While not exactly a 'farm'...'J&J Horse Ranch' fits in nicely where 'Trailerhood' was originally planned.
Can't say it's a good thing but I've seen a few where the house is right next to the barn and even one where the upstairs in the barn was the house.
I had read that in New England barns were often attached to the house because of harsh winter weather. I did see several of these old houses near Concord on our trip to Acadia National Park this past spring. The barns were smaller the typical gambrel roofed dairy barns that we typically think of today. Part of my neighbors home, was originally a small colonial inn and coach stop between Philadelphia and Reading PA. This part of the house has a stone floor. The exterior doors are very wide supposedly to allow live stock in. Eventually a large barn was built across the road near a cut stone lined spring. When the canal was built the inn became an overnight stop for mules and mule skinners. If only the walls could talk.
I have seen old barns that were eight sided and maybe some six sided. Don't know the advantages of either but back in the day when the local county police patrolled a large county park on horses they had a stable that was round. A roundhouse for horses you might say, no turntable though.
My wife grew up on a farm in southern Illinois and we still help out during harvest season and one of the things I see a lot of on a lot of rual farms is old rusted equipment like plows, old combines, tractors, wagons, trucks, and other things that just seem to be left at the edge of the barnyard or field. It's a great way to use those extra odds n' ends we all end up with. It seems nothing gets thrown away. You would be amazed at the things farmers have repurposed into hog houses and have stayed in the old pens long after the hogs have gone. Even old parts like truck and tractor wheels and drain pipes. Some of these can probably be found in the old parts box, on Shapeways, at train shows or even ebay on the cheap. I even have a Road Masters combine kit that I intend to part around an Woodland Scenics abandoned barn kit that I built. Also I see a lot of old oil tanks and pumps that I also added. It's sometimes the things that I just kinda took for granted that make the best details. I hope this might give you some extra ideas. Ralph
Those are good suggestions Martin. I've got a little box full of leftover kit parts that will be used that way. One of the small details that impresses me most is when one pays attention to making their scenes a little less than sterile.
I sometimes see old engineless vehicles on their side or old farm tractors split at the transmission and occasionally a burned up combine. Springhouses were common on farms built before rural residential electrification.
I wouldn't want the railroad so close. It would frighten the cows and horses. The pigs liked it and go snopeing.
I think any animal would get used to 'noises' around where they live. My mother in law and THE WIFES grandmother ran a horse ranch in Cave Creek AZ for 20 years. It was right on a major road. Lots of car and truck traffic. The horses never gave a thought of the traffic noise. They used to stand right at the corral fence at the road and watch traffic go by....
Depends on era, but the general answer is no for anything after WW2. Farms generally did business as team track customers rather than private siding customers. In a more modern setting, it has to be a "farm" on an industrial scale. For example there are chicken "farms" that receive whole unit trains of grain for feed, but they won't look like a "farm". They will have industrial grain silos and huge poultry houses. There won't be a famer living on the property with is little clapboard house and gambrel roof barn. There will be an office building and waste treatment facilities, etc. Depends on what "this" is. There are special cars for milk (which stopped being used by the 1960's. There are special cars for grain (covered hoppers), there are special cars for implements (chain down flats, JTTX cars), there are special cars for fertilizer (tank cars and covered hoppers), there are special cars for fuel (propane, butane, diesel and gasoline tank cars). But they rarely, if ever, get spotted at a specific farm.
In Catoosa OK there is a business called Rock City about a mile from Hard Rock Casino. They have all kinds of neat rocks and gems. Spent about a hour looking at their inventory one day. Really nice farm Richard, looks cool. I'm planning to have a small farm on module 08 between the steel trestle and coal mine/sawmill. Joe