Wonderful!

Great looking building and layout. The stone texture looks perfect!

Great Example of Creativity

What was the total investment?  I know what actual building like this cost.  Great looking RR.  Glad someone is modeling the other side of the city.  I only do the side with the rr.  Online structures only.  To the extent the rr does not even make it to Denver.  Its on the other side of the tunnel. Towns buildings and other things are in the aisles.

The cost.

The total cost of the project was about $20.

Wow! Neat job!

What a great looking building - for a great price!  You are an artist!!

Rog

That's Great.

Roy,

Wow!

Thanks for posting this.  Every time you do, I learn something new.

Cornices

Looks great, it's the small things like the cornices that really help sell the final product.

Cheers!

Wow!

Very nice looking structure and I love the skyline of the city! Very dramatic and hardly ever seen on a home layout. Very nice job!

And...

This is S scale correct?

S scale

Thanks Kevin,

Yes, it is S scale. The two buildings directly behind the new one are the HO Bachmann Metropolitan and Trade Tower buildings. They filled a useful purpose, but have been shoved further and further back. I think I'll put them on E-bay now that I have enough S scale buildings.

Skyscraper windows

The window sections are fantastic...kind of Empire State Building-ish.  Maybe my eyes are bad, but I'll ask this question anyway...are the windows made up from a photo or done with thin card/styrene laminations.

Edward

Modeling Northern Pacific Rwy. in Yakima Valley, 1953

Windows

Believe it or not, they are paper.

You can go to th Clever Models Site  http://clevermodels.squarespace.com/textures/

Just look for the Terracotta Facade and Windows. You can't beat the price.

Once I printed them, I cut the windows into strips and glued them to the foamcore.

I aso like to use their roofing and sidings.

Very nice

Very well done. Creative and realistic. Your new building sure fits in with the rest of the layout.

Please consider doing a step by step when you do the next one.

A New Skyscraper for Philly

As a life-long Philly boy I loved seeing the Philly landscape - the only thing that is missing is the "PSFS" Building!

Great work. Just getting started again after 50 years away from the hobby - I hope I can be as creative!

Keep us updated.

It's all there!

Modeling a location

Thanks for the kind words.

I was following the discussion about freelance/prototype/protofreelance, etc. While it's sometimes hard to pin down an exact definition of these aspects of MR, I can sort of add my 2 cents to the mix. I decided to model a locale as closely as I could and have some sites that can be recognizable.

It's neat to have folks look at the layout and remember some of the objects from their lives or experiences. I've lived on both sides of the Delaware so the layout starts out in Camden County and continues from Philly to Reading, Allentown, Harrisburg and on out to the East Broad Top. There's no particular era. S scale has mostly Steam to Diesel with not much that's modern as yet so most of my equipment reflects the availability of equipment. I have to qualify that statement in that I model in strictly S scale and Lionel has come out with some nice modern prototype equipment for S Highrail. I restrict the prototypes to the roads that run or ran in Eastern PA.

It's amazing how many ways you can enjoy the hobby of Model Railroading and I appreciate the balanced way that MRH has it covered.

Very Nice building and layout.

     I'd like to know how you manage to build those wide S scale scenes without breaking already built things as you work? .DaveB

Lift out sections

DaveB,

The city blocks lift up for access when needed. There's a total of 4 of them in Philly.

Looks Grand ...

... thinking you may have to replace the building behind it though as the scale of it is too large for the 'forced perspective' effect of the new building ....

Row-Houses

I am really impressed with your layout. I am particularly interested in the row houses in the follow-up

photo's are they hand made or part of the HO building on the layout? I lived in Philly and I liked the old neighborhood look. Can you share how you did it?

2014 shots

I took some more recent photos of the scenes. Back in 2012, someone mentioned that I didn't put any roof details in the rowhomes, so I added a few. The rowhouses were built up completely from scratch except for the railings. The primary structures were made of foamcore and it has held up fine so far in my basement setting. I went by some old family photos and memory to capture 1313 S Lindenwood St in West Philly as best i could.

That gray building is a corner filler and even though it was a bit imposing in some photos, it's not too overdone (I hope). At least it's a dark gray color and sort of makes a backdrop for the more exciting buildings.

Brings back memories

I grew up eating those Tastycake chocolate cupcakes. Pity they changed the formula to compete with the national brands. Brick row houses with porches, and  bow windows and the postage stamp size gardens out front. The only thing missing is the corner bar across the street from the candy store.