Paper-and-Cardboard Building Projects


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

Paper-and-Cardboard Building Projects

Back in my childhood, my American Flyer S gauge railroad had a few Plasticville structures, but most of the buildings were home-made out of cardboard. I gave up on cardboard when my hobby moved outdoors, but lots of other hobbyists have developed new ways to use paper and cardboard to make their buildings in the meantime.

In late 2013, Big Indoor Trains^TM gained a number of readers who have the hobby of making O scale or smaller buildings out of paper and cardboard. Many of those buildings were inspired by vintage plastic buildings such as those from Plasticville.

We have only one Plasticville-inspired structure, our Cape Cod, but we have lots of other paper-and-cardboard buildings. So many, in fact, that readers often have trouble navigating the site. So this page will be a sort of cross-reference to many of our most popular paper-and-cardboard building projects.

Most of these projects exist because master craftsman Howard Lamey designed and built them, and sent me photographs and project notes. Most of the lithograph-style, tinplate-inspired buildings exist because Howard and I found antique tinplate buildings we wanted to replicate. I drew the vintage-style graphics based on the original artwork, then Howard built the buildings and sent me lots of photographs.

Depending on your building needs, you can adapt many of these projects for other purposes. So how these projects inspire you depends on what you want to get out of them:

If you want realistic buildings:
- Many buildings that looks fanciful or toylike in our project pages could be made to look more realistic, simply by choosing appropriate paint colors or building textures.
- Many hobbyists have adapted our Building Front Photos and Celtic Storefront Photos to make realistic building projects we did not expect when we first published the resources.
If you want tinplate-style buildings:
- Our Tribute to Tinplate projects include tinplate-inspired buildings that you can paint in appropriate colors or finish with our professional lithograph-inspired graphics.
- Most of our other buildings (or your own designs) can be given a tinplate appearance by using tinplate-inspired building textures based on vintage Marx, Lionel, and Ives patterns.
If you want holiday-themed buildings:
- We have many Christmas-themed buildings (see below) and Christmas-inspired tinplate textures that you can use to convert most of our other projects to a Christmas appearance.
- We have many Halloween-themed buildings (see below) and Halloween-inspired tinplate textures that you can use to convert most of our other projects to an Autumn or Halloween appearance.

So as you peruse the following lists, you could be looking for a project that appeals to you, or you could be thinking of some project already and trying to find a resource that would give you a start in the right direction.

As always, you can contact us with any questions or requests. We especially enjoy seeing your projects.

Railroad Buildings

Type of Building	Project Link	Original Project Style	Thumbnail
Watchman's Shanty	Watchman's Shanty	Tinplate, painted
Water Tower	Water Tower	Halloween, with alternate tinplate-inspired graphics (see the next thumbnail down).
Switch Tower	Switch Tower	Tinplate, lithographed, based on a Hornby building.
Way Station	Tinplate-Style Way Station	Tinplate, lithographed and painted
Suburban Station	Lewis Park Station	Tinplate, lithographed and painted, includes optional Halloween graphics
City Station	Union Station	Glitterhouse, inspired by a vintage painted tinplate structure
Victorian Station	Spook Hill Station	Halloween, could be finished with tinplate graphics instead.

City Buildings

Type of Building	Project Link	Original Project Style	Thumbnail
Store Front	Easy Store Fronts, uses graphics from our O Scale Building Fronts page	Photo-realistic, based on US Midwestern buildings
Downtown District	Photo-based 3d Buildings, uses graphics from our O Scale Building Fronts page	Photo-realistic, based on US Midwestern buildings
Other Store Front Graphics	Celtic Storefronts	Photo-realistic, based on Irish buildings, but could be used as US buildings.
Store Front (tinplate)	Tinplate Storefronts, also available with Seaside, Patriotic, Halloween, and Christmas graphics.	Tinplate, lithograph-inspired
Diner	Shorty's Diner, includes optional Halloween and Christmas-themed graphics.	Tinplate, lithograph-inspired

Houses

Type of Building	Project Link	Original Project Style	Thumbnail
Cape Cod	Cape Cod	Tinplate, Lithograph-inspired, influenced by a Plasticville prototype
Cottage	Tin Cottage	Tinplate, Lithograph-inspired, influenced by a Lionel prototype
Log House	Cardboard Log House	Putz house (Glitterhouse) "Loggie" - inspired.
Stone or Brick House	Stone Cottage	Putz house (Glitterhouse) "Printie"-inspired
Queen Anne	Twin Peaks Beach House	Putz house (Glitterhouse)-inspired
Beach Cottage	Beach Cottage	Putz house (Glitterhouse)-inspired
Haunted House	Shakey Pane Manor	Putz house (Glitterhouse)-inspired, Halloween-themed

Miscellaneous

Type of Building	Project Link	Original Project Style	Thumbnail
Barn and Silo	Barn and Silo	Putz house (Glitterhouse) "Printie"-inspired
Synagogue	Pine Mountain Valley Synagogue	Putz house (Glitterhouse)-inspired
Lighthouse	Lighthouse and Keeper's Cottage	Putz house (Glitterhouse)-inspired
Billboard	Spook Hill Billboards	Tinplate Inspired, holiday themed
Bridge	Tin City Bridge - this one is a little more work, but the results are jaw-dropping, and a lot less expensive than a Lionel Hellgate bridge in good condition.	Tinplate Inspired

Other Resources

Accessories - Our Tribute to Tinplate pages include other projects to give a vintage-style railroad or holiday village a 1930s feel without paying twenty-first century prices for collectors' items.
One of my favorite is the Crossbuck project, which provides a Marx-style railroad crossing sign, complete with authentic lettering.
Backgrounds - Ed Berg's article on Creating Custom Backdrops for your Indoor Railroad provides many ideas for adapting graphics (including ours) and using simple painting techniques to provide a unique setting for your railroad.
Glitterhouses - Howard Lamey has designed many more cardboard Christmas "putz" house projects. For more information and links, check out our What is a Glitterhouse? article.
To see a gallery of Howard's work, check out his LittleGlitterHouses.com Gallery page. You can also contact Howard about building you an heirloom quality custom vintage-style house - perhaps modeled after a family home.

In addition, our CardboardChristmas.com web pages links to many putz house resources. It also provides a Discussion page where members post projects, resources, questions and answers and other members can respond.

We hope to continue adding articles about many aspects of these hobbies, and we usually have a couple in the works at any given time, so please check back often. Or Join our Mailing List for free hobby ideas and to be notified when new articles are posted.

Watch this page: more articles are in the works.

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Click to see Christmas Collectibles with railroad themes.

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