Want some new Plasticville products?

[gmhtrains]

The year 2016 has ended and for the second year in a row only four new topics were discussed on this Plasticville forum. In fact, it was five years ago in 2012 when the Plasticville U.S.A. forum last considered an average of at least one new topic per month. I think that this minimal interest in Plasticville may be a contributing reason why Bachmann is in no hurry to create new structure designs nor to try to locate 60-year-old dies, that may or may not be usable, somewhere in China.

But the fact that Bachmann is not releasing new nor reissued buildings doesn't prevent anyone from kitbashing or kit-mingling new structures for the town. Unless you are a collector rather than modeler, a simple coat of paint can change a building's image. Repaint a roof from green to brown. Change house windows from blue to yellow. Buy a sheet of paper or actual wood shingles and reroof the building. Buy a second kit and make the building larger--longer, wider, L-shaped or even add a second story. A second or third kit doesn't have to be the same building. Instead of a second or third Plasticville kit, combine structures of different makers, or buy sheet styrene and scratchbuild the additional wall(s).

I recently saw an Ebay listing for six O scale Plasticville fire station kits, with all 24 walls, but no roofs. I have six Corgi and Del Prado fire trucks that I want to display in front of my station, so (with a high bid) now I have the needed walls to create a six-bay station, with both rear entrances and front doors for responding trucks. And a have eight or 10 plain walls left over for another project or two.

What kind of building do you need on your layout that might be a kit-mingling project?

Gul Hulin

[phillyreading]

I wish that Bachmann would make some more items in O or S scale for their Plasticville lineup. There are new items for H.O. so why not the same items for O or S scales? Especially the old saloon building.
I think more people would buy Plasticville if their were more O or S scale buildings.

Lee F.

[Terry Toenges]

I have the HO old West buildings. It would be nice if they were made for On30.

[Warflight]

I'm getting ready to build my layout, and I want it to all be Old West. 1870s-'80s. I just got a Plasticville Saloon/US Marshal's office, and I'm a bit intimidated about building it when it comes (it's being delivered tomorrow) I would LOVE to see more HO old West stuff that's pre-built.

Fun fact... Though Bachmann has been around since 1833, it wouldn't be until 1947 that they got into model railroading, when they first manufactured a white plastic miniature fence as a Christmas decoration.

That line of decorations was of course called "Plasticville", and thus, an era was born!

Without Plasticville, we wouldn't have Bachmann trains. That's where it all started. (come on Bachmann... it's 2017... 70th anniversary of Plasticville, and thus, Bachmann Trains! Perfect opportunity to bring out some new Plasticville to celebrate!)

(yes... I am a font of useless trivia)

[Terry Toenges]

I have all the Old West structures. I bought them used on EBay and already assembled.

[Warflight]

That's kinda what I've been looking for... used, and preassembled, and have found a FEW on eBay that I wanted (one auction even had stage coaches!) but was unfortunately outbid.

It seems, I keep getting, or being given by friends, unassembled sets. (a friend recently gave me a train station by Model power, that is unassembled... and it looks a bit like a task to build. I don't even have any supplies for building it yet)

[Terry Toenges]

It's been over quite a number of years that it took me to find them. Just takes patience.

[Terry Toenges]

Warflight - You sound like I did back in the late 90's when I started messing with trains.
When I a kid, my dad had O27 layouts but I never had one of my own.
I liked all the old West stuff and wanted to do a 19th century layout. I started doing one and it mushroomed into more than I really wanted. I spent many hours on EBay buying old West rolling stock and structures and stuff. I got a long way with the layout but never quite finished it. It was serving a dual purpose as a Christmas layout, too.
In mid '05, I had a heart attack and had some amnesia and couldn't remember a lot of things about my trains. I took the layout down in '06 but made a big oval one for Christmas. After that I didn't do any trains for a few years. In 2010, I started with loops around the tree once a year and got more involved each year since then.
I made a cool Christmas one last year and now the bug has bitten me again to do a regular layout. Not quite old West but On30 back woodsie this time.
Here's a few pics of the old one in various stages.








For Christmas, I just covered a lot of the layout with white batting and only used the lower level.

[Warflight]

That is simply AMAZING!

I was thinking, for my layout, I kinda want to do the old west thing, but in winter... (growing up in a desert, snow is something I've always loved the idea of)

I also don't know if I want switches... just a bare simple layout, but that attitude might change. At first I thought about a tunnel, to hide the train during it's journey, but then I remembered, back in the 80s, I didn't want to do a tunnel, so much as rock formations (using old ceiling tiles) for my hidden spots, and the ideas are just rolling in from there.

I know whatever I do, it'll never be finished... I mean... I'm not kidding myself here.

A flatmate asked me "if you do old west, then what will you do if you ever buy a modern diesel?" and my response was "who's to say it isn't a theme park?" We have plenty of rail museums around here that look old west, but has an active line crossing close by. Hell, the train in my profile picture is ten feet away from the Trolley line, and that's a whole 19th century railway station (for a line they are STILL attempting to finish... 150 years later)

[Terry Toenges]

I see by your profile you are in San Diego. I've been to quite few RR places in CA from S D up to Sacramento when we went West on vacation years ago.
We left Missouri and headed to San Diego first and were going to drive up to Wash. and Oregon. We spent so much time and money in CA. that we had to head back to Mo. after Sacramento. I do remember the San Diego Model Railroad Museum.
I wanted to do a "Fort Apache"  on the layout, so we visited a lot of old military forts out West. I never got around to doing that.
I was a big fan of "Old #3" that starred in a lot of movies and TV shows, but when we got to the museum out there, they had her all apart and in pieces because they were redoing her.
An Amtrak diesel and cars were what I very first bought. I quickly decided to go old time and the diesel has been on the shelf ever since. I do have a Santa Fe A-B-A Warbonnet set that were in with a big lot I bought off EBay just to get the steamers and the cars in the lot. Those are the only diesels I have and they static now.

[Warflight]

A lot of folks don't know this, but... there are actually THREE model train museums here in San Diego (which are all accessible by trolley, and bus on a $5 day pass) PLUS two more rail road museums, if you count the "Depot" in La Mesa (open only one day a week, but you can still get nice photos of the train, as you can see by my profile pic)

You have the one you probably went to at Balboa Park (which is run by the La Mesa Model Railroad club... who are not in La Mesa any more) then there's the model train museum in Old Town, and then there's Frank the Trainman, who's museum is also a shop, but the museum is BIGGER than the shop, filled with classic cars, and the like (I found him by accident one day when I was looking for some Victrola parts he had... and they only cost me doing a quick and dirty restore on an Edison talking machine!)

OH... I almost forgot... in Grossmont Plaza, an S Scale train club has a sort of "museum/setup" in one of the shops, that is meant to get the younger generation involved in our hobby. (their setup is all in sections which are BEAUTIFUL, and so historically accurate, and then you get to one section that's Marvel, and Super hero themed, while still maintaining scale accuracy... it's fun, and nice to see the tradition of having Easter Eggs in a setup... oh, and to keep it on topic, a LOT of the buildings, and especially the billboards on their S scale layout, are kitbashed to scale Plasticville... who knew you could kitbash HO, and scale it up? I wouldn't have thought of that!)

Forts... yes... I am friends with Larry Storch (Cpl Agarn on "F-Troop", and yes, he's doing quite well... he just had his 94th birthday in January) so I am a bit predisposed that if I DO do a fort (which I'm considering) it will be Ft Courage. I've been to the REAL Ft Courage as a child, and know the place quite well, but, I'll probably do the TV version if I build it, simply because the TV version has more humor elements, and is a lot more open, and visually appealing than the actual fort.

[Terry Toenges]

It was the La Mesa place we visited.
I'm pretty sure I've been to about every old fort West of the Mississippi (except Washington and Oregon). That's cool about Cpl. Agar. We've been on a few trips through the Western states. One trip we went North, then West over to Idaho and down and back. Another we went South to Texas, then West and up and back home. One we went straight across to California. We always zig-zagged our way all around because I had all the railroad places and forts mapped out before we left. I always liked doing the two lane black top routes instead of the interstates because there is so much more neat stuff to see.

[Warflight]

As a kid, I LOVED going to Oatman Az whenever we took long trips... it's just so out of the way, and almost a ghost town.