Tinplate Buildings

Here are 2 diner's I made from 610 passenger cars. The only difference  are the end doors, the originals are not cut out. One I sold the other I added a diner sign on top and gave it to my Grandson for his Christmas layout.

2 more diners!   This is a passenger car my older brother who is no longer with us gave me years ago.  I made it into a  diner and named it in his honor.  Below that is another diner I made from my first standard gauge passenger car  

This was a rusty Lionel 115 station I repainted in gray to be the local bank (the bankers are clones):

Gene, I bought this custom-made diner a few years ago, it is Standard Gauge, looks like made from a 337 car.   I added the signs – the attachment of the roof sign is temporary, gotta find a better way.   This wouldn't happen to be one you made, would it?

Sure looks like it, at any rate.

All these diners... I can almost hear Rick Sebak talking about Joe Bagadonutz sitting in the same booth daily for the past 15 years, eating pie served to him by Irene Slabodnitz, whos great grandfather bought and opened the  place in 1925.

Here is a Diner I picked up a few years ago. It looks exactly like those shown in CTT years ago as being made by Madison Hardware.

Steve

You should definitely check out Jayline, Skyline and H&H for O-gauge tin buildings. Ives, Hafner and Chein also made tin stations. German manufacturers Beckh, Bing, Fandor. British Hornby. Tin accessories from Schrey, Colber, Junior Bridge Company and Fergusson. All period-close enough-type stuff.

Hello Gene Magg, Chris Lonero, Hojack, Steve Eastman and anyone else I may have left out.   Thanks for posting your pictures of your diners.  Its difficult finding tinplate up here (Ontario,Canada).  Hope to find a junker when I'm at York.  I  have to try making one.  Thanks,  waynew

Greg Nagy posted:

All these diners... I can almost hear Rick Sebak talking about Joe Bagadonutz sitting in the same booth daily for the past 15 years, eating pie served to him by Irene Slabodnitz, whos great grandfather bought and opened the  place in 1925.

one of my favorite shows.

Here's my homemade whistling station. It's styled after vintage Ives stations with an AF whistle unit inside.

handyandy posted:

Here's my homemade whistling station. It's styled after vintage Ives stations with an AF whistle unit inside.

Handyandy, what is this done with?? 

I used a computer and Microsoft Paint to create the artwork. Then printed it onto  cardstock which was then sprayed with three or four coats of clear gloss spray paint and assembled over a foam core sub structure. The base is painted plywood.

It's not really tin, but it has that look.

handy andy,  looks great,  \\ but you could of  glued it to tin,  maybe 22 ga,  easier to cut,

then its tinplate!

handyandy posted:

I used a computer and Microsoft Paint to create the artwork. Then printed it onto  cardstock which was then sprayed with three or four coats of clear gloss spray paint and assembled over a foam core sub structure. The base is painted plywood.

It's not really tin, but it has that look.

Can you email me, I'd like to talk with you further about this specific project.

handyandy posted:

I used a computer and Microsoft Paint to create the artwork. Then printed it onto  cardstock which was then sprayed with three or four coats of clear gloss spray paint and assembled over a foam core sub structure. The base is painted plywood.

It's not really tin, but it has that look.

This is the kind of creativity I enjoy seeing.  To me, it's so much better than just plopping down the same building that a thousand other people have.  And on a budget that leaves money for other things, too...

Well done.

I have made a house for 0 gauge. The tin was a old solvent canister.

The Märklin Villa in 00 gauge was my template. I had changed them to 0 gauge.

best greetings from Germany
Arne

ARNE,  What a great job!   I really like this project.   Approximately how many hours did you put into it total? 

HandyAndy, Your project looks exactly like a tin building!!  I still can't believe it's mounted onto cardstock!  Please email me as well.  Thanks

Kazar,

the working time was around 10 hours, but the total was 1 week to dry the colours.

Arne

About a year ago I walked in to my favorite antique store and he had just taken in a heavy tin building that looked like a haunted house. It was approximately O gauge so I bought it for $5.  I painted two roofs a dark red for a little color. It was built to old a lit candle so there is an opening in the roof which I have never filled in. It is an unusual, cool building especially considering he price. I will post a photo soon. Keep your eyes open-never know what you will find !!

Another source of the card stock buildings that could be attached to tin:

https://ogrforum.com/t...63#57038617448516563

A few years back I purchased a few homemade tinplate buildings at York.  The designer/builder  had used a computer to design and cut the pieces from steel plate which he spot welded together, primed and painted, added wiring and lights, and final glued on some Grant-Line window frames to the structures.  I subsequently added some custom printed magnets to turn the buildings into the specific Milwaukee factory buildings I wanted.

Bob Nelson

Navy Seal, you have some really nice buildings there.   That's what I miss about not being able to attend York, having the chance to find someone like that there who's made some unique items for sale.  For me that's what York is about, (aside having fun looking at all the trains and going with friends).

ARNE, Thanks for the reply.  I would have guessed much longer.  There is a lot of work that went into that building.  The construction of the roof with the gables must have been a real challenge to keep it uniform and square.

I have some buildings from the same designer that Bob (Navy Seal) does.  

This is a similar building to Bob's brewery.

It was my understanding the the person who made these actually cast all of the windows and doors himself.  I believe that some of the buildings I have may be one of a kind.  There were several other buildings that he had that I wish I had purchased.  I have always been happy with the way they look and the character that they give to the Blueboard Central Division of American Flyer Lines.

Greg

Northwoods Flyer

I have 3-4 of his buildings also. His first name was Chad, but don't remember his last name. Yes he did his own castings. His bases are made of pretty heavy steel. I bought one of his first on e-bay and contacted him and convinced him to add the holes for lighting,

Steve

Now this is a building I would love to have.  A tinplate brewery I would open up some real estate for! 

I actually altered mine.  I replaced the water tower with a vintage Ives water tower and it has become the Ives Railway Line manufacturing plant on my railroad.  Its the major competitor to American Flyer Lines in town.

Greg

Northwoods Flyer

Is the maker of the tinplate buildings still in business? I don't recall seeing any during the past York Show. Does anyone have any contact information?

Thanks!

HandayAndy, you should shoot me an email. I'm a little interested in some of the tech aspects of how you made that station (and MIGHT have a small idea.... )

RDG Fan,  He unfortunately is not producing any longer.

neat looking buildings -

Bob C.

Chris Lonero posted:

Now this is a building I would love to have.  A tinplate brewery I would open up some real estate for! 

I'm thinking about building something like this. I have a Marx military training building I think I can use for the main structure. Anyone have any small tinplate buildings they want to sell?   Thanks. 

Nice work guys! Is there a good simple cheap way to punch out clean square window openings in sheet metal?

I drill a hole and take a nibbling tool.

Arne

Chris Lonero posted:

Chris Lonero posted:

Now this is a building I would love to have.  A tinplate brewery I would open up some real estate for! 

I'm thinking about building something like this. I have a Marx military training building I think I can use for the main structure. Anyone have any small tinplate buildings they want to sell?   Thanks. 

 

Chris,

If you have been to Trainfest 2014 or 2015 you may have seen the Schlitz brewery building in action on the SGMA layout as well as the 3-story building converted into a Pabst brewery building.  This was done by adding a flashing Miller Engineering sign to the building's roof.  That sign is virtually identical to the real one below which was erected in Chicago during the 1940s.

Here's the Miller Engineering sign for comparison.

My goal is to add a Miller Beer Brewery and a Blatz Beer Brewery to these two in order to create in Standard Gauge my version of the famous Milwaukee Road "Beer Train".

In addition, I also have a few tinplate houses similar to Greg's and made by the same man who made both our factory buildings and houses.  I will locate these, take some photos and post them here.

Greg, I love your school building.  Wish I had one in my collection.

Bob Nelson

I dug out the other buildings and took photos of them.  Here's one of the buildings on a green "grass" platform which I  plan to use as a little red schoolhouse until I find a better building to use:

Here's another building of a similar design but with a different paint scheme and a different design for the "wing".

Here's a small factory building of the same design as the yellow house but on a grey "concrete" platform and with an industrial chimney along the full far side of the building and more factory-style doors and windows.  This may become my third Milwaukee brewery.

Bob

Below is a picture of my tin house that started out as a Christmas candle light. This stands about 11 inches tall and originally was bare tin. The back is hinged to place a candle inside. I bought it on Clearance after Christmas at Michaels for around $8.00. I painted it added textures that I downloaded from the internet and built the senic plot and porches from some scrap masonite. It looks right at home on my floor layout.

I'll post a picture of it on my floor layout later.

Here are a couple of pictures of the house on my floor layout in my messy basement.

Here is a train shed building I pop riveted together from a Smith Metal Works kit (SMW provides small bolts and nuts for assembly but IMHO pop rivets are quicker and cleaner).  It is a simple design that could be easily duplicated from readily available sheet metal.  Inside the shed you can see an extra piece of precut sheet metal, which SMW provides for those who want to build a shed open on one end only.  Unfortunately, SMW is no longer in business but their kits and assembled buildings occasionally come up for sale.   

Bob Nelson