The Life-Like vehicles are the old Varney line. They're fine for the background. Up front...eh. They do have one good feature though. If you want to model a car wreck, or a beat up vehicle, they're plastic and inexpensive. Simply touch em carefully with a heat-source and back off fast.
Great modeling. I like the traffic jam in "West Bum Fork", gives me a chuckle. Nice to know small towns get traffic jams too. I will admit to being a little curious about all the 50's era cars, I thought you said you were modeling the 70s. Still, in some areas, I guess that wouldn't be uncommon.
Check out Professor George Pierson's layout. PRR and Tuscarora Valley narrow gauge. It's sweet, top notch modeling and a welcome break from all the Colorado/Western NG out there.
I have both those books, plus Stan Cohen's King Coal but they don't give me an idea of which kits would work best for the outbuildings. Dynamite sheds are easy and not very large, but I model the 1950s, didn't mines stop using them in the 30s?
My first M&WV's scenery was made from foam, and I used Perma Scene (no longer available) and Brandt's scenery mix. If you want relatively level terrain, what you can do is use plain old cardboard cut into contour shapes (like on a USGS topographic map) and then cover that with commercially...
The Aurora gas station and railroad station were apparently bought by Tyco; their brown box built-up gas station and passenger station are the Aurora models. The kits for these two models have not been on the market for a long time. It would be nice to see them again.
I like it! Congrats as well to Polar Lights or whatever company re-did the Aurora kit. I can only hope that that company will re-release other Aurora kits as well. The gas station, the church, and of course...the railroad station.