Iconic models for your layout, on your layout! Our customers love to build our kits and share their work. Here are some examples sent in from our customers!
John Petrovitz – San Francisco & North Western Pacific Railroad (N Scale)
My “San Francisco & North Western Pacific” layout is done in N scale. It is roughly “set” in the latter 1950’s time era. Half of the layout is situated in San Francisco proper. The other half represents areas in Northern California’s coastal regions.
After leaving SP’s San Francisco 3rd & Townsend station, passenger and “commute” trains (as well as freight) traverse below San Francisco’s Potrero Hill on their way to the cities of the SF peninsula and down to San Jose, some 47 miles south. The first station out from 3rd & Townsend is located just 1.8 miles south on the line, located at 23rd St. between two tunnels below Potrero Hill.
The 23rd St. station lies on the eastern side of Potrero Hill in a largely heavy industrial area. It was an important stop for many workers of that area. Above, on Potrero Hill, is (what used to be) a mostly “working man’s” residential neighborhood, although many examples of fine architecture could be (and still can be) found, providing housing to a very wide “array” of SF’s populace.
As there are steps down to the station’s platform, this location was a perfect place to “plant” Hopper’s “Nighthawks” café, directly above the small commuter station stop. I saw John Armstrong’s modeling of the scene many years ago and, for ‘decades’, wanted to include that very scene at 23rd St., overlooking the station platform. I was very much intrigued with John’s setting above the tracks of his O scale layout and have been most inspired by it.
Edward Hopper’s works are favorites of mine. Although recognized by many as a “realist”, his “impressionist” paintings “fit” my “approach” to modeling in N scale, as details in such a small scale, while really “neat”, can be quite difficult to achieve. (“Rivet counters” don’t really exist in N scale – and if they do- they are truly remarkable people!) As such, my approach to modeling is rather “impressionistic”. And though I try to attain detail, more so, I endeavor to present the “impression” of the scene. Potrero Hill’s locale and setting were a perfect place to find the all-night diner visited by the “Nighthawks”.
Chris Monje – Nighthawks in S Scale
A wonderful example of an S Scale layout, and our S Scale Full Scene kit in action!
