Need town inspiration


MoPac_Eagle

Well Known Member
I am building a town on my layout and I would like pictures to see some other designs and ideas. My buildings are two stories and under and more of a business district than a residential area. It would also be cool to see miller engineering signs if anyone has any pictures of them.
 
Here you go MoPac...

https://microstru.com/Animated-signs.html

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I have several of their signs and have to find locations for most of them.

Greg
 
I do not have a chosen era i have steam to sd70aces so not a set date. I have the walthers merchant row and some dpm kits but have not built any of them.
 
Here are a few that I posted over in the Coffee Shop this morning. They are all two and three stories and include three Walther's Merchant's Row structures, but it might give you some ideas. They're all on a peninsula that juts off the side of the layout.
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Hope that this is what you are looking for.
 
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One thing I've noticed is that very few towns/cities are on true grids. Randolph AFB is an example of where the grids have been 99% followed. This usually happens in the midwest and western US or in planned communities, such as Cape Coral, FL.

On the east coast, there are always buildings that don't sit straight on the road, are offset from the rest etc. They just don't conform to what the rest are doing. The roads themselves generally have been through some changes over the years and have some odd twists, widen in spots or narrow to cross a bridge, twist to conform to a river, things like that. Don't be afraid to do something that looks like it shouldn't be. That's more realistic.
 
Those photos are exactly what I was looking for. I want to get some ideas on how to lay the buildings out and paint them. Thank you for the nice photos! More are appreciated.
 
George: Well lit business district. Good use of space on what appears to be a narrow shelf.

Willie and Chet: Great town scenes as well. Chet, I like how the road turns right near the gas station. That bar named "High Ball Saloon" uses the term "High Ball" that some people will associate the name as once being a popular cocktail.


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Here's main street in a small Wisconsin town named Berlin. (Area residents put the accent on the first syllable of Berlin /ˈbɜːrlɪn/ rather than on the second. It has been said that this was in reaction to the anti-German sentiment that swept across the United States during World War I, and that the accent was previously on the second syllable. -Wikipedia) This photo bears a real likeness to George's, Willie's and Chet's modeling of small towns. Chet look at the lamp post on the right...looks like the ones on your layout.-Greg

Greg
 
I lit mine. Had to chip out the window pieces and built a spot to hang the lights from along with a small wiring bundle. Even dug through the tower to get the round windows to light. Surprisingly I didn't break anything.

It's packed away, waiting until the time comes to build the layout. I don't have any lit photos handy.
 
This (as yet uncompleted) town sits on a lift out section of my layout that measures about 2'6"x 6'. The main street crosses the tracks at one end in the foreground and angles across the lift out section and then curves to cross the tracks at the opposite end of the lift out. This part of the layout is usually viewed from one side only. For that reason I put mostly lower structures (gas station, used car lot, single floor grocery store and the memorial on the corner) on one side of the street. That way viewers can still easily view the store fronts on the far side of the street. This is a lift out section, so all the buildings need to be removable. There is no lighting in this part of the layout (so I guess it could be California).
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Here are a few that I posted over in the Coffee Shop this morning. They are all two and three stories and include three Walther's Merchant's Row structures, but it might give you some ideas. They're all on a peninsula that juts off the side of the layout.View attachment 41513
View attachment 41514
View attachment 41515
Hope that this is what you are looking for.
Holy Hell Batman, When do you sleep eat and go to work. There is a lot of man hours into that layout, how long have you been at that one.
 
When do you sleep eat and go to work. There is a lot of man hours into that layout, how long have you been at that one.
Retirement allows me unlimited time, although I rarely spend more than three hours a day, otherwise it would be just like having a job again. That town took me about five months altogether; some structures were re-used from the previous layout. While building the current train shed, I assembled structures on the dining room table.
 



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