Houses

[Alwicon]

Hi there, I've just completed my first layout and am now adding scenery etc and as I'm handy I'd like to make my own houses to scale.  Looking at the Hornby houses they vary quite a lot in height from 100 MM to 180mm.  Can anyone help with what the overall height of my ( I'm making a row of terraced houses) houses should be to suit a 00 gauge set.  Also if anyone has any tips or links that might be helpful  

Thanks in advance

[Chrissaf]

00 scale is 1:76 - which equates to 4mm to the foot.

.

So if a real house from the ground to the chimney pot is 30 feet high, then the model should be 30 x 4mm (120mm).

[JJ73]

Hiya

 

Even in real life building can be different shape, sizes, Heights, etc - so the best thing to do is to measure the size of your Model People' you've got...i.e. :-

 

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 As you can see the woman is only 25 mm tall & the door on the few stations that I've got seems to be 3 cm tall - best thing to do is to measure the size of your model folk that you've got & then add 5 mm for clearance then go forward from there!!! I would say. Is this any help???

[37lover]

Alwicon,

Don't waste your time measuring model figures, if you have any. Go Online and search for suppliers of building kits for example Scalescenes, Metcalfe, and Superquick. They all produce Terrace Houses and show sizes. Use these sizes as a basis for your own scratchbuild; I have used Scalescenes quite a bit and would recommend them but you need to be able to print reasonably good quality A4 sheets.

PS: I have been looking at Metcalfe myself earlier today but cannot find any Terrace kits [P0261] available for sale other than Low Relief

[Ruffnut Thorston]

The Metcalfe terrace houses, and shops, are indeed low relief model kits.

The trick is that they make the fronts, and the shop fronts, and also the rear elevation.

 

For a whole building, you join a front to a rear...i.e. two kits joined together.

 

Scalescenes, or similar downloads can always be used as templates to make models from plastic card, or anything else... 😉

[atom3624]

25mm woman at 4mm / ft means she's 6 feet 3 inches tall ... pretty tall woman - basketball player?  !!

 

Al.

[JJ73]

Atom - most of my figures seems to be that size - may be they are all 'basket ball' playes indisgues!!!

[JJ73]

@ 37Lover :- I didn't mean for him to measure every model - just 1 - most of my model folks are the same size any way - I was just going on the basis that to make sure that the doors are the right size & aren't either to big or too small which would look silly!!!

[Buz]

Hi Alwicon

Buildings come in all shapes and sizes have a look at these free ones go to the botom of the page.

 

http://kingswaymodels.com/page27.htm

 

Lots of usefull stuff even a well known address 😆

All scaled for OO trains this site also does a lot of comercial product as well so don't get mxed up.

But the free ones will get you started on what you need to know to make your own out of card from scratch and provide some usefull buildings and chop job fodder.

regards John

[37lover]

@ 37Lover :- I didn't mean for him to measure every model - just 1 - most of my model folks are the same size any way - I was just going on the basis that to make sure that the doors are the right size & aren't either to big or too small which would look silly!!!

To measure just one would be worse! I have measured a selection of mine and they range from 21.5mm through to 25.4 with most about 22.5mm. At 1:76 that would convert to 1634mm - 1930mm with most at 1710mm. If you want that in feet & inches it's about 5ft 4", 6ft 4", and most at 5ft 7". A standard domestic door is about 78" high > 1981 > 26mm at 1:76. So taking 25mm as you suggest and adding 5mm for the size of a doorway would be way out of scale.

But that is irrelevant the OP asks about the height of a terrace house, not a short course in working out house height based on doorways. Subsequent posts have provided sensible advice.

[Bulleidboy]

25mm woman at 4mm / ft means she's 6 feet 3 inches tall ... pretty tall woman - basketball player?  !!

 

Al.

 

Amazon!

[atom3624]

😎

[81F]

 Wills make some kits under their £Craftsman" range. These are basically flat sheets of stone or brick material which you cut out to a plan. They also have separate window and door mouldings together with Chimney pots and, guttering and ridge tiles.

 

I found these quite a good introduction to scratch building a row of cottages to represent some that exist in Glyn Ceiriog. Although by the time I finished the row of cottages bear little resemblence to the one the kit was supposed to make!

 

Wills also sell (or at least used to) the door and window mouldings separately so you could get a pack of these and use them to get the relative dimensions of your house. However, if you are just starting I would recommend getting some plastic building kits and either building these as per instructions or cusomizing them to your own needs.

 

One kit which is quite versitileis the Airfix Waterloo Farm house (if you can still find one) which can be split down and rearranged to provide something other than the model it was intended to make. Also if you want a ruined cottage I would recommend one or more Airfix Forward command post kits. Sadly I don't think this is currently available but some model shops/on-line sellers may still have them.

 

DAPOL also make plastic kits that were once part of the Airfix Range (a semi detatched house, a detached house and a thatched cottage among others. All well worth looking at. Hornby also used to make a very nice kit for a pair of terraced shops - just wish I had room for one but I think these are long out of production but they do turn up from time to time on ebay..

[Alwicon]

A big thank you to everyone who contribute, some very good ideas in there.  I've started by ordering from Scalescene to see how I go.  Looked like Metcallfes is closed due the Covid.  

[Gricer]

Mention of the Airfix Waterloo Farm house brings back memories of making it as a child. Alas long ago and long gone. Thats both my childhood and the model. I assume that it was discontinued when Airfix went bust in the 1970's and its assets scattered. I am surprised that it has never been re-released by whoever ended up owning the moulds, but perhaps they have long gone. I would certainly love to build it once more and find a place for it on my layout! Thanks 81F for reviving a happy memory! 

[Bulleidboy]

A big thank you to everyone who contribute, some very good ideas in there.  I've started by ordering from Scalescene to see how I go.  Looked like Metcallfes is closed due the Covid.  

 

There is a message on the Metcalfe site saying they are closed until further notice.

[LCDR]

Going back to first principles the 1995 Building Construction Handbook gives the sizes of doors as -

Ledged & Braced 1829mm or 1981mm high x 610mm, 686mm or 762mm wide

Framed Ledged & Braced 1981mm high x 686mm, 762mm or 838mm wide

Interior Panelled doors 1981mm high x 762mm or 838mm wide

Internal Flush doors 1981mm high x 762mm or 838mm wide

External (front) doors 1981mm or 2032mm high x 762mm, 838mm or 813mm wide

standard sizes for individual bricks are  215mm long X 112.5mm wide X 65mm high

(pre-metric originally 8.5" x 4.5" x 3") We used to say a course of mortar was about half an inch.

 

A Building Textbook dated 1924 gives the following information regarding roofs 

Flat roofs – covered with lead, zinc, copper, stone or ashphalte

Slate Roofs are about 30 degrees pitch

Tiles or wood shingles are about 45 degree pitch

standard staircases are 7" riser and 9" tread 

 

Judging by my own home the ground floor ceiling is 8' 6" above the floor, the floor above starts 10" - 12" above that, and the first floor room is 8' 6" floor to ceiling too. The tiled roof starts almost immediately and the peak is about 10' 0" above that . Therefore a typical semi-detached is about 30' 0" ground to top plus a bit more for any chimneys.

 

More to follow.

 

[LCDR]

A few more bits of information out of old building textbooks.

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION 1936

DOORS

British Standard Doors

No          thick      width    height  

Internal Doors

1              1.25        2’ 0”       6’ 0”

2              1.5          2’ 0”       6’ 0”

3              1.5          2’ 0”       6’ 6”

4              1.5”        2’ 4”       6’ 6”

5              1.5”        2’ 6”       6’6”

6              1.5”        2’ 8”       6’6”

7              1.75”      2’ 6”       6’ 6”

8              1.75”      2’ 8”       6’ 6”

9              1.75”      2’ 10”     6’ 6”

10           2”            2’ 10”     6’ 6”

External Doors

11           1.75”      2’ 6”       6’ 6”

12           1.75”      2’ 8”       6’ 6”

13           1.75”      2’ 10”     6’ 6”

14           1.75”      3’ 0”       6’ 6”

15           1.75”      2’ 8”       6’ 8”

16           1.75”      2’ 10”     6’ 10”

17           1.75”      3’ 0”       7’ 0”

18           2”            2’ 8”       6’ 6”

19           2”            2’ 10”     6’ 6”

20           2”            3’ 0”       6’ 6”

21           2”            2’ 8”       6’ 8”

22           2”            2’ 10”     6’ 10”

23           2”            3’ 0”       7’ 0”

Garage Doors (in pairs)

24           2              7’ 0”       7’0”

25           2              7’ 6”       7’ 6”

26           2              7’ 9”       7’ 9”

27           2              8’ 0”       8’ 0”      

 

Chimneys

 

Minimum height above roof 3’ 0”

Maximum height 5 times smallest stack dimension

[37lover]

LC&DR, your estimate of 30ft matches what Chrissaf mentioned earlier and would be 120mm high. The OP has ordered something from Scalescene and their range of building kits show 125mm for a 70's semi-detached, 119mm for a 30's, and 115mm high for Terraced houses. A liitle variety is a good thing.

[Jimbo1707820979]

But if you wish to have a layout with "forced perspective" you will need buildings of various smaller sizes than available other than HO etc. One inexpensive way of achieving this is to print face-on photographs, say of houses, on as thick a paper as your printer will handle and use these as a basis for scratch building. The trickiest part I have found is to get the right size. Pinterest has some interesting pictures and I have several unusual buildings based on photos.

[morairamike]

A lot of the figures are HO that are sold on the web.

[Jimbo1707820979]

Maybe HO figures will look correct if you are modelling a pre-WW2 railway. People were shorter hence the Bantam Battalions in WW1. 😆