ATSF LA "the patch" my version

[porthos]

That looks very interesting. Did you got sufficient detailed material of the prototype to model the fronts of all the buildings after? May be you could share the source. The information available on the two web sites about the patch are great but not sufficient to model so many buildings .
As you did not start the layout yet, you might start doing the fronts of some buildings now and store them in the mean time.

Well, yes and no. The most significant structures are still standing and I can get pretty good looks from most sides of them using Bing maps and Google Earth. At least half a block of buildings has been replaced with a single massive structure so the only shots I have of those are from Bob Smaus' site http://www.bobsgardenpath.com/trains.html. So there is really only two pictures one in color and one in black & white for them and they pretty much the only two-story buildings lining the alley. So there is going to be a lot of guessing on the looks for some of these. Architecture style for these buildings really dates from the turn of the century. Lots of brick work and I can see enough examples of other buildings in the area that I can get something that is probably going to be pretty close. The key structures for me are the Walnut Exchange, Phillips Poultry and the two buildings that form that narrow alley all of these are still there and I have enough reference to start on that structure. In fact most of the buildings along the Alameda side are still there as are the buildings on the south side of Mill street. I need to make a trip to LA to get some pictures of my own.

So the main sources right now are:
Bob Smaus: http://www.bobsgardenpath.com/trains.html
Keith Jordan: http://web.mac.com/ckjordan/The_Patch/Patch_Home.html
Bing Maps: http://www.bing.com/maps/#JnE9LmluZHVzdH...k5NDYyODU= Then click on birds eye view
If that link doesn't work for the bing maps just go to bing or google maps and enter industrial street and mill street los angeles CA and it will take you to the right intersection

Its an interesting area to model and I wouldn't want to be the driving my car while bumping across the five sections of track that cross Mill Street.