TownBuilder System February Kit

Additional details to follow.

Lots more images and details are online here: townbuildersystem.com/tbs-z04.htm

David,

Excellent! Now that is what I'm talking about! What is the brickwork like behind the pizza sign?

John Bartolotto

The sign is lighted, so there's a hole behind it. However, there is also a plug for the hole. The brickwork on the plug is just plain, nothing fancy.

David,

Outstanding! Makes for great kitbashing possibilities! Great job!

John

David- I'm sure you and Karin have some master plan. Would it be possible-- somewhere down the tracks-- when there are several more buildings-- to see how you would arrange all the buildings in different configurations.
Fred

Fred wrote: David- I'm sure you and Karin have some master plan. Would it be possible-- somewhere down the tracks-- when there are several more buildings-- to see how you would arrange all the buildings in different configurations.
Fred

Fred, our intention is to allow you to arrange the buildings according to your desires. Although not all buildings are suited for all placement circumstances, we have no "master plan" for them. Also, since we have many more buildings on the way, the possibilities for mixing and matching will only increase.

The exceptions to the "anything goes" category are the bank and the pizza parlor. Since the bank has only one finished wall, it doesn't work as a stand-alone structure; it's best suited for a corner location (either one) or in the middle of a block. The pizza parlor would not look right as an end building since it has evidence of neighboring buildings on both sides; therefore, it belongs in the middle of a block, with or without neighbors.

Other than that, it's all up to you.

David,

I humbly disagree that this limits the imagination because the pizza parlor building could very well be used as an end building or a corner building. Cities must sometimes add or change streets and there by having to build a new street or widen an existing street they had to knock down one of the adjacent buildings that once stood next to the pizza parlor. Where the pizza parlor once was a middle building it is now a corner or end building due to growth of the city and street modernization.

John

Dashing Dan wrote: I humbly disagree that this limits the imagination because the pizza parlor building could very well be used as an end building or a corner building. Cities must sometimes add or change streets and there by having to build a new street or widen an existing street they had to knock down one of the adjacent buildings that once stood next to the pizza parlor. Where the pizza parlor once was a middle building it is now a corner or end building due to growth of the city and street modernization.

John, you are absolutely correct. However, the scenario of having a building like Little John's on a corner is simply less likely, and requires careful building and street "choreography" to pull it off convincingly. (All of which serves to underscore my tendencies to take the greatest care in layout design--in other words, I'm quite "anal.")

Dashing Dan wrote: David,
I humbly disagree that this limits the imagination because the pizza parlor building could very well be used as an end building or a corner building. Cities must sometimes add or change streets and there by having to build a new street or widen an existing street they had to knock down one of the adjacent buildings that once stood next to the pizza parlor. Where the pizza parlor once was a middle building it is now a corner or end building due to growth of the city and street modernization.
John

John,this reminds me of how modelers can't seem to get away with model scenarios patterned after actually real life scenes.

Case in point.......over in Chiloquin, Oregon, home of the world's largest live steam club, there is a stretch of track that passes by a leaning pine tree. Want to guess what they call that area on the layout map? Yup, "Leaning tree"

Now, just try to do that in your modeling and some know it all will quickly point out that you have a crooked tree on your layout. Never mind that you may have a picture of the real thing right next to the tree........go figure.

Some folks would quickly point out the 'error' of your ways if you had the pizza structure on the corner. "Hey, you can't have that there, can't you see the road right beside the building.........there was never a structure there"

Shall we just smile and go about keeping our trains on schedule?

Loren

David,
I guess this means that the next logical release in your growing line should be vacant lotz.
LOL
Thom

Free vacant lot with every pizza parlor!

Mr. White wrote: Free vacant lot with every pizza parlor!

Careful, Zac! Don't give Loren, Karin and David ideas! Next they'll be selling "vacant lots" - empty space on your layout for only $19.95!

Hey Mike, what a great idea. We'll get right on it. And we'll even throw in two free signs that say "No Trespassing"

Wish I had thought of that. I suppose you will want a consultation fee? :o)

Wish I had thought of that. I suppose you will want a consultation fee? :o)[/quote]

Yes, thank you.

rvn2001 wrote: Wish I had thought of that. I suppose you will want a consultation fee? :o)

Yes, thank you.[/quote]

Dang! Thom has already stolen my idea and is passing it off as his own.

(Now you folks will have to suffer through a long and drawn out court battle for the rights. My apologies in advance to all...except Thom.)

GNFan wrote:

Mr. White wrote: Free vacant lot with every pizza parlor!

Careful, Zac! Don't give Loren, Karin and David ideas! Next they'll be selling "vacant lots" - empty space on your layout for only $19.95!

Mike... the vacant lot is still free. It's the shipping and handling that bites. Doubt me? Try ordering from some certain on-line sellers that believe their wallets come before yours.

David,
So far the TownBuilder series has been great, great attention to detail and the designs are so typical I can match them (with minor modifications) to any number of prototypes. But I was wondering if you have plans to produce some buildings that are a bit more modern: precast tiltups or cast in place of the 60s and 70s, or perhaps the stand alone corner grocery or drug stores of the 50s and 60s, or even more recent strip malls? My downtown is looking kinda full and I'm starting to think about the suburbs.

Mark

Mike,
Please refer to message #12966
Thom

I was hoping you wouldn't notice, Thom.

(Curses! Foiled again!)