# Hotel scratchbuild: to shrink or not?



## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

Browsing through the August 1979 issue of Model Railroad I came across plans for the Star Hotel, a two-story structure with a wrap-around porch respresenting a turn-of-the-century railroad hotel. It looks great and shouldn't be too hard to model except that, thanks to the sheer size of large scale, this puppy would be 22.5-inches long and 13-in. wide in 1:20.3 or 13-in. x 11-3/4 in. in 1:22.5, which is still pretty big.

So I'm asking, should I indulge in selective compression and shrink the thing down to a more manageable size (we all don't have the room of a Marty Cozad)?

If I took a scale 1-1/2 ft off the front wall on each side of the two windows and the door, I could save six scale feet, which would shrink the width to 9.5-in. from 13 in.

But would it hurt the appearance, especially since I didn't plan to reduce the height? Or should I find out for myself?

Just askin'


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Mock it up out of cardboard (draw windows with marker, etc) and see how it looks with what you already have.


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## Rod Fearnley (Jan 2, 2008)

Joe this is my hotel, it is 19" x 13". If I were to do it again, I would narrow the depth by 4".









Rod


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Posted By Rod Fearnley on 14 Apr 2011 03:41 AM 
Joe this is my hotel, it is 19" x 13". If I were to do it again, I would narrow the depth by 4".
 








Rod


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## kormsen (Oct 27, 2009)

Posted By John J on 14 Apr 2011 07:01 AM 
Posted By Rod Fearnley on 14 Apr 2011 03:41 AM 
Joe this is my hotel, it is 19" x 13". If I were to do it again, I would narrow the depth by 4".
 








Rod 





???


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By kormsen on 14 Apr 2011 10:26 AM 
Posted By John J on 14 Apr 2011 07:01 AM 
Posted By Rod Fearnley on 14 Apr 2011 03:41 AM 
Joe this is my hotel, it is 19" x 13". If I were to do it again, I would narrow the depth by 4".









Rod
??? MS/IE-9


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## Rod Fearnley (Jan 2, 2008)

MS/IE-9








Whats wrong guys? Can you see the picture? It shows up on mine. 
I am using Mozilla FireFox
Rod


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## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi Joe, 

In an issure of the 'Gazette' there was an article by Boone Morrison on reduction, IF you reduce the IF you redce the front & sie you will need to take a bit of the roof depth to make it look right. Not much, but the small reduction is needed because optherwise you will have a visually 'heavy' roof Try the building out on corrugated cardboard sheets; try the TV shops for a large carton thqat you can then cut up for a 'mock up' 

Mine are reduced - thay have to be! Don't think that is is a get out - even the Tom Miller layout in his specially built building has some compresssion - his model of Chama depot is reduced by 15%; to svale it is 6 foopt long - Tom's is reduced by a foot!

Here is my mockup for my Boiler Works, and it was built to that size!


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Rod Fearnley on 14 Apr 2011 12:13 PM 
MS/IE-9








Whats wrong guys? Can you see the picture? It shows up on mine. 
I am using Mozilla FireFox
Rod
Rod

There's nothing wrong with your picture, we see it fine.










What Kormsen was questioning was John J's reply where he quoted your reply but added nothing to it. And it seems that one of the problems that individuals that have installed MS/IE-9, is that when they submit a reply any text etc. in the reply gets deleted. Although, it seems that if they put MS/IE-9 in compatibility mode sometimes that corrects the problem.


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## kormsen (Oct 27, 2009)

Posted By Rod Fearnley on 14 Apr 2011 12:13 PM 
MS/IE-9








Whats wrong guys? Can you see the picture? It shows up on mine. 
I am using Mozilla FireFox
Rod 



well, my questionmarks were a reaction to JJ's post, containing a quote, but nothing else.
or does firefox show any comment to the quotation?


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## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

Browsing through the August 1979 issue of Model Railroad I came across plans for the Star Hotel, a two-story structure with a wrap-around porch respresenting a turn-of-the-century railroad hotel. It looks great and shouldn't be too hard to model except that, thanks to the sheer size of large scale, this puppy would be 22.5-inches long and 13-in. wide in 1:20.3 or 13-in. x 11-3/4 in. in 1:22.5, which is still pretty big. 


Except that the 1:1 verson of such a building would be on the small side for a hotel - actually it would be about on a par with a rather modest suburban house.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

I am having trouble posting. When I click on sumbit the screen goes blank The text is goine but the Subject is still there 

JJ


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## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

I agree to what is said above, I would mock up the structure in large sizeand place on my layout to see how it looks with everything else. Other structures, tracks, trees, if it appears to big then reduce. 
Have fun: Dennis


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## Ron Hill (Sep 25, 2008)

Joe, how much room do have to dedicate to the hotel? If you have the room, go for it. There is a hotel downtown I would like to model but will have to cut down the size because the the hotel is 100' X 37' wide X 7 stories tall. That is a huge building! So in order to model it, it will require down sizing the building. 
Ron


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## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

Peter, Mik, TT, Dennis et all, yes a mockup is in order and I shall do so. BTW, I collect cardboard, so there's always a ready supply. And yes, I think the height will have to be rduced. Rod, your hotel looks great. Why haven't I seen it before. Or did I miss it? 

Peter, love the boiler works. I presume that's from Harry Brunk's "Up Clear Creek" series of articles (I have his book) and it is a buliding I have admired.


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## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

Ron, I forgot your question. Since we are thinking theoritically, I have a lot of space. But I need room for other buildings, as I can't quit making more. Plus, I'm an anal kind person who thinks a small town should look small and not be crammed full of structures. So I'd say, space is at a premium.


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## Ron Hill (Sep 25, 2008)

Joe, if space is at a premium, design a hotel to fit a small town. In the early 1900's before Howard Johnson and interstates, every town had at least one hotel because one could not travel that far on two lane roads. Design a hotel for a small town. Most were two story, the lobby being on the ground floor. Some were three or more. 
Ron


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## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

Hey guys, 

I photo copied and enlarged the plans out of MR (to 1:22.5, as that is between 1:20.3 and 1:24 and thus not too big) and did some cut and pasting. As I wrote earlier, I took six feet out of the width of the front of the hotel and then, to keep the proportions right, sliced about 3/4 inch off the attic--the area above the second story windows, to reduce the height. Looks great and seems to be just the right size. I pasted the whole thing onto some shirt cardborad so I could prop it up near some of my other structures and size 'er up. I'll photo copy my work and try to post it (it looks pretty messy right now as I used a glue stick and I am a messy paster (I flunked crafts in kindergarten). Next I need to shrink the sidewall, which is the long wall, but it should be a piece of cake. 

BTW, I like the looks of this building because it has a porch around the right front corner and uses wainscoat (vertical siding) as an accent from the ground to the bottoms of the first floor windows--kinda like some railroad stations did. 

BTW 2: The author of the article wrote that you could use either the double-hung windows he drew or substitute store front windows, which I may do in order to make it look more like a hotel with a lobby than a rooming house. Also, I just happen to have a pair of those windows in my Grandt Line junk box.


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