Mixing Buildings of Different Manufacturers and Scale

You really are not going to know which buildings work together until you put them side by side. Even then some buildings will look a little out of place. As soon as most buildings are spread out you can not see the difference.

I have structures from Lionel, MTH, Lemax, Dept 56, etc., and they all seem to work.

Cheers,

Sean

Terry:

It is kind of tough question to answer. I would think all manufactures try to stay close to 1:48 scale. 

Guess one answer is if you are thinking about placing buildings side by side - say a city street scene then most city streets tended to have the same general construction of building and differed on height and pad size (one front or two front widths). So it would be better to stick with the same manufacturer for a street scene, say all Ameritown or DPM, MTH, Lionel, Woodland Scenics etc. The construction will look right together plus scale will be taken care of. I would not mix construction material side by side - i.e. wood next to brick. When a building was constructed the one going up next to it tended to be the same material because that is what was locally available.

I don't think I would mix manufacturers side by side even if they are the same exact scale and 'material'. An MTH next to an Ameritown would not look right.

As for standalone I doubt the difference in scale or manufacturer matters. 

Joe

Here is a different point of view re scale buildings. There is so much variety in building sizes in the real world that unless you are copying an existing building, there is no such thing as scale.  There is however o-gauge proportion, that is buildings need to look good to you.

On my railroad, there is a mixture of 1/4" to the foot, Department 56, Plasticville, card stock, 3D puzzle buildings and tin plate buildings. To me, these look good in various mixtures.

Step outdoors and look down a commercial Street in an older part of town.  My buildings are mostly kit built and some scratch built.  I am not putting a Golden Arches up next to a false front, but about everything else goes.