cityscape My layout as it looks today

[mryork]

Here is the skyline of Ciudad de Gloria as it looks today on my N Scale railroad which features commuter rail and subway lines.

The top photo was taken from a hill not away from my metropolis.

On the bottom is a helicopter view of the city, which is named for my late Mom.

Edited June 3, 2021 by mryork
Correct the captions

[Tom C]

Nice job 👍 I'm going to be cheeky and ask for a street level photo. I'm curious to see between the buildings 🙂

[cteno4]

Nice city mryork! Rarely do you ever see that amount of high rises! You have quite the variety going. You have had to collect far and wide fo all of those.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[mryork]

Tom C,

Well, everything was really cool until the giant Lizard showed up.

I actually do not have any street level views.

However, Ciudad de Gloria's state government has decided to fund the addition of a $600 million - $800 million light rail system that will connect with the George E. Johnson Metro Station (hidden by the buildings.)

But to do that means spacing out the buildings which, unfortunately means the end of my auto distribution and container yard storage centers.

It probably means the end for my crowded rail yard as well. 

 

Edited June 6, 2021 by mryork
Spacing of last sentence

[mryork]

Jeff,
 

Sometimes, fellow modelers and others ask me to tell them where these buildings came from.
 

Here is a list:
 

1) On the extreme left in the rear are two old Atlas skyscrapers, both more than 30 years old.
 

2) In the front on the left, are two Outland structures (probably still available)
 

3) The beige building with the helicopter on the roof are two Tomix office buildings I combined. The Tomix buildings arrive as individual purchases half the height of what you see. I simply remove the bottom of one and placed it atop the first.
 

The two taller grey buildings in the rear are also from Tomix and apparently, they come taller now. Now there is a fourth Tomix building, (also combined), It is brown.
 

How to tell which ones they are? The fronts look the same.
 

4) In the rear, are three consecutive structures once offered by a Chinese company that called itself Scene Model. I bought these on eBay.
 

Scene Model has been apparently banned from eBay. I could never find them anywhere since. No one else could either.
 

5) Now, in the rear on the right is one of my tallest structures. I am not certain, but this one may have been scratch built by a fellow modeler on FB.
 

His name is Gary Nickell Jr. If not, this building is from Scene Model, which offered fully assembled structures in a scale slightly smaller than true N. (Can't tell, can ya?)
 

6) In the middle row, (you already know about the beige and brown Tomix buildings), the black and white pyramid skyscraper as well as the three similar glass or see-through skyscrapers are from Scene Model.
 

To the right of the brown Tomix building is another Scene Model structure. It is a pretty awesome model since it is has three clearly connected sections and its four ground supports spread out like the Eiffel Tower.
 

7) Let's move to the front of the three-section skyscraper. The building immediately in the front believe it or not is made of cardstock. It has scores of green reflective squares and I get more inquiries about this building than any other.
 

It is more than 33 years old and the manufacturer has been out of business for about 30. All my other buildings are plastic. ( I know, I'm not good for the environment ).
 

8 ) Moving to the left of the green building in the front are two more Outland structures.
 

9 ) The White and Black triangle building as well as the blue circular structure, (couldn't resist buying this one), are both from China's Scene Model.
 

10) Still moving to the left in the front as two structures (the turquoise office building and the brown square building which I definitely remember buying from Gary Nickell Jr.
 

11) And then back to the Outland structures.
 

Now, I wish to humbly offer my gratitude in order to the following modelers:
 

Rodney Annan ( who gave me serious suggestions and inspiration for searching the Web for these buildings ).
 

Tremelle Sykes (awesome Cityscape modeler)
 

Tyrone Trotter (another incredible Cityscape modeler)
 

Gary Nickell Jr (scratch builder and fellow N Scaler)
 

These buildings have been collected over the span of 33 years.
 

However, most of the Scene Model buildings were bought I believe within only three years.
 

Happy Model Railroading to all!

 

The image below should match the descriptions of my structures.

Edited June 9, 2021 by mryork

[mryork]

The next phase of my metropolis is about to begin ...

It may mean the elimination of my container storage and auto distribution yards as well as my locomotive storage tracks.

However, I am certain these can be relocated after new land purchases now that the U.S. had a Democrat who supports mass and commuter transit in the White House.

A new light rail system that can carry thousands of office workers, eliminating nuisance parking and all the fees and fines, not to mention auto exhaust fumes, will make the air in and around my city cleaner. 

So, maybe I'll escape being forced to testify before the U.S. Congress about why I bought all those plastic buildings. 😁

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by mryork

[James-SNMB]

On 6/5/2021 at 11:03 PM, mryork said:

 

Scene Model has been apparently banned from eBay. I could never find them anywhere since. No one else could either.
 

....

 

Now, I wish to humbly offer my gratitude in order to the following modelers:
 

Rodney Annan ( who gave me serious suggestions and inspiration for searching the Web for these buildings ).
 

Tremelle Sykes (awesome Cityscape modeler)
 

Tyrone Trotter (another incredible Cityscape modeler)
 

Gary Nickell Jr (scratch builder and fellow N Scaler)

 

I bought a couple of buildings from them at the beginning of the pandemic, so shipping was protracted, but they disappeared off eBay soon after. I assumed their absence was pandemic related, or they just decided to stop. I had not heard that about scenemodel being banned from eBay! That's shocking stuff. All my dealings with them were totally fine. I have since seen their buildings offered on AliExpress through other sellers, so they might still be active.

 

Thanks for the list of other cityscape modellers. I really like Tyrone's work and regularly check in on YouTube, but haven't heard of the others. So I've got some more internet exploring and inspiration ahead of me!

 

Looking forward to see the progress on your layout!

[cteno4]

Hugh I bought a few high rises from scale scene on ebay and all were great, shipped quickly. How do you hear they were banned? They seemed to do a run of products then slowly we’re selling out. The last I had looked they only had a handful left.

 

jeff

[mryork]

A couple of years ago, a few of my FB friends were trying to access Scene Model's sale page on eBay. It had disappeared. The company's eBay sale site came back for a almost two weeks, then vanished for good.

Because eBay shipped from China, we thought tariffs had something to do with it, especially after Trump moved into the White House. We know most of their products were apparently shipped into a Chicago area distribution center.

Like most companies, apparently Scene Model shipped in bulk. But final delivery was always single item for me. I don't know if they were violating eBay rules or what.

But I never bought anything from them after their buy site on eBay disappeared.

I am in the process of buying 10 additional 62-mm long pieces of Unitram straight track. I already had six delivered. 

My plans are to run the Unitram tracks as the outer loop, dismantling the double outer lower loop tracks. The elevated viaduct tracks will remain the inner loop. I plan to use parks to break up and space out the taller city buildings. 

At least, those are my plans.