Help with building list

Bob:
There are several good alternatives for beginners:
WRT kits -
The easiest to build are OGR's AmeriTowne series. All details are molded in so you are basically gluing up 4 walls. With paint, mortar and detailing these structures can compete against anything twice their price.
A little more work but still fairly easy are Woodland Scenics DPM series. Once you get some kits under your belt these kits are easy to kit-bash with.
There are a lot more manufacturers out there with kits ranging from easy to 'mill your own lumber' craftsman series.

WRT built-ups
Woodland Scenics new ?Landmark? series - three buildings so far but fully built with some excellent details are now available.
Walthers Cornerstone series offers some excellent choices in pre-built and kits.
You also have a great many MTH and Lionel pre-builts to choose from.

If you're not too committed to scale and detail, Plasticville can give you a lot of places to start. They are easily detailed and / or kit-bashed. Originals can be pricy but some are being made again. Also look at K-Line and others.

Check out Valley Model Trains. He has one of the most complete kit inventories since that is his speciality.

Valley Model Trains

Dennis is right about VMT. If nothing else, you can browse the site and get a look at almost every manufacturer's structures to compare. Their prices are good, too. For the type of buildings you're looking for I'd definitely check out Bar Mills, Banta and BTS. They all have smaller, easy to construct buildings with very good instructions. The materials are laser cut wood so they're a great way to get into kits. BTW, on VMT's website you can either go to "O" scale directly and search by manufacturer or just put in the type of building you want and they'll all come up (but you'll have to skip over the HO scale buildings).

Jerrman