One of my hangups in building a town is how to place buildings side by side. Should they be close together with windows looking into windows, or should they have an alley? Leaving interior walls out would make removing individual buildings next to impossible. Also, how many of you are concerned with logistics, such as access to places by road or driveway? I have trouble just parking a scene or building with no way to get to or from it. Am I overthinking this? Opinions welcome.
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John,
I felt the same way. I wanted alleys for loading access. I have both ways. The main town/city has alleys & the winter town are butted up against each other.
Charlie
Wonderful, Mark/KUNDE, the spacing and compositional skills, and of course, the details. Very handsome, all of it. Bravo!
FrankM
I have more problems than spacing to emulate those superb examples. Great ideas, including the MTH corner buildings in Charlie's pictures put back to back. I have two that I was trying to put next to each other. Simply great examples and thanks for helping.
John, in urban areas I don't plan to have many "alleys". I am still working on my "2 city blocks" which I ended up making much more complicated by changing the road to a wide radius... I like the way it looks, but everything took 3 times longer to do... curved sidewalks, roads, retaining walls... UGH! All these buildings can be reached from the back side by service vehicles over dirt and gravel ... There probably are some places with building placements where alleys could provide access to parking, or court yards.... Here are some quick photos of my 2 city blocks under construction... Still waiting for my son to print me up some more the 1940's type cast concrete walls that I designed... But so far I am pleased, and in spite of the extra hours it took, I am glad I went for the curvature, really trying to stay away from straight edges on the layout, long expanses of straight tracks or roads.
This is a great topic. Although not ready for my town, I have the buildings sitting in the general location of the town and was contemplating this same issue. Thanks for the topic and the responses.
Please keep our developing product line when considering building flats, shadowboxes and buildings. We'll have a fun bevy of samples and offerings at York.
John H posted:One of my hangups in building a town is how to place buildings side by side. Should they be close together with windows looking into windows, or should they have an alley? Leaving interior walls out would make removing individual buildings next to impossible. Also, how many of you are concerned with logistics, such as access to places by road or driveway? I have trouble just parking a scene or building with no way to get to or from it. Am I overthinking this? Opinions welcome.
Never overthinking, This kind of analysis is part of the fun of building a layout. When I put buildings side by side I am asking the observer to believe that there are no windows on the side but that buildings abut one another. Every couple of buildings there is an alley or a street ending the block. Access to parking and driveways is essential to realism. Sometimes it is a stretch. All scenery should accomplish two things - #1. Please the viewer because #2. they present a realistic sky view of how a town or city might look. That being said, isolated buildings (standing alone) always have their best (most interesting) profile or side to the observer - whether it be a porch. loading dock, or etc. The context and continuity of the neighborhood must also be considered. A few taller or wider buildings up front that may obstruct smaller buildings rearward adds to a realistic dimensional effect in my opinion.
Yes, this is a very important consideration. I notice a lot of the O gauge built-up buildings have great detail on all 4 sides, that lend themselves toward using alleys between them. Towns I think of are like in Frank's photographs of Homer and Cortland, having many buildings side by side. For me, with little space, I might get one more building in a scene by having them up against each other. However, I have a couple built-up buildings that have exterior stairs or other detail that I would want to show.
Everyone's photographic examples are very helpful in seeing how you made good looking towns.
Hi Mark, I am glad you found my posting of those photos to be relevant. I appreciate the feedback of your reference. Thank you.
FrankM
Very much so, Frank!! You're welcome. They are very nice looking towns! Here in Butler, the buildings are spaced similarly, though some are more run down or have 'modernized' facades that in my opinion detract from the building's appearance. Though the business district of Mars, the town I grew up outside of, is only 1 1/2 blocks long, I can think of only one gap wide enough for a walkway on one side of the street, and no gaps on the other.
Thanks, Frank. I spent a lot of time at Cortland College when I was at Cornell for you can guess what. Even got a traffic ticket in Homer. The pictures are great. We have similar buildings in close by LeRoy and Batavia. They don't build 'em like that anymore. I have a couple of Buildings Unlimited kits I can put close and try to work out space between some of the builtup ones with detailed windows.
John H, How did you ever manage to get a traffic ticket in Homer?! I didn't even know such a thing happened.
Are there enough roads to do something wrong on to get a ticket? Don't tell me; it's not my business,
but I just couldn't resist kidding you about this. I hope that's OK.
FrankM
Frank, My thanks to you also for taking and posting the photos from Homer and Courtland. There is a lot to study in those excellent photos besides just spacing. Different brick/mortar and trim color variations, facades & cornices, awnings etc. Interesting also to note the number of buildings that have significantly different windows on different floors.... A great help, thanks. Chris A
Frank, I got my ticket on 81 heading for Cazenovia for another you can guess what. I was driving a ‘58 Chevy. 😇
Here in Laramie, the spaces between buildings are full of trash; you know, Walmart plastic bags and used condoms. How would you model THAT!
I decided instead to just abut the buildings side by side. Parking is "said to be" underground somewhere.
Frank,
The buildings in your photographs are the perfect prototypes for a model railroad - just like yours.
MELGAR
John H posted:Frank, I got my ticket on 81 heading for Cazenovia for another you can guess what.I was driving a ‘58 Chevy. 😇
Ooohhhhh, but driving such a beauty, you should have gotten a crowd of admirers, including the officer, not a ticket! For some wonders, all should be forgiven!
FrankM
I hadn't picked her up yet.
MELGAR posted:Frank,
The buildings in your photographs are the perfect prototypes for a model railroad - just like yours.
MELGAR
I'm glad you like them, MELGAR, and I appreciate your very, very kind words about my layout efforts (!)
Thank you, sir!
FrankM
chris a posted:Frank, My thanks to you also for taking and posting the photos from Homer and Courtland. There is a lot to study in those excellent photos besides just spacing. Different brick/mortar and trim color variations, facades & cornices, awnings etc. Interesting also to note the number of buildings that have significantly different windows on different floors.... A great help, thanks. Chris A
Thanks very much, Chris A. It's nice to hear somebody else saw all that I felt there was to see in those photos, too. I really appreciate your saying something.
FrankM
interesting topic. Two comments.
One trend I have noticed in recent years is that older buildings will strip out the interior walls, exposing the inside of the brick side walls. Several times I have noticed they were originally built with windows, and another building was built adjacent to it. Not much different than what we do.
What is important is what can be seen on the layout. Access is important in the real world. If you can't see the alley though, it isn't necessary to arrange your buildings to provide one...or you can hint at its existence.
Great stuff here.....thanks to all who contributed.
Peter
I too have thought about how to place buildings side by side. These are all great contributions and wonderful photos.
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