on my simple oval layout on the family's 8mm color movies from that era. 

Good memories.

KD

I'm familiar with the cardstock version, I'm just curious if they did a wood version as well (I understand they did a few wooden kits in addition to cardstock)

A friend and I bought a package of skyline kits as teenagers that included a tower, station, water tower, and freight station.   we split the set and I got the station and control tower.   I still have them.    I have done a little refurbish, but not much.   These were cardstock and still look pretty good to me.    I have also refurbished and put a new roof covering on an HO version of the station for a buddy.

I remember them well...as a matter of fact, the Skyline garage is on my current layout.  I started reading Model Railroader in 1944, and presently have copies of every issue since they began publishing.  I do not recall ever seeing wooden kits offered by Skyline.  It's possible they did, and my memory's faulty...that sometimes happens at 83...but I don't think they did.   Early on, there were many manufacturers who did offer wooden kits.  Yank had some very nice wooden house kits in the early postwar period.  I have one...but have never built it.  The Skyline church was a very popular model, seen frequently in photos in the model railroad magazines of the 40's and 50's.

          Logan

Skyline was a Philadelphia based manufacturer of cardstock building kits. I believe that they were in business in the 1950's and advertised in the model railroad magazines of the time.  I had one of of their switch tower building kits several years back but did not build it. I remember the box contained cardstock building sides, printed roof panels, cellophane windows, a few sticks for reinforcement and a couple of other wooden details. They were very inexpensive structure kits to build, were made to scale and looked pretty nice.  I believe that when interest in model railroading began to decline in the late 50's/early 60's , they closed up shop. 

Here's scans of 4 pages from the Skyline section of Carmen Webster's 1950 "Lionel-land" catalog.   Note they advertise plastic, metal and fibre board buildings.

Bill

Skyline also made metal litho buildings, of which I have several, including a blue roofed "brick" station that is a nice building, and fairly common,  and several yard buildings, painted yellow.   I just found I have several of the cardboard kits, too, including "Tank Town".  "Main Street", and two of the passenger staton kits.

I have the metal tower, freight shed, and station, but neither of the houses which I have seen in shows from time to time.  There were other small metal buidings, too.

Is fiber board the same as cardboard?

I have a few unbuilt skyline kits around here some where's if I find them I'll post some pictures.

RoyBoy posted:

Is fiber board the same as cardboard?

Roy:

I would say yes as the caption for the Skyline fiber board Hillside Junction in the 4^th photo I posted above says “… constructed of heavy cardboard ….”.   

Bill

I am looking for the old skyline O gauge cardboard house Assembled or inbox in good shape . I see them once in a blue pop up on the eBay but I am looking for them to purchase I prefer the cardboard over plastic.

The few that I have purchased have been purchased from ebay. They sometimes tend to go for more money than I want to spend so I tend to look for ratty built ones and then rebuild them as needed.  Works for me

I have the Oak Park and Passenger Station Platform from their metal line.  Since my home modular 3r layout is quite eclectic, they are fun to place on the layout.

Here are two pictures of the Skyline Main Street Village #220 set on our Christmas layouts. The first is 12/24/1949, my parents had just purchased and assembled the set. 

The second is Christmas 1955, the City Hall structure is not on the layout. I still have the set in excellent condition.

These are the models that I am looking for if anyone has them boxed or Assembled in good shape. Model numbers residents number 601, residents number 604, residents number 605, church number 626, hi school number 631, firehouse number 611 factory number 636, from skyline  scenery model kits O gage.

Anyone notice how a couple of those plastic kits look almost identical to Plasticville buildings? That church and the little square cottage are almost exact matches to Plasticville. I wonder if Skyline became part of Plasticville at some point?

Jeff

I would add photos but I am having a lot of difficulty trying to send an attachment on this site.

mowingman posted:

Anyone notice how a couple of those plastic kits look almost identical to Plasticville buildings? That church and the little square cottage are almost exact matches to Plasticville. I wonder if Skyline became part of Plasticville at some point?

Jeff

Plastic Ville did purchase skyline I believe in 1953

Plasticville also purchased Littletown.

I know this is an old post but I recently came across this page in my hunt for vintage buildings and scenery item for a small (4x8) late40s/early50s style of Christmas garden that has had an on again off again history with me. I recently purchased several packs of the old Life-Like sparkle-It mountain paper that I'm hoping are usable but if not I will have actual samples on hand to aid in the replication of it. If this Covid thing ever goes away and train shows become a regular thing again I will return to the hunt for buildings. As a side note it's good to be posting again and hopefully I'll be getting back into trains like I had been in the past, you think with being furloughed it would free up lots of time for ones hobbys but by the same token the uncertainty doesn't allow for the same freedom of expenses so the progress will be slower as will the scale of the projects.

http://www.binnsroad.co.uk/rai...s/skyline/index.html

Jerry

Jerry, Welcome back. It's good to see you posting again. Hope all is well with you,

John

Jerry it is so hard to get a hold of skyline model kits I’ve been for the last couple years getting my hands on a few of them it is also hard to get them at train shows because they are very rare, as time moves on there’s not as many out there on eBay.

Thanks John, I had other things I had to tend to, several remodeling projects, dad and mom were sick (mom passed a few months ago and dads not doing too well, cancer), got furloughed and then in December "position eliminated due to downturn in business due to Covid" so this past year's been a bit rough. But I'm still in good health and hopefully things can't get much worse (knock wood). Bill, I have several Skyline buildings and kits I've accumulated over the years plus the old ones from my dads childhood, I've been planning to make plastic and/or wooden versions of them using what I have as templates and for the ones I don't have to be able to scale ones I have photos of. One thing I have learned about looking for Skyline is if you see one and the price isn't outrageous, buy it! But it's good to be back and hopefully I'll have some things to post about in the coming weeks.

Jerry