HO scale buildings?

Question

I am looking to make some HO scale buildings for my Husbands HO scale train setup. Is there anywhere I can get plans on the internet? Or do I have to buy the laser cut ones from the hobby store?

Answer 1

For very specific buildings, I photograph the building, use Adobe Photoshop to convert to line-drawings... and print to scale. Other buildings, I sketch and build.

A good hobby shop will have model SCALE rulers (HO is 1/87), and various different products to scratchbuild structures. They should also have plastic, wood, laser-cut kits.

If you're in the US, the BEST magazine is "Model Railroader"... you can find ENDLESS information on kits (plastic, wood, card) and also on plans and accessories. Their website is: http://www.trains.com/trc/

I built the San Carlos, CA train station (in HO and N Scales) and the San Carlos, CA Downtown from photos and hand-measurements put to a CAD program and appropriate scale drawings... I then used plastic sheet (styrene) to build the structures. I also purchase some plastic kits.

Here are a few links I hope you'll find helpful:

http://www.dpmkits.com/
http://www.nmra.org/#railway

Good luck !!

Answer 2

wizbang is incorrect HO is 1/87 scale it actually stands for Half O. However he is correct in the fact that you can take any full sized plans and scale them down to 1/87.

Answer 3

I'd google it to see if you can find any plans. HO scale is 1/72 scale. So, you could use plans for anything real and divide it by 72.