O gauge seems to lack in structures

I agree , reason why I have to build them from scratch , I wish they had still mills, cement plants etc in ether ready built or kit form

Menards has a fairly decent selection of them. Mostly Woodland Scenics branded Menards. Wife got me a couple for Christmas.

 

http://www.menards.com/main/se...0Train%20Stuff_13318

I have to agree to what I think is the OP's intent.

There's lots of toylike looking structures for the 3-rail types, and then there's the laser buildings where it seems like you're building a real building, board-by-board, but in 1/48 scale. The latter costs a small fortune, takes forever to build and requires a lot of skills.

Not a lot of middle ground for structures in O scale as there is in other scales.

Walthers Cornerstone used to make a monstrous cement plant in O scale. I bough one and shipped it to a friend in England who couldn't get it there. It weighed quite a lot so I removed all the sheet metal pieces from their sprues after marking them with a pencil and shed almost half the weight.

I'd love to get my hands on one of those Walther's Cement plants. Anyone have one on the shelf?

 

Earl

Hmmm, depends on how you look at it and what you are looking for. So I will use the old adage a picture is worth a thousand words to make my point. For added reference, there are 160 buildings in the area that covers the first photo and 34 in the second area, and that's not all. Enough for me!!!!

 

 

Two things, I watch for older "new" kits on E-bay. I like them because you don't see the same old kits. Also try Banta Model Works, Korber, Downtown Deco, DSL Shops.

Thomas Yorke makes some of the best kits on the market. 

There are many more if you look. Don

Not as many people in this scale as the other scales.  But I think more importantly, because of its size, less room to put all of these buildings.  In HO or below, you can create entire neighborhoods of buildings.  It's harder for the average guy to do that with a basement layout in O.  It's the same reason you see almost zero circus stuff in O gauge.  No one has the room to truly represent a circus in that scale.  Circus models look great because of all of the people, animals, vehicles, you name it.  It's a wonder for the eyes.  You'd need a ton of space plus a very large wallet to reproduce that in O.

I'd love to see the number I had available in my HO days....but we have some great ones....and scratch building is fun!!!

Clever Models.....Nice.....and CHEAP

 

Kitbashed Plasticville or similar....

 

Scratch.......

 

Add the plastic injection kits, Woodland kits, laser kits and others.....a fair amount of kits.

Back in the day, all we had was Plasticville and a few tin lithographs. I envied HO modelers so much. I even had a few HO structures. I think it's great the number that are available now.

I think the OP is looking for industrial buildings.  Older brick factory buildings can be done with Korber and DPM kits.  I think Pecos River offered several modern industrial building kits for a while but no longer.  However, you may be able to find them on ebay or at shows.  Both Lionel and MTH have offered petroleum tank facilities so that might be something that you can use.  The Menard's engine house could be repurposed, it has a more modern look.  

 

But yeah, not a lot out there.  You might ask on the O 2 rail forum as well.

For Industrial Korber is a great start as is DPM and the kits sold by OGR. Plastruct has some great stuff too. I bought the Plastruct refinery for about $100 when a online seller had a sale. Clever models makes some factory kits...I have them...just yet to build them!

 

Speaking of HO.....Walthers just announced a 'Mission' style home in HO. Love to see that one in O....but I think I'll buy one and clone it in O. Also.....Walthers sent me a survey asking what I'd like to see them produce....I said O scale buildings.....so let them know....they're asking!!!!

Ah yes, Plastruct!  I forgot about them.  

 

BTW, those Clever models look pretty good.

when it comes to when it comes to gasoline tank car fueling plants, indoor / covered train stations any any type of plant, it seems this hobby is lacking these in ready made form., indoor / covered train stations any any type of plant, it seems this hobby is lacking these in ready made form.

 

Maybe MTH might have what you are looking for?  For ready out of the box structures with no assembly required... you really can't beat the selection, quality and price.

 

Gasoline tank car fueling plant - They have several different types.

 

Indoor / covered train stations

 - MTH Has too many to list.

http://www.mthtrains.com/content/30-9051

http://www.mthtrains.com/content/30-9050

http://www.mthtrains.com/content/30-9184

http://www.mthtrains.com/content/30-9183

 

Any type of plant

Again MTH has many different types that might suit your needs.

I feel your pain Bns. I had a lot of the AHM and Atlas kits when I was in HO and I wish someone would reissue them in O.

http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/...scalekits/index.html

http://tycotrain.tripod.com/ah...orsresource/id1.html

I still have my AHM repair shop, it was the first building I ever tried weathering. Rust streaks on the roof and white paint in the mortar lines, didn't look half bad for a 10 year old.

 

 

Jerry

I agree with the OP. There are not too many industrial buildings that differentiate themselves . korber kits look similar with turn of the century brick and dock for rail service. I have to give korbet credit for the new relief industries they are now introducing. I wish they reintroduce their modular building components and make some mid Thirty's to fifties industries that took the freight cars inside a la don Smith models or Steve's S.I. RR model buildings.

Ron- do you have part number and also what online site sells these gasoline platforms?

I love the Downtown Deco kits.  Bar Mills are nice too.

 

Jeff Davis

Bnsftrains...Ron posted the "part" numbers in his post above along with the links.  Any of our advertisers/sponsors that carry MTH products would perhaps have these in stock....

 

Alan

Lots of good suggestions;  Ive seen some guys here work wonders with MTH Railking buildings and a little bit of weathering chalk.  The structures themselves are usually pretty good - some of the color combinations are a bit odd, though.   With a negligible amount of talent, you could probably whip something up pretty good.  

 

For large scale stuff like mills and such, you're probably stuck with bashing/hand building.  There's probably not enough return to produce a kit or building that large which wouldn't fit on a lot of layouts.  

Evergreen Hill Designs has several O Scale structures.

Scratch building factories and industrial buildings can be easier than kitbashing and weathering prebuilt models. One just has to follow Norm Charb's work to realize this. He works wonders with foam core board, coffee stirrers and glue on siding. Some quick and dirty paint techniques and *voila!* Pieces of scrap become masterpieces.

do you have part number and also what online site sells these gasoline platforms?

From the MTH Search, these popped up.  You can use the tool on the MTH site to see who sells these, but that is not always 100% reliable.

 

There is also a vendor at the York Train shows that makes some amazing gas refinery/storage equipment.  I mean some really amazing and detailed stuff.  I'm not modeling that, so I never paid attention to the company name.  I'll bet there is someone on this forum who can provide that information though.

Search results

Some of the MTH buildings are O scale versions of HO buildings. I used a couple of the Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe structures to make the "wedge shaped factory" that Art Curren made in the Kalmbach book, Kitbashing HO Model Railroad Structures.

A lot of the kits & buildings mentioned are very nice. But how does one keep their budget in line without blowing the budget just for one building or building kit?

 

Not even Plasticville has all the stuff offered in O/S scale compared to H.O. scale.

 

It seems that more companies are focused on H.O. then any other area of sales.

 

Lee Fritz

Learn to scratch build structures.

I am self taught.....not overly talented.

Order a Clever Models warehouse kit. Start with it. About $10 and you can print as many times as needed. That will give you an idea of the size of industrial buildings. You can even use the Clever Models kit as parts.....as you just print them over and over. Or just use the kit as patterns to make other parts. Look at foam core, matt board and card stock as materials. All pretty cheap. Lots of options out there.

Some assembly required.

Walther's kits.  Walthers does sell "Built-ups"

 

 

A Built-up, decals/sticker to be applied.

 

 

Some of these Walther's kits were designed with a double tab/slot system so that they could be assembled and then later dis-assembled for storage.  Later issues show most as "Built-ups"  Lionel Grain Elevator pictured.

 

 

Ertl Farm set.  K-line chicken coop.  

 

 

It would be interesting to see a Korber Roundhouse structure out of the box ready.

 

.

Some intense kits and modeling.

 

I hear you.  I myself have lusted over the Walthers steel mill kits in HO.  Unfortunately, in O gauge "it is what it is".  Some O manufacturers (we're not going to name names) have even wasted limited resources and legal funds copying eachother's building offerings.  With the unlimited choice of interesting buildings out there, how stupid is that?

 

Anyway, there really is only 1 way around this issue:  Learn to scratchbuild.  It is much easier than it seems and it takes a lot less skill than you think.  This is my first scratch built structure.

 

 

I don't recommend starting that way.  That was crazy. 

 

But, here's what I do recommend:

1. AMCDave suggested working with cardstock buildings first as a learning exercise - that's excellent advice.
2. Let the prototype be your guide.  Take photographs of the buildings that intrigue you.  Study them carefully.  If you can get measurements, perfect.
3. Make a drawing or plan of the building.  (Unlike me, start small.  )  Learn to use a drawing package like Visio or Dia (freeware) or just paper, pencil, and ruler.  Scale down the dimensions to what will fit on the layout.
4. Look at Scenery Forum for resources.  Examine the Plastruct, Evergreen, and other material catalogs.  Pick your building materials and buy a little extra in case you mess up.
5. Go for it.  Practice makes perfect.  If you've assembled model cars, planes or ships as a kid, this will not be difficult.

You will be surprised at how easy and liberating scratchbuilding is.  You will no longer be a prisoner of the same "look and feel" buildings as everyone else.  Your layout will be unique and you will have the satisfaction of saying "I built that".  I have abandoned the approach of looking for commercial offerings of particular buildings in favor of designing buildings that match the prototype.  I won't have all these buildings up in a short time, but I will eventually have something that is unique.

 

Best of luck,

 

George

I would like to respectfully disagree with the topic that availability of O gauge structures are lacking. Korber, Lionel, MTH, Atlas ( also has wood kits) , Woodland Scenics, Menards, Scenic Express, Ameritowne (OGR) and many others sell them. Look at the banner ads above. Then add in the specialty kit makers and you will come up with 100's of choices. You got money;  you tell us what you want and we'll tell you where you can buy it.

With high watt laser engravers filtering into the hobby, scratch building a custom building has never been easier, or faster. I designed & built my first one within the last two weeks. Painting was easy, windows with glass was easy, and gluing was easy. Then there is also the satisfaction of seeing your vision sitting in front of you, just as you pictured it.

I had the same issue when getting back into the hobby. 

Started with the MTH and Lionel buildings and have added Woodland Scenics buildings and Plasticville structures the past couple of years. 

 

Throw in all of the Dept 56 and Lemax ceramic buildings and I have enough to last for a long time. 

 

You can check the online auction site, many times they have kits or prebuilt structures for sale (I tried to buy a great scratchbuilt Coca-Cola factory and a Fruit factory but not willing to pay the winning bid). 

 

Cleverstock is a good inexpensive choice if you want to build your own. 

Korber is great too, and I think they will build it for you if you pay extra.

 

 

@ Mike CT

 

Who makes that Station?  I was on the Walthers site, but it does not show up.  I like the size of it.  It resembles the MTH station.

 

Ron

 

For some interesting kits that are a good start to super detail try the old Skyline kits. I have a number of houses, stations, fire house, and a garage alll of which were found on Flea-Bay for a very reasonable price. Also for industrial buildings look for old Suydam kits as well, they made some good metal buildings that can be made to look really good and I don't think anyone makes a kit today that replicates the Suydam buildings. 

 

Ted

I'll add another aspect to the above list - there are a very large number of articles in a large number of publications on building various structures published over the past 60+ years.  Many provide a list of materials in some format, plans, and step-wise descriptions of how the author built the structure.

 

You might also look into Wesolowski's re-issued book - Model Railroad Structures from A to Z

 

And, for the budget minded folks...maybe instead of that next boxcar or 3 that you really didn't need, buy that structure kit instead.  There are a good number of structure kits available for well under $100.  I seem to recall that I used to offer one,

 

For the "I don't have the skills..." set --> acquire them the same way everybody else has - practice, practice, practice.......

 

None of this is anywhere as hard as it might be made out to be.......

 

 

Dennis, I will concede that lately there has been some resurgence in commercially available structures for O gauge.  And that's a good thing!    However, by and large, the number and variety of such structures is way below what can be found in HO or N.  I'm not suggesting that we expect the same quantifies as found within those scales, but O isn't even close (maybe 10-25%?). You can go through the hundreds of available structures and still trace them back to a small number of root buildings.  Twenty-five variations on "Kirstens Kitchen Corner" really doesn't count, in my opinion. Also, a number of these buildings are out of circulation or not readily available. 

 

There are so many possible unique choices out there when it comes to real buildings, that I really don't comprehend the "cookie-cutter" variation route.

 

And if you have to go the "craftsman kit" route aka "bundle of sticks", you might as well scratch build.  It's not fair to make a blanket statement, but through the experience of a friend who buys these sorts of kits, I've found that a large number of them (especially the older ones) feature dicey instructions, badly manufactured parts, and require a large investment of time with no guarantee of satisfactory results.

 

Respectfully,

 

George

 

 

Rear picture.

I love Korber! I just like the look and I find them easy to kit bash. There is a relatively new Co. Altoona models who I think make great kits and will build for you! Saw them at York and they advertise. Have 2 of their kits and really like the quality! There was a member of this group who posted some fantastic photos of a shopping center he was designing using Ameritowne parts. I loved it and it shows what is possible in our gauge with some imagination and using what is available! York has lots of vendors selling finished kits but you pay for that! Building is one of my favorite parts of the hobby!

I think it is true that there were more ready-made HO scale structures than 0 gauge in the past, although there are companies today making 0 gauge scale.  This is probably a wonderful opportunity for a cottage industry--the manufacturing of 0 gauge buildings.  They could be customized or regular stock but not kits.  I went to the York TCA show in the recent past and purchased two ready-made buildings made from wood by a fellow who said he could customize anything if I would only send him a photo.  These buildings were actually quite cute and had a sidewalk on the side of the structure's base.  Just to show you how appealing they were, my wife actually suggested that I purchase two instead of one (now you gotta believe they were nice just from that recommendation). I also create toy soldier dioramas and I can tell you that there is a dearth of buildings there, too (except for the smaller war-gamer scale).  One company makes some from foam which are inexpensive but the detail is a hit or miss.  Yet the number of structures is small for the scale that is normally used. I know there are some fellows who make doll houses.  Maybe they could produce 0 scale buildings. 

While I  agree there are far fewer buildings in O Scale than HO, as others note there really are quite a few options.

 

 

We have expanded the Korber Models line in O with 10 new kits in the past three years plus a number of detail part  ad roof top signs.  The kits are also great for kit bashing.

 

If you don't feel you have the  time or  skill, we offer our Korber Komplete service where we will build up, paint,  light and weather  any of our standard kits ready for placement on your layout.  We also do custom work.

 

This winter we will  be  introducing 2 new lines that offer more structure options and a modular approach so you can adapt to your own design.