# WHO BUILT THESE BUILDING KITS



## Bob Baxter (Jan 3, 2008)

Does anyone know the origin (and more importantly) the value of these buildings? I bought several of them a few years ago and I'll never use them. Does anyone know who built the kits and the story behind them? Here are three of them. They are heavy duty castings and were professionally assembled and weathered.


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Could be Railroad Avenue Models. Thought they were out of business for G scale, but maybe not. They were pretty pricey kits, but had some neat stuff. I have some I got from a guy that gout out of GR, due to a hail storm.

Railroad Avenue


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## adir tom (Dec 4, 2011)

Peter Todd. I am fairly sure. I am currently the caretaker of the molds as they were purchased by my train club from Peter's estate.


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

Shame those molds are just sitting. I like the one on the left.


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## Reg Stocking (Sep 29, 2010)

Which scale?


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

All I see is a Red "X"!


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## Bob Baxter (Jan 3, 2008)

Gary, I tried the method that I've used for years, which is to click on the little mountain symbol marked "insert image". The menu that showed up led me to selections that were stuck in the system from the last image I entered. I'm not as interested in learning all the new and different methods that I've seen thrown around lately. So, I did what I do to add pictures to the text areas of my emails which it is to move the picture from Picasa to the desktop, then click it there and it will appear in a page that comes up and then drag it to the email. I did all that with the reply and was surprised to see it appear where I wanted it. Don't know why some see it and some don't.


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## Bob Baxter (Jan 3, 2008)

I assume that the scale is 1:24 or 1:22. They are very heavy and well detailed. They came from an estate sale and were part of an indoor layout. I paid quite a bit of money for them and they've been sitting in the back room for several years. I'll never build a layout so it's time to move them out. I'm thinking about Ebay but I don't know what they might be worth. Any ideas?


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By adir tom on 31 Aug 2013 02:49 PM 
Peter Todd. I am fairly sure. I am currently the caretaker of the molds as they were purchased by my train club from Peter's estate. 



When I first saw the photos (and before I saw Toms post, quoted above) I immediately thought "Peter Todd"..
they sure do look like his work..
Peter was one of the guys who built and detailed the large indoor railroad that was at Ridge Road Station west of Rochester, NY.

Peter was from Rochester, and passed away in 2008, and as Tom said, the building molds now belong to the Genesee G Gauge Railway Society of Rochester, of which he was a founding member.
Some other buildings, similar to Bob's, are still in use by the club..

If these are in fact Peter Todd buildings, they were never made as kits, or complete buildings, to be sold..There are a few around, but not in large numbers..
and Bob, sounds like you might own the few that have ever escaped Rochester! 
These are probably buildings he built and detailed for his own indoor railroad, which was never completed..
Bob, sounds like they probably made it to you from Peter's estate sale back in April 2011, which was in Benton Center, NY, near Penn Yan.
does that timing sound about right?

I cant say for an absolute fact they were made by Peter..but im 90% convinced.

As for value..impossible to say really..there are no other buildings quite like them on the market, they weren't built to be sold, so there is nothing to compare them to.

Scot


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## Shoeshineboy (Aug 29, 2013)

They are terrific looking buildings. Would look great in my layout!


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## todd55whit (Jan 2, 2008)

Scott Has the club ever thought of releasing any of these models as a fund raiser? I would buy any of the shown models, if they were to be produced again. They are something that is not currently out there and would probably go pretty good.


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## Bob Baxter (Jan 3, 2008)

Here are some of the others. I have 12 in all.


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## adir tom (Dec 4, 2011)

The club would NEVER entertain selling the molds. I have made plaster castings of many of them to preserve his art work. I will finish the rest when time permits, Perhaps I the future , I will make daughter molds from the plaster casting. The cost of the RTV for the molds runs about $40 a mold . Many of these buildings have 6-7 individual molds. Looking at the rest of your pictures. They are definitely Peters work. As Scotty noted, these buildings were sold at the estate auction in Pen Yan. If I remember right the buildings went for about $150 each. I think he may have made some additional castings as in the boxes he kept track of the number of castings for some of the molds. Many had more than 16 castings. either the castings were not perfect and he recasted them or he made builds for "friends". 

They are about 1:25 scale. The mauve bldg. is 12 inches tall, the white with blue trim is 8 inches, and doors 3 1/2 inches tall. I would not make castings of the for distribution as the mold have a finite lifetime. Peter used a very soft RTV that is very fragile thus using them for making more than a few castings could easily destroy them. If I make daughter molds from the plaster castings, I might entertain making a limited number of castings. 

Peter did Ridge Road station Which the setup is now non existant. BUT his work for the Garden Factory on Buffalo Rd. Chile, NY is set up every Christmas season. It consists of 9 modules on farm wagons . Scotty has numerous pictures of this setup. Perhaps with a lot of encouragement, he could Utube it for all to see.


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By todd55whit on 01 Sep 2013 02:48 PM 
Scott Has the club ever thought of releasing any of these models as a fund raiser? I would buy any of the shown models, if they were to be produced again. They are something that is not currently out there and would probably go pretty good. 



Todd,
cool idea! but I doubt the club would be interested in making kits to sell..
too much work! 
and our expenses are low these days, we dont really need the money..

One "scene" survives from Ridge Road Station..the "gold mine" piece that was right in the front as you entered the Ridge Road Station layout..
here it is when it was still at Ridge Road Station:









and here it is now, as part of the Garden Factory holiday display, photo from December 2012:









The angle isnt the same..in the top photo, its a "side view"..and the bottom photo is looking more straight on..
but its the same piece.

For more photos of the Garden Factory layout, here is a slideshow:
Genesee G Gauge photos 

Bob, I can see several of the same buildings molds in the Garden Factory layout..
I said I was 90% sure before..now im 100% sure! 
your buildings were custom made by Peter Todd..cast in resin (or perhaps plaster? I have seen both from these molds)
and custom painted, weathered and detailed..
they are very nice buildings! among the nicest you will find anywhere..
probably only suitable for indoors though..they were intended to be indoor-only structures.

Scot


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## adir tom (Dec 4, 2011)

Most buildings from RR station were cast with Hydrocal a plasticized plaster of Paris. His later castings were of polyurethane. Before any are placed outdoors check to see which was used as the Hydrocal deteriorates with any moisture. Again, these molds are very fragile and not up to heavy use.


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## dieseldude (Apr 21, 2009)

There was a company called Columbine that made kits very similar to the buildings that Bob showed in the opening post of this thread. I've only seen pictures of these buildings in a book called "The Large Scale Model Railroading Handbook," by Robert Schleicher (page 135). If these or Peter Todd's buildings were available again, I'd be interested. 


-Kevin.


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Bob if they are in the way, you can gladly store them over at my place ;-)


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## Bob Baxter (Jan 3, 2008)

For those folks who might be watching Ebay to see if those buildings might be available for bid, it isn't going to happen. A very fine gentleman in New York contacted me and has purchased the entire village and they were turned over to UPS for delivery today. He has a very fine basement layout and they are sure to have a warm and clean area to rearrange themselves. Sorry.


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## Dick Friedman (Aug 19, 2008)

These look like prime candidates for one-off 3D printing. Does your club have plans that Mr. Todd worked from? Maybe a quality 3D printer could make respectable molds in a durable medium. Final models could be built from them.


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