I've been hankering to build something and recently dug through a couple old kits I had stashed in the back if my closet. I came across the Atlas lumberyard kit Id got Christmas quite a few years back along with a few others. The lumberyard kit stood out to me more than the others. I got online and checked about it and it's gotten decent reviews. I model late 90s through present day Norfolk Southern with a freelance shortline that interchanges with them. I was wondering if the kit represents to old of an era to fit in on my somewhat modern RR. I figured it could represent a small industry in a small town possibly that maybe my short line could possibly add to its customer list. Might have to add a few other buildings with it to make it seem like a more modern facility. I figured it might cure my fever to build something new for practically no cost except glue paint and a little imagination. What are your thoughts? Any info, input, or guidance would be appreciated. Thanks.
For the modern era, I would add a hardware store to the complex to make the sort of one stop building supply dealer that has become common in recent years- maybe one of the pole type structures that Pikestuff/Rix makes a wide variety of. If you have the space, you could even add more pole type structures for material storage. I suspect it would fit in well for a small town served by your shortline. BTW, Nice avatar.
If you google the kit, you will find plenty of images of the kit built with other structures used as well. I will say this, I can’t count how many time I’ve been in small towns and have seen small lumber yard that still utilize these types of buildings today. It would be at home on just about any layout up to and including modern era. Be sure to post some pictures of it when you get done. DB
That old Atlas lumber yard is a nice kit and has been around for ages. It can fit just about any era also. I model the transition era and model a more rural area and the kit is a perfect fit for me. Not in the photo off to the left is a hardware store and to the right of the lumber yard, I put in a farm supply outlet and a John Deere dealer. A scratch built loading dock serves the lumber yard and the farm supply dealer. I had plenty of scale strip wood so they were cut to scale lengths and loaded into the lumber bins. I have seen this same kit on numerous layouts.
I'm an N scaler and have the Walthers Walton & Sons Lumber structure, which I believe is also in HO. It can either be built as one enclosed structure or two separate ones. The single-structure variant looks nearly identical to the popular Atlas lumber yard model, and on my modern-era layout, I've made one of the structures into a lumber yard and will kitbash the other identical structure into a two-story hardware store (replacing the open front with a wall with windows and doors on it) that will stand adjacent to it.
Heck, the local lumber store here doesn't look much different than it did 50+ years ago. I'm also pretty sure they had some hardware in there in the sixties, too. In the very early days of N scale, Atlas had the same lumberyard available, or soon to be, in N scale but is was never made. It was a fairly major disappointment to me back then. I even wrote Atlas to ask them about it and they just pointed me to the lumber mill. Doug
Some time in 1963 there was an article in RMC about kitbashing in the Atlas Signal Tower to be the office for this structure, made a nice addition. Rick Jesionowski
As it is, the little yellow office included with it was the same as the trackside shanty. The one with the two guys playing checkers in front of it. Doug
