Welcome to trainboard Amtrakking! Responding to the Original Poster... !950's N scale leaves you plenty of options. Most commercially available model railroad structures are selectively compressed so that they can fit into the average smaller home layout. One of the best resources for structures is the Walthers catalog. They have a website, but the paper catalog is something extremely useful to have in hand. https://www.walthers.com/ A lot of the model railroad press is very fixated on prototype model railroading. While that may work for some, it is also very limiting. You mentioned car floats, well not all railroads had em. You are better off just doing your own thing in this regard on a smaller layout as you may also want to include something else that may not match with having a car float. Another good source which I am going to assume is how most of us learned about: What car goes with which industry; are the old track plans from the 50's. Sure, they aren't in N scale, but that isn't the point. What you learn from these plans is how to establish what is contemporary to the time period. And while this example may even be for an earlier time like the 30's, it can show you a lot if you down load it and then zoom in on the notes provided on the plan. https://i.pinimg.com/736x/34/57/26/345726cc718e3d6cb5b0b97162cb0f8e.jpg I use the bing search engine often because I like how it displays images. This link should take you to a set of images of N scale building kits. It might help you see what is out there. Be careful because some of the european structures may not work for your layout. https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=n+scale+industrial+buildings&FORM=HDRSC2 Learning about industries is just something that takes time, yet the combo of available kits as well as tons of online examples of trackplans that list what type of industry is being used, can really help you get an understanding of this aspect of model railroading.
Long, long and even a longer time not posting. Not that I am super special or know all there is, my family lets me know that all the time I have a serious case of LOMRR ( Lack of Model Railroading). It has kept me down for a long time. I have been thinking of building a smaller 2x4, 3x6 N scale in my back hobby room. I am in the process of cleaning out the old stuff and fixing a few issues with the room, a small remodel job. So I have been looking at all sorts of model buildings, kits, plans paper buildings. I have a track plan sort of picked out so I have been using the online resources to get a list of things I need. I too have been run over by the cost of kits and rolling stock. $180.00 for an N scale DCC engine. OUCH, my wallet and bank account just had a heart attack But we do this for fun and not the money. How do you make a small fortune in model railroading? Start with a big fortune. This is one of my go to sites for other hobby items. But they have a good stock of model railroad too. I have real trouble going by my local model store, I spend way to much. But I have to go by and see if they have any SP GP-35's in stock. Looked on line and only flea bay has them. They may have some left on the shelf. https://www.hobbylinc.com/n-scale-model-railroad-buildings I like the idea of these printable buildings. They can help you with mock ups and not spend to much money. https://www.scalemodelplans.com/smp/tutorials/cardstock.html http://www.modelbuildings.org/free.html http://www.papercraftsquare.com/tag/n-scale https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/find-free-printable-buildings-in-several-scales-2366289 As I use Arduino in my other hobby's, I have been reading up on how to use them to control the turn outs. There are some really good little electronic gizmachies out there now. Takes a little bit to learn but they open up a new way of doing things. I will be using DCC on my tiny little railroad. Not because it is easier or better, but because I want to learn about it for when I do a larger railroad. Buzz.
