Still in the planning stage. This, I think, will be my most difficult build. I am doing an interior. !0 lanes
I'm on board also. This is something I want to see. A long time ago I had thought about putting a bowling alley on my layout, but besides no having any room, none of the towns on my layout, which are actual town ever had a bowling alley. Guess they could have.
Likewise for me, too. Candy, you have a knack for bringing a scene or structure to life, so I'm anxious to see what you do with this project. It should be excellent. "I was vacationing off planet when the nuclear war broke out. All the bowling alleys were destroyed, so I spent most of my time looking for beer." -The McKenzie Brothers in Strange Brew
There was a small movie theatre in my town way back in the 70s, it could have been built some time before that, and it had a regular two-story facade, probably the original building, and that housed the lobby and offices (probably projector room too), and the theatre seating and screen itself was housed in a big Quonset-style extension in the back. Interesting kitbash. So it's quite possible that was built 50s or 60s. I've heard that it was around forever. Nobody remembered what was there before. There's a sporting goods store there now. You could take a basic 40s or 50s mixed use building (example, stores downstairs and rooms/apartments upstairs) and tack on a Quonset out back (a good place to put some rust, grime and decay). Bingo! Bowling alley, lobby up front, lanes in back... Have fun and I can't wait to see your next work of art.
ARMCO made steel buildings in the 1920s and there were thousands of them . After WW2 Quonset type buildings (some made by ARMCO- Butler) were all the rage and there were thousands upon thousands of them all over the country.
Lotsa pictures, that's what I like. If I had a town street close to a wall A shortened background building could have been used, but the way my layout is, that couldn't be done. Bowling isn't as easy as it looks. Having to hurl a ball down the lanes trying to hit a target about the size of a quarter 60 feet a way in order to get a strike isn't too easy to do on a consistent basis.
Candy, Found this website: https://picturelights.club/galleries/old-bowling-alleys-in-pennsylvania.html Might be of some help Rick Jesionowski
Try New England style candlepin bowling, talk about aggravating... I keep wanting to throw the balls like a baseball. Randy
Right after our Friday night league finishes bowling, they have what they call Galactic bowling. All of the lights in the lanes are turned off and what looks like colored lights spin all around the lanes. I get out of there like the place is on fire.
Well, there were many buildings which were WWII surplus. Not just the famous "Quonset Hut", but larger prefabs which were used for warehouses, etc.
"Quonset Hut" type buildings came in many sizes. At one of the government facilities I worked at we had one that we used as a warehouse that was about 70 ft wide and 200 ft long. Small military bases sometimes had small bowling alleys. I recall having visited some as small as 2 lanes. I don't recall any having been in a quonset hut but the size would seem to be just right for a small bowling alley.
One bowling lane is 8 3/8 inches long plus machinery in back and sitting area in front would be something like 10 inches. It seems no building I've seen is that big. Pictures I've seen of old alleys show a window less façade.
In my home town the "Bowling Alley" "Party Shack" had three foot concrete block walls and then it was all steel. Much like some the the buildings in the paper mill and farmers coop. Most gone now along with the railways. I was born there in '49. The Bowling Alley built in '79 is now a wearhouse.
The Quonset hut idea might lend itself well here. You could get a piece of 6" or so PVC pipe (Home Depot or other local hardware) and cut in half to suit. Then cover with corrugated siding (made from file cards using a pencil and a piece of corrugated styrene as a pattern like E.L. Moore used to do) or maybe you could bend the corrugated styrene material around the circular form and cement it (sounds like it could be a pain, though). Add end walls, maybe concrete block in the rear and a nice brick façade in front. Alternately, you could just build your walls to suit from Pikestuff concrete block wall sections with a brick front. Just my 2 cents worth.