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The PWRR 3 - Downtown Philly Journals/Blogs
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Regular poster 374 posts royhoffman Regular poster 374 posts
royhoffman

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Obviousy, the most important thing about modeling a large city is to make it look like a large city. To create a small town atmosphere with the structures and call it Chicago is stretching it a bit. I'll describe some of the techniques I used to attempt to capture the look and feel of Philadelphia.


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The skyscrapers were constructed from 30" X 40" sheets of foamcore that is available at Staples and Walmart. The windows were cut out with an exacto knife and a utility knife. I went through several blades as I had to cut several hundred windows. The pilasters, etc. were made from wooden clothspins and craft (popsickle) sticks. The background panels have the actual Philly buildings painted in acrylic on large canvasses. To remain contemporary, I have to add the Comcast building which is currently the tallest building in Philadelphia. In order to gain access to the interior of the 13' X 19' pod, I designed three lift-up sections disguised as city blocks. This gave the city enough bulk to help its massive appearance.

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The first objective was to replicate some familiar landmarks. I covered 30th Street Station and the Delaware River in previous articles. Southwest Philadelphia has many refineries and the PW has a small one. It was originally built by my brother-in-laws late father Ernie Rink for his HO layout in the 1950's from an article in the old Model Builder magazine. I outfitted it with S scale windows and doors, put down some gravel, and installed some lighting.
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Recently, I added a block of rowhouses as similar to the one I grew up in in West Philly as I could remember. The primary material used was foamcore. The only commercial parts were the porch railings.
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Next, I tried to simulate some famous Philly industries. The Philadelphia Electric Co. (PECO) sits next to a Lehigh Valley Models rowhouse.
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Growing up in Philly meant growing up on Taskycakes. The Tasty Baking Co. was based in North Philly and we all had our favorites. Mine were the Butterscotch Krimpets and Lemon Tastypies. I kitbashed four HO Heljan bakeries and news agencies to achieve the necessary mass for the structure. S scalers make judicious use of HO structures that have the necessary window size and separation to look OK for a slightly larger scale (S is 136% of HO).
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Breyers Ice Cream was another familiar Philadelphia industry.
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The HO Heljan Brewery is a staple on S scale layouts for obvious reasons.
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The Penn Western headquarters building is a scale 220' tall and sits next to 30th Street Station. Another skyscraper when stacked is a scale 300' high.

 

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Roy Hoffman

The S/Sn3 Scale Penn Western Railroad -
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CAR_FLOATER Regular poster 383 posts
CAR_FLOATER

Buildings

Roy -

One word - Impressive!

What really stood out to me most of all is your creative use of clothespins and whatnot as architectural embelishments. Very crafty! (no pun intended!) True city modeling (those of a center city, downtown nature that is) is hard to nail convincingly, and you have done a good job at capturing the feel.

Ralph
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royhoffman Regular poster 374 posts
royhoffman

Your yahoo groups

Ralph,

I visited your yahoo groups and the ones covering waterfront railroading look extremely interesting since I have a large area devoted to it. I'll be applying for membership when I get a chance.

Roy

 

 

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Roy Hoffman

The S/Sn3 Scale Penn Western Railroad -
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mecovey Regular poster 315 posts
mecovey

City Scenery

Great job - I hope you post more pictures and how tos

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jarhead Prolific poster 1,734 posts
jarhead

Impressive

I am also very impressed and inspired seeing your work. That is the exactly same goal I have for my O scale (two rail) and my On30 home layout. A serious urban layout. Yours is just "AWESOME" !!!

 

 

 

Nick Biangel 

USMC
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royhoffman Regular poster 374 posts
royhoffman

Happy Birthday

Judging from your userid, I assume you're a former Marine.

Happy 234th from a former GI

I can imagine how awesome your urban scenery will be in O scale. Please keep us updated.

 

 

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Roy Hoffman

The S/Sn3 Scale Penn Western Railroad -
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jarhead Prolific poster 1,734 posts
jarhead

Thank You

Yes I am a former Marine and and thank you, Nov 10th is the Marine Corp Birthday.

I will try to post some photos of the progress.

 

 

Nick Biangel 

USMC
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PandSLRR New member 2 posts
PandSLRR

Oil Refinery

Hi Roy,

I wonder if you know that the plans for your brother-in-law's father's oil refinery are online?  Trainlife.com has most (if not all) issues of Lionel's Model Builder Magazine available at http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/browse/title/5.
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Refinery construction was spread over two articles, with the first beginning at http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/557/39630/august-1939-page-12and the second at http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/558/39670/october-1939-page-24. There was also an introductory article which was the cover story of the February 1939 issue - see http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/554/0/model-builder-february-1939.
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I've been thinking about building this refinery in S scale but, even when scaled down from O, the footprint is still pretty daunting: If I stick to the published plans it will end up about 46 x 21 inches before any trackwork is added.

Hope all is well with you.

Mike Shea
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Athlon Regular poster 194 posts
Athlon

Great photos and a great job

Great photos and a great job with Philly!

Mike - I started looking at those old Model Builder magazines and the time flew by.  It's interesting to see how some things never change, and to see how others have evolved.  Perhaps there is an idea in there somewhere for an article for MRH?  Thanks for the link.

Here's an excerpt from a letter to the editor from January/February 1937 (when the magazine was 50 cents per year):

"I think I have a very good suggestion for those who would like to make their lakes more natural. Take a large dishpan and make a hollow place in your table where you have your train. Set the pan in this. Fill with water. Then take a little bluing to make the water a hazy blue. To make it more realistic, make a hole in the bottom of your pan about the size of a hose so that a hose will fit in . Make a small hole in the side of the pan also so that you have an outlet for the water. Connect the hose to a faucet or hydrant and just enough pressure to keep the water flowing. The water coming up through the bottom will make waves on your miniature lake." - Robert Anderson, Pueblo, Calif."

I certainly hope old Bob was never electrocuted!

Dave
Uxbridge, MA

How I Installed An NCE USB Adaptor Into My Fascia
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royhoffman Regular poster 374 posts
royhoffman

Mike & Dave L, It was great

Mike & Dave L,

It was great hearing from you, Mike  I'm a member of Train Life and have enjoyed reading the Model Builder them from time to time, but didn't know where the Oil Refinery article was located. It had lots of useful information in it which I'll enjoy reading. Thanks for the links. I've done a lot of structures over the years based on old magazine articles.

Anyway, the Philly skyline has changed a little since the blog entry. Here are some more recent photos.

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Roy Hoffman

The S/Sn3 Scale Penn Western Railroad -
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George J Frequent poster 741 posts
George J

Great Photos and Layout

Great stuff, oh, and btw, Butterscotch Krimets ROCK!

George

"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers, ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."

Milwaukee Road : Cascade Summit- Modeling the Milwaukee Road in the 1970s from Cle Elum WA to Snoqualmie Summit at Hyak WA.
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John Winter Prolific poster 1,001 posts
John Winter

WOW...

lots going on in that city scene, very nice work.

John

 

My Layout Blog: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/22280
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royhoffman Regular poster 374 posts
royhoffman

Tastykake

George,

I grew up on Butterscotch Krimpets. I also loved the lemon Tastypies.

It's not train related, but there should be a poll on everyone's favorite kind of Tastykake.

 

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Roy Hoffman

The S/Sn3 Scale Penn Western Railroad -
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PandSLRR New member 2 posts
PandSLRR

Roy, I wonder if you have

Roy,

I wonder if you have ever run into a fellow by the name of Harry Butler? Harry was a member of the Rochester Area S Gaugers until about 2000 when his wife landed a job with one of the museums in the Philly area and they moved to New Jersey, right across the river from the city. Harry had just received his PhD from the University of Rochester in something to do with medieval English literature written in Latin, so I'm not too sure what he would be doing professionally (teaching, maybe?), but he also had a strong interest in the BR&P RR and had done a lot of research into their line and the industries and businesses it served in the Perry/Silver Lake area of western New York. Harry's modeling interests were in S scale and his wife (whose name escapes me at the moment) was also into model railroading - N scale, I believe.

Anyway, I lost track of Harry after he left our area and was just wondering if he ever made contact with your group.

- Mike Shea
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