Nice Vic. I have a very similar Ives like the one in the first link. If you need it repaired I can give you a contact (he does not charge he actually repairs them because he enjoys it.)
For keys http://www.clockworks.com/clock-parts/clock-keys.html
This guy is great, he does repairs. http://oldwinduptrains.tripod.com/home.html
for Marx parts http://www.trainpartsformarx.com/
Vic Smith said:
HJ the catenary is what will make it interesting.
I am planning streetfront scenes along with backyard backalley type scenes, doing the overhead wiring last. One of my all time favorite MRs was called the Crooked Mountain Lines by a guy named Bob Hegges, it was an O scale traction line that back in the 70’s had some incredible modeling. I want to make my own little homage to this line.
Cool…pack it full of wire and telephone poles on the town street!
As noted by others in the past every time I see the Pizza I always find something new that I hadn’t seen before!
Good luck!
Progress, got a bit done faster than I expected. Here are test placements on the layout, with a basswood sidewalk base.
(http://gold.mylargescale.com/vsmith/HO%20Micro%2005.JPG)
(http://gold.mylargescale.com/vsmith/HO%20Micro%2006.JPG)
(http://gold.mylargescale.com/vsmith/HO%20Micro%2007.JPG)
After reading alot of sources from the other thread requesting interior detailing advice, here is the results:
(http://gold.mylargescale.com/vsmith/HO%20Micro%2008.JPG)
(http://gold.mylargescale.com/vsmith/HO%20Micro%2010.JPG)
(http://gold.mylargescale.com/vsmith/HO%20Micro%2011.JPG)
(http://gold.mylargescale.com/vsmith/HO%20Micro%2012.JPG)
Overhead view:
(http://gold.mylargescale.com/vsmith/HO%20Micro%2013.JPG)
(http://gold.mylargescale.com/vsmith/HO%20Micro%2014.JPG)
Now, for the fun part, heres a test shot using my ubercheap lighting system, a $5 string of batttery powered christmas lights, what the hell, I think it works pretty good!
(http://gold.mylargescale.com/vsmith/HO%20Micro%2015.JPG)
(http://gold.mylargescale.com/vsmith/HO%20Micro%2016.JPG)
Thats it for now.
Nice!
Detail pieces are a mix of Priesler and Woodland Scenics, the figures are Bachmann
Looking good. Love the lights.
Thanks, the lighting is a string of small white Christmas type lights connected to a small battery pack. This uses 2 C cells. I payed $5 at Micheal’s but I have seen similar at Dollar Stores.
It occurred to me that these could be used in Large Scale as cheap building illumination. Just use rechargeable batteries and you can have lights in your buildings without external wiring or solar PV issues (shady places).
Vic, I am enjoying following this thread on 2 different forums. And be careful what you say about shady places, us shady characters tend to hang out in them places.
Turned the thing around today and realized the back is going to be 10x more complex, oy vey
Progress on the backyards:
A rather crappy pic of the backsides
WS kit bashed as a car shop
lighting added
WS metal kitbashed into a bungalow
roofs from Paper Creek
That’s it for now.
What did you say the Woodland Scenic structures are made of?
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
What did you say the Woodland Scenic structures are made of?
The kits are either entirely white metal or WM with scribed wood sides. Their pre-made pre-finished lines are entirely plastic.
I really haven’t read their catalogue for a while, just looked at the plan view drawings. 
I leave building the kits to others. 
Kits? Oh, they still make building kits? Most of what I see anymore are built ups.
David Maynard said:
Kits? Oh, they still make building kits? Most of what I see anymore are built ups.
Yes Sir, they do. Even in 0 scale, that could be quite handy for an indoors 1:29 layout as background structures.
Woodland Scenic is also one of the companies providing plan view drawings of the structures. I appreciate that very much, saves a lot of work when adding structures to layout plans. You know that “I’m not re-inventing the wheel” kind of stuff.
Huh. Building kits. Interesting. So I guess the model railroad world hasn’t completely gone RTR. Or as I say at my job, “Plug and play and throw away.”
While the assembled WS buildings have a very nice finish, buying the kits lets one pick one’s own colour scheme for everything on that structure AND if so inclined one can modify anything to one’s own taste. That prevents the “Oh, he has one of those too” expressions on visitors faces.
My favourite articles in the mags? Taking a stock kit and changing/adapting it to what one needs to fit a theme and/or location.
BTW for the same reason I scratch build as many structures as possible and restrict my “consumption” of “the usual” stuff to as little as I find “bearable”. 
Given my general attitude I also go “Harumph” when I see another so called RhB layout with structures that are distinctly “flat-landish”.
Hans, yea I don’t want to have the same town as another model railroad out there, whatever scale I am working in.
That problem is especially exasperated in LS where the number of available buildings, kit or assembled, is extremely limited. One thing I have always hated about the layouts published is that the same exact buildings would show up issue after issue. Kits are nice because the you can customize them to taste.
I can’t help but wonder where modelling skills have gone .
When I got my first LGB (when it first came out) there were no buildings or accessories , so I built my own .
Now it seems if you can’t get a kit to exactly fit your requirements , you don’t bother .
Try scratch building , especially building bridges (which is what I am doing here) , the bridge have to fit a particular spot , bending the track round to fit a bridge can look artificial .
And I have to add , Vic seems to be having a lot of fun building his mini layout , it shows . It’s very good .
