Plasticville Structures

Cut it off at the top of the platform and "pour" a ground level concrete pad for it to sit on.  Changes the appearance considerably.  You  can find a modern attached covered platform and do the same thing.  Put one on each end of the station for a larger appearing structure.

Don't forget portable steps so passengers can get on and off of the cars.

Also you can cover all of the exterior walls with brick paper for a very nice and unique look.

Somewhere back in the archives of photos in here are several of these l kit bashed to death....creating L shaped, V shaped, two story, and others. And l remember a lot of other kitbashes that were posted. Dunno if a search will pull them up?

Thanks guys!  All good suggestions.  I appreciate your input.

Bob

Not sure if this is what you are thinking but I have a Plasticville station that barely survived six younger brothers and is now in its second century.  It was missing one side and the platform but I wanted to use.  I made one side and the platform out of some thin sheets of wood, painted and added lights under the roof.

Steve,

That's a great station!  Like what you did.  I have Plasticville's suburban station(white with green roof) from the early 1950's  and not a lot of room on a short connecting rail line.  I'm looking for ideas on modifying it somewhat-perhaps the exterior walls,platform. etc. and adding lighting.  Any other input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob

Bob,

Finally found where I had packed the station away.  Looks like it largely survived the move.  When I did this several years ago it wasn't with any skill, just seeing what others did on this forum, finding things I had on hand and giving it a whack.

The exterior wall, building interior floor and platform are made from thin luaun, painted with craft paint (no idea what at this point).  The bulbs I had picked up at a train show and were easy for me to hook up.

When I get to the point of putting buildings and scenery on the new layout I'll probably repaint the exterior and may have to fashion a new platform as the first one was made to match up with Fastrack profile.  Instead of the bulbs I used I would also look at LEDs.

Steve

Nice job! With some paint and weathering Plasticville buildings can look great, especially if you are running traditional size trains. You can put together a whole town in a small area, which just isn't possible with scale buildings. I have a mix of building types on my layout, many of which are Plasticville, purchased at swap meets for a few dollars each, then repainted.

I have a Plasticville house that was missing a roof when I bought it in a bunch of Plasticville stuff at a train show. I found some plastic material that looks like roof tiles and glued it in place for the roof on the 2 story house, also put a roof on a grain elevator that I had for a few years as it seems that I lost the roof for it in the 2 or 3 moves since I left the 2 story house we used to live in. Had to cut another piece of plastic for the 2 story house so the chimney would fit correctly and glued it in.

I have some Plasticville railroad signal bridges that I can't find certain parts(lower bracket) for so I used some plastic zip ties(or tie wraps) to attach the signal heads to the platform with. I use them in the back side of the layout so people won't notice the zip ties.

Lee Fritz

A good reference is the book Dennis Brennan produced, “Realistic Modeling For Toy Trains...” On page 73 he shows how to easily alter the appearance of the station for a nice rustic and weathered look.

Forty Rod posted:

Cut it off at the top of the platform and "pour" a ground level concrete pad for it to sit on.  Changes the appearance considerably.  You  can find a modern attached covered platform and do the same thing.  Put one on each end of the station for a larger appearing structure.

Don't forget portable steps so passengers can get on and off of the cars.

Also you can cover all of the exterior walls with brick paper for a very nice and unique look.

I'm working on that very thing right now.  I should have the base platforms for one station and two passenger shelters shortly.  Let  me know if you are interested.

BTW, the Plasticville Collectors Association just had a sale on a whole batch of stuff from a storage locker.  Really great prices. I got most of a small town for just under a hundred bucks.  Lots of bashing material there.

Now, if I only had a place to put it all.    

Added a kit bash of TWO Plasticville Union Stations, assembled together then band sawed in half lengthwise, then to a Lionel Grand Central:  My 6 year old Grand Daughter matched the paint.

Excellent ideas, thank you 

Back when there was a lot of P-ville bashing on here, l thought l would give it a shot.  I generated several P-ville stations, large and small. I think they show what an imagination can do with P-VILLE.

Now these structures are REALLY impressive. Thank you for sharing them.

What did you use for the two story structure?  I also like the paint scheme and the overall realism.

Thanks again!

I used Plasticville station parts out of junkboxes for all of them, but to get rid of the "stucco" surface, l sheathed the two story in Evergreen board and batten.  Some others were sheathed, too.  Probably most difficult was shaping the roof on the Y station.  Some Tichy or Grandtline doors and windows were added, too. Just a lot of cutting and fitting.

The challenge with Plasticville is they did not make it to 1:48 scale unfortunately.  Some of their structures had some really nice detail but once you put figures or a vehicle in the structures look obviously small.

EmpireBuilderDave posted:

The challenge with Plasticville is they did not make it to 1:48 scale unfortunately.  Some of their structures had some really nice detail but once you put figures or a vehicle in the structures look obviously small.

This isn't necessarily a disadvantage. Placed in the background, slightly-underscale structures, vehicles and roadways can be very useful to introduce a mild bit of forced perspective into a layout, producing the impression of increased expansiveness. It is not uncommon for folks to use HO (or even smaller) structures in the far background, such as on a "distant" mountainside. The trick is to be locally-consistent.

This scene is way in the background on a mountain -- I build everything at 3/4 of the proper scale:

My intention is to go with the "Plasticville” look for at least one of my towns. And, I want to combine elements of the Plasticville buildings to create something unique.

The park entrance you created is unique and an outstanding idea;  which I intend to incorporate. 

Thank you