Resources for BIG Indoor Trains<sup><small>TM</small></sup>


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Written by Paul D. Race for Big Indoor Trains^TM

This page is a place for odds and ends, especially downloadable graphics, that may be of value to people setting up indoor railroads and communities. Some of the graphics on this page were originally created for people building Garden Railroads, but so many other folks expressed interest that I've added versions that work in almost any "big" scale from Dollhouse scale (1:12) to O scale (1:48 or 1:45). I've also upgraded the graphics, when possible, from low-resolution graphics that could quickly be downloaded and printed on cheap printers to commercial-grade graphic files. I've also added many new textures that hobbyists find useful, including rotten cedar shakes, flagstones, etc., as well as a few signs that look good around the train room or trainyard. At the bottom of this page are some links to other pages you may find useful as well.

Building Front Photos

This feature offers high-resolution photographs of classic buildings and building fronts that you can print off and use to provide backgrounds on indoor railroads, especially shelf railroads. These classic buildings will add depth, period, and personality to your communities. O scale (1:48) and S scale (1:64) versions are included.

New for 2012: Celtic Storefronts - Souvenir graphics you can use on your railroad or village.

While we were in Ireland, Paul took dozens of photos of buildings and textures that he plans to include on our resources pages. In this case, six building fronts from two Wicklow County towns have been cleaned up, squared up, and resized so you can print them out and use them right on your railroad or town. Though they have an Irish feel, they'd be at home in most North American settings, or even on an "Isle of Sodor" railroad.

To see the new resources, please click photo to the right.

Trainroom Sign Files

This section replicates old-fashioned signage that you used to see on and around railroads. Today you can use them to remind people where they're allowed to go and where they're not allowed to spit. The Trainroom Signs page includes instructions for printing and preparing for use out of doors.

Business and Station Signs

This section includes commercial quality signs and posters that you can resize and print to use on your railroad buildings and accessories.

The Business and Station Signs page includes instructions for resizing and printing. We have also added a collection of miniature toy train posters has been added for use in store front windows, etc.

Building Textures

This section includes downloadable "brick paper," flagstone patterns, and other commercial quality graphics you can resize and print to use for buildings and backgrounds. Folks with collectible villages can use the brick and stone pages for streets.

The Building Textures page includes instructions for resizing and printing.

Tinplate Textures

This section includes brick, shingle, siding, door and window patterns inspired by the tinplate buildings that Lionel and other companies made to go with their toy trains a century ago. Many of these have already been used in our Tribute to Tinplate(tm) series, which has been embraced by toy train buffs.

The Tinplate Textures page provides most patterns in three different scales to help you find the best sizes for your existing railroad or holiday village.

Christmas Building Textures

If you want to design your own buildings for a Christmas railroad or village, check out this brand-new addition - roof and wall patterns for making your own holiday-themed structures. The Christmas Building Textures page includes brick, siding, and roofing tile patterns in colors that are ideal for Christmas and other midwinter decorating. Patterns are available in three scales for all of your "big train" and Christmas village needs.

Halloween and Fall Textures

If you want to design your own buildings for a fall or Halloween village, check out this brand-new addition - roof and wall patterns for making your own seasonal structures. The Halloween and Fall Textures page includes brick, siding, and roofing tile patterns in colors that are ideal for fall decorating.

Stained Glass Windows (572K). I made these up from a Corel-Draw clip-art file to use for a Fisher-Price schoolhouse I am converting into a church. I printed them on Hammermill Papers' "Invent-it" clear decal stock (not good for rolling stock details, but good for signs). Looks great; I mounted them behind clear plastic for additional protection, but the colors came out nice and rich and deep-looking.
Since I posted these, lots of folks have used them, including professional sign companies who needed to make a client's full-sized windows look like stained glass. But one of the most interesting examples comes from Howard Lamey, of Jacksonville. One of Howard's hobbies is building cardboard "Christmas houses" that look like the ones we had around our train set growing up (and which became "cool" again in the early 2000s). To see a church he built using the stained-glass pattern, simply click on the thumbnail to the right). Howard tells me that it is 9" high and the base is 3 1/2" square, if that helps.

Street Signs (752K) Using the Alps, I printed out a few of these on plastic stock, with the idea of cutting them out and gluing them on sticks.
The graphics below are very high resolution, so they'll look huge on your screen, but if you just save them to your hard drive, open them with any graphics program on your computer, and print them, they should come out fine.

If there's something else you'd like to see here, I'm open to suggestions. Also if you have something you think your fellow readers would appreciate, please contact us.

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Note: Big Indoor Trains(tm), Big Train Store(tm)m Family Garden Trains(tm), Big Christmas Trains(tm), and Garden Train Store(tm) are trademarks of Breakthrough Communications(tm) (www.btcomm.com). All information, data, text, and illustrations on this web site are Copyright (c) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 by Paul D. Race. Reuse or republication without prior written permission is specifically forbidden.
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