Modeling the Old West

[Warflight]

So, a few weeks ago, I picked up a new Plasticville "Restaurant/Marshal's office" set, and had a lot of fun building it, and will probably weather, or at least detail it, as it seems... well... plastic (I suppose that's sort of the point... I mean, it's IN the title) and then yesterday, a friend sent me some Old West stuff (as I'm modeling the Old West for my layout) and one of the items is the same set, but, from the 70s or 80s.

WOW what a difference... okay, sure, the instructions had no diagrams, but they were still easy enough, but, the... well... the quality is amazing on the older one! Don't get me wrong, it's still mostly the same set... the stickers are a bit different, plus there's the "wanted poster" which isn't in the newer set, but the colours.. I don'[t need to paint, or weather at all with the older set, plus... what looked like something missing in the new set (four holes on the back porch, but only three items to plug into them) is because there *IS* something missing... the minifigs. The older set had three old west figures... two to plug into holes on the front, and a sitting guy for the back.

I would LOVE to see some of these older sets come back... and more Old West sets would be grand as well. Other companies don't do snap together, which is a shame, and Bachmann just doesn't seem to have a lot of Old West stuff like they used to.

I have been having a BLAST building these models (even the new stuff) so I'll still be buying anything I can get.

So, a quick question... what other Old West Plasticville kits are out there? I have the Restaurant/Marshal's office... and I've seen a vintage "Bank/Saloon" set... are there any more offered by Bachmann? (and yeah, I've seen the sets from other companies, but am having fun with the whole snap fit bit right now)

[Terry Toenges]

I think they were 3 different ones. The bank/saloon being one and I don't rem what the other one was. I had the others also but I think I gave them away a few years ago. When I was looking through my stuff I thought that I still had all 3 but I guess I didn't. I'm still looking through stuff so there is a slight chance I might have them.

[Warflight]

It took a lot of Googling, and looking, but, so far, I have found there was the Restaurant/Marshal's office, a Saloon/Barber shop, and a Bank/General store.

I seem to remember some action sets, however, from 1976... there was a Bachmann Train Robbery set, and if I recall, the Combine car would blow up, revealing a safe, plus there was a car that had some kind of opening at top for a bandit to drop in, and some sort of track accessory that dangled the bandits... it was like a base unit that had landscaping, a hideout, and a piece of straight track across it, though, that might not have been under the Plasticville name, even though it was Bachmann.

[Warflight]

Ooh, just discovered there was also a Livery Stable, and an Old West style station.

I found a Google image of the 1976 catalogue, and it shows a schoolhouse on the cover, and two other buildings I can't identify that are in their Old West setup (smaller buildings) There is a site I ran across with old Bachmann catalogues, including that 1976 catalogue, but the site seems to be down.

[Mister Lee]

I wouldn't mind seeing a couple of these buildings come back either in the original or in some upgraded version.

I have set up scenery modules using Brand X's Old West buildings, but they're space hogs. They really only work for someone with at least two and half feet of width at least 20 inches of space away from the track. For those of us with On30 or who think happy thoughts about 19th century trains and passenger cars, something like Bachmann's Old West kits would work much better.

And a little more to my rant. Just because a building might be "Old West," doesn't necessarily mean that it can only be used during frontier days. It could also be made to work along Main Street or Railroad Avenue at least up to 1950 and for amusement parks and museum villages after that.

[Warflight]

I've seen a few of the Plasticville old west buildings updated, and modernized. Someone has the Saloon up on eBay right now that looks a bit like a Vegas attraction, or some little tourist trap.