@Randy Harrison posted:Your city buildings are SUPERB!!!!! Did you scratch-build them? The ornamental architectural details are spectacular!
They are all scratchbuilt from photos of actual Schenectady buildings.
@Randy Harrison posted:
Pending the building we used Rice pasta beans create the pattern based on a closeup photo of the detail and then create the mold with mix of dental plaster and gentle touch up carving and applied to the wall. Hope Iam clear.
Don, that's a great way to make molds. Better watch out or Alan will be after you for a how to article.
Something in the works.
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only tall building that I have right now...
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@coach joe posted:Bringing back a great topic. While not as nice or as tall as Skip's Empire State Building in the original post here's a cardstock ESB that I thought would work on the back end of a layout to add depth of field.
Yours Looks to be great. Ours is a 3-D jigsaw puzzle and we like it.
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Your ESB seems to be about twice the size of mine. I had a couple of those foam 3D jigsaw puzzles, a yellow train station that I used under the tree with a cardstock village. and a waterfront scene I had never used. As mot of the train stuff is still packed a year after we moved I'm not certain if either puzzle, or the cardstock village made the move. I found the ESB in a box marked model kits so there is hope the others are in a similarly marked box.
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I gave a talk on"The Art and Technique of Lighting Buildings and Streets" to our local divisions of the NMRA this past Sunday. Here are two slides from my talk, both photos of my "tall" buildings
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@Brad Trout posted:
NICE!! Tell us more about these!
@John Sethian posted:I gave a talk on"The Art and Technique of Lighting Buildings and Streets" to our local divisions of the NMRA this past Sunday. Here are two slides from my talk, both photos of my "tall" buildings
John...this scene of buildings are absolutely beautiful!!
How about this one! Don't forget to click on the image since it will give you much more detail.
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Alan the service station and Ford Dealer are a couple of flatlanders in the midst of the mountainous monoliths of downtown. Another great scene from your layout.
@OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:NICE!! Tell us more about these!
Thank you, Alan!
I made these by following an idea from Jim Policastto right here on the forum:
https://ogrforum.com/...1#153463017191908401
The short of it is that the left 2 buildings are made from 1" foam handy panels from Lowe's and the right building is mainly plexiglas sprayed with frosted rattle can and with dropped ceiling runners for the corners and balsa strips for the verticals.
@OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:How about this one! Don't forget to click on the image since it will give you much more detail.
Gorgeous! I always love a good El.
@John Sethian posted:I gave a talk on"The Art and Technique of Lighting Buildings and Streets" to our local divisions of the NMRA this past Sunday. Here are two slides from my talk, both photos of my "tall" buildings
@John Sethian absolutely beautiful!
The tall bridge frames the city high-rises ... click image for full detail.
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Alan:
Your layout is a true work of art and dedication to our hobby. Your bridge is outstanding! Is it scratch-built? I not, where did you get it?
Great to see this pop up again in my notifications. Great to see it ressurected again. Skip's been spending too much time popping up on FB lately, at least from what I've seen. Mostly engine pics from him but with the beautiful scenery around the trains. Maybe he'll pop by and post his pictures of Yankee Stadium since baseball season is coming? Can someone tell Skip to pop by please?
@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:Great to see this pop up again in my notifications. Great to see it ressurected again. Skip's been spending too much time popping up on FB lately, at least from what I've seen. Mostly engine pics from him but with the beautiful scenery around the trains. Maybe he'll pop by and post his pictures of Yankee Stadium since baseball season is coming? Can someone tell Skip to pop by please?
Don't know what is going on with Skip.... He has always been an asset here and in the magazine but lately seems to be posting less and less and more on FB. Even though this forum is growing by leaps and bounds (more about that in a separate post I will be making), it is my opinion that too many train groups split the pie into smaller and smaller pieces. It results in one having to run around the internet trying to keep up with this group and that group, etc. Not my thing. Long before I became involved with OGR, this forum was my "home".
Dave...how about you contacting Skip...tell him we miss his posts and would enjoy having him post the same things here he is posting elsewhere.
@Randy Harrison posted:Alan:
Your layout is a true work of art and dedication to our hobby. Your bridge is outstanding! Is it scratch-built? I not, where did you get it?
Thanks Randy! The bridge is in fact scratch-built by a man that had a large layout in the St. Louis area. He had from what I was told around a dozen bridges of various types and sizes (this one was of medium size). Apparently he had a wood working shop and built all of his bridges by cutting up lumber and making each piece of the bridge from plans he had drawn. In other words, he built them "the old fashioned way".
I saw this bridge at my first York I attended. It was being used as a display by one of the vendors. I took a little heat over acquiring it by some of our forum members who thought that I bought it before the start of the meet. In fact, after we set up our booth, I returned to my hotel room and called the vendor to ask if it was for sale and he told me everything at his table was for sale! We discussed that he could not sell it until the meet opened so no price had been established. The next day as soon as the meet opened, I rushed over to the vendor's table, agreed on a price, and bought the bridge. Jim Barrett helped me bring it over to our booth. I had a PT Cruiser at the time and the bridge would not fit in the car because it was too long! It originally had a foot long approach on both ends. We borrowed a skill saw from Bachmann and cut off both approaches and then with quite a bit of effort, got the thing in my car. As it turned out, no other modifications were needed as it fit the space I had for it perfectly!
@OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:Don't know what is going on with Skip.... He has always been an asset here and in the magazine but lately seems to be posting less and less and more on FB. Even though this forum is growing by leaps and bounds (more about that in a separate post I will be making), it is my opinion that too many train groups split the pie into smaller and smaller pieces. It results in one having to run around the internet trying to keep up with this group and that group, etc. Not my thing. Long before I became involved with OGR, this forum was my "home".
Dave...how about you contacting Skip...tell him we miss his posts and would enjoy having him post the same things here he is posting elsewhere.
Well, I can give it a shot. I'll pop on FB in an hour or so, see if I can find his post about Yankee Stadium again. The group that it's in tends to have massive turn around in posts and can be hard to track down things. I'm sure I can find it. Maybe I'll ask if his pictures would qualify for Tall Building Tuesday? I know tomorrow most like doing Front End Friday, so if I don't catch him today, definitely tomorrow. See what comes Alan. 🙂
BTW, I always love that bridge over the yard/staging area. Makes me think of some of the old photos I've seen about.
Got the message Alan and Dave, and I certainly love the OGR forum and will be posting more regularly.
My layout is actually O Gauge in a relatively small space. My original design that I started back in 1999 was to be 8'x20' and basically thats what the layout is. What I added was a 3'x4' wing on each side which now technically makes the overall perimeter 11'x20'. I mention this because I'm not really looking to add more tall buildings but I have been working on adding detail and improving the scenes.
Here is a photo of my Times Building, portrayed the way it was originally built in 1904 as home of the New York Times newspaper. It remained pretty much the same up through the 1950s. The building was sold to an advertising executive and sign designer in 1961. The beauty of the building was gradually lost. Today, the building no longer has tenants above street level and has become the one massive collection of electronic advertising that we see today.
Here is my Times Building portraying the 1940-1960 time frame.
Here are 2 photos of the real building, what it was and what it is.
Happy Tall Building Tuesday everyone!!!
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Thank you all for the inspiration. It gives us mere mortals something to aspire to!!!
@NYC Fan posted:Got the message Alan and Dave, and I certainly love the OGR forum and will be posting more regularly.
My layout is actually O Gauge in a relatively small space. My original design that I started back in 1999 was to be 8'x20' and basically thats what the layout is. What I added was a 3'x4' wing on each side which now technically makes the overall perimeter 11'x20'. I mention this because I'm not really looking to add more tall buildings but I have been working on adding detail and improving the scenes.
Here is a photo of my Times Building, portrayed the way it was originally built in 1904 as home of the New York Times newspaper. It remained pretty much the same up through the 1950s. The building was sold to an advertising executive and sign designer in 1961. The beauty of the building was gradually lost. Today, the building no longer has tenants above street level and has become the one massive collection of electronic advertising that we see today.
Here is my Times Building portraying the 1940-1960 time frame.
Here are 2 photos of the real building, what it was and what it is.
Happy Tall Building Tuesday everyone!!!
They don't make them like they used to, unless someone takes the time to revive them that is. Wonderful building Skip, good to see you here again. Sorry it's been a bit since I seem to have lost the topic here again. Good thing it takes me a while to go through my inbox, or is it? I'll never figure out if it's good or bad, but I'll err on the side of good.🙂
These are scratch built except for windows (whatever Lionel had that was cheap). REA sign is Miller Engineering.
John
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Just finished this one and placed it on the layout: By the way, you can see that I don't have the street material down to cover the track ties. Layouts are never done! 
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@OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:Just finished this one and placed it on the layout:
Hey Alan, not to sound like a bananahead, but that building bares an interesting resemblance to what I would call milk crates. I think one of the stores is selling something like that as "totes" or the like for storage. Is that what it is, or some other very interesting build? It looks great though whatever it is. I'd like to hear more.
@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:Hey Alan, not to sound like a bananahead, but that building bares an interesting resemblance to what I would call milk crates. I think one of the stores is selling something like that as "totes" or the like for storage. Is that what it is, or some other very interesting build? It looks great though whatever it is. I'd like to hear more.
Hi Dave,
You are absolutely correct! This is the "Crates International" headquarters building so the board of directors decided that their new building should represent architecturally the product they produce. Hey, that is my story and I am sticking to it ... LOL!
Alan, you're the master of turning not buildings into incredible skyscrapers, your imagination seems boundless. What is the footprint of the new building and what did you use for window glass?
@OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:Hi Dave,
You are absolutely correct! This is the "Crates International" headquarters building so the board of directors decided that their new building should represent architecturally the product they produce. Hey, that is my story and I am sticking to it ... LOL!
Well Alan, it works, and works very well. It does look exactly like a modern skyscraper would, very fancy, weird windows and such, and has all new desks in the offices, lol. Glad my eyes still work, lol.
@coach joe posted:Alan, you're the master of turning not buildings into incredible skyscrapers, your imagination seems boundless. What is the footprint of the new building and what did you use for window glass?
Thanks Joe! Anyone can set their mind to looking at objects and imagining how to use them as structures or parts of structures for their layouts. This one started when my sister-in-law gave me the mini storage cubes. Unlike most that I have seen with round or oblong openings on the sides, this one had square openings and they stacked on top of one another perfectly. Of course my mind started to think vertically! She bought these several years ago and could not remember where she got them. I wanted more to make a larger, taller, and more complex structure but could not find identical ones. The footprint is about 8 by 9 inches and the "glass" is gold reflective craft board I found at Hobby Lobby. I may change it to auto window tint as I have some of that on hand too. It all depends on whether I will illuminate it.
Built in 1929 The New York Central Building, the intended backdrop for Grand Central Terminal, rises above the magnificent statuary on top of the terminal. The NYC Building stands 32 stories high with a pyramid roof capped by an ornate cupola. Unfortunately this view of this beautiful building was blocked when the railroad did away with the baggage and express portion of the terminal and allowed The Pan Am Building to be erected between them in 1960.
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All my tall buildings are in the distance behind the round house. Some are real tall sky scrapers.
Charlie
@NYC Fan posted:Built in 1929 The New York Central Building, the intended backdrop for Grand Central Terminal, rises above the magnificent statuary on top of the terminal. The NYC Building stands 32 stories high with a pyramid roof capped by an ornate cupola. Unfortunately this view of this beautiful building was blocked when the railroad did away with the baggage and express portion of the terminal and allowed The Pan Am Building to be erected between them in 1960.
Beautiful shot, Skip. I can’t count the number of times I drove “through” that building when I lived in the city and I never knew that it was the NYC Building. Thanks for the history.
P.S. Google Maps refers to the Pan Am/Met Life Building as the “Looming tower bisecting Park Avenue” 
@OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:How about this one! Don't forget to click on the image since it will give you much more detail.
Now THAT is impressive. Full building immersion plus El.
John
It's Saturday morning but I thought I'd add a couple pictures of my growing metropolis to the thread. This is my Union Station, it has two AF passenger stations with soon to be 6-8 stories of Bilt E-Z on top of it. There is room behind the station for a couple more skyscrapers, maybe the second level will expand to the left for even more. 
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