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Lots of folks have Plasticville on the layout, some even collect it. I had a lot of Plasticville when I was a kid...some has survived until today. If you have any pieces in the collection post a pic here and tell us about it.

Here's a Plasticville Fire House, kit FH-4, that I have hung onto for a very long time:Somewhere along the way it was given an over-spray of off-white, black paint for the out-of-box red roof, a gloss red siren, a concrete-colored tower cap and thresholds for the bay-doors. The ladder truck and pumper are long gone.

Paul II

Paul, I used the big white station, the switch tower, the freight station, and the Cape Cod on my AF RR in the 1960s. I painted them all to get rid of that silly plastic sheen. With the exception of the Cape Cod, which I thought was badly proportioned, they all looked pretty nice with my AF trains.

Me too, Paul...I always thought that the nicest of the Plasticville kits were more appropriately sized for S-gauge. I still have a bunch of Plasticville about, although very little of it is used on the layout. My favorite piece was/is the SW-2 switch/interlocking tower, which I still have:I had it cemented on a masonite base, but I've recently pulled it off intending to re-base it for the current layout.

Offered as suitable for both O-gauge and S-gauge, many of these tower kits included a "Plasticville" sign on the roof, but this one, a later version, did not. I painted it in what I considered more prototypical colors, put acetate in the window frames (although most of that has fallen out now and needs to be replaced). With a bit of imagination, one can do a lot with some of the Plasticville kits.

Don't forget the window shades...

An online guide to Plasticville paper:

http://www.plasticvilleusa.org/memberso ... index.html

Lots of good information on the PCA website.

Paul

A late version of the Plasticville diner:This was purchased used and was in pretty rough shape. This version originally had a chrome finish on it, but much of that had chipped away from heavy play-use. I repainted it "steel", hoping for a stainless look, then gave the red roof a shot of matte black. Lastly, the window blinds, a feature of many real diners, I painted an off-white. It needs some acetate in the windows, and it cries out for a detailed, illuminated interior...maybe some day.

Probably a decade or more ago, I picked up one of the Plasticville "Trestle Bridge" kits at Strickler's Hobby Shop in Hanover, Pennsylvania. At the time I had visions of building a second level on the layout, but I've not got around to doing that (not even sure I want to pursue it at this point). The kit, a nice model of a "Baltimore" truss bridge, remains in the box, one that has seen quite an evolution over the years:According to the box, Plasticville has been in production since 1947, the beginning of the postwar boom in toy-train production. By the late 1950s, the boom was starting to fizzle out. More than seven decades in, however, Bachmann presumably is still making the Plasticville stuff.

Strickler's closed a few years ago when the owner passed away. I bought quite a few pieces from Lorne Strickler over the years, including a lot of Flyer S-gauge parts and plastic models. His was the last traditional hobby shop in my area, and it is missed.

Paul II

Vintage Plasticville under the tree: