This page is a suppplement to our original Structures page which started out listing several kinds of structures from one or two vendors, including homes, industries, water towers, and bridges. By having a separate page just for houses, we will have room to list more products from more sources, and provide more links to related "how-to" articles.

A Note about our "Buyer's Guides" We post these descriptions to help you make informed decisions and to learn what is available, even if the suppliers we usually recommend have a short supply. In some cases, we will allow a description to remain on line, even without a supplier link, if we have reason to believe that the product will become available again later. If you want a particular product, but we have no supplier button or the supplier's page says they are sold out, let us know, and we'll recommend a substitute or try to help you find one elsewhere. We apologize if this causes you any inconvenience or confusion.

For more detailed information about why model trains and related products seem to "come and go" and why I have stopped listing prices for products, please see my article "About Pricing and Availability."

Note about Suppliers: While we try to help you get the products you want by recommending good products from suppliers with a good record of customer service, all transactions between you and the supplier you chose to provide your trains or other purchases are governed by the published policies on the supplier's web site. So please print off any order confirmation screens and save copies of invoices, etc., so you can contact the appropriate supplier should any problems occur. (They almost never do, but you want to be on the safe side.)

Piko Kit Houses

I recommend painting all plastic buildings you're going to use outside, and Piko is no exception. Some people don't like the fact that you have to glue on a lot of the details. But having the trim pieces and windowframes on separate "sprues" from the roofs and walls makes them very easy to paint in contrasting colors. And once you're ready to put them together, many of the kits nearly snap together with very little trimming required. <

Piko Gingerbread Houses
Piko Gingerbread Houses - These little houses are great for setting up a small town without a lot of space. They look tiny in the photo (taken from the package's cover art), but they're large enough to look fine with any garden train. In addition, I have a whole article on how to paint and assemble these so that they'll last for many years outdoors. I started with the yellow one because I liked the trim the best. (Yes, it's blue now.) I've had this outside for four years, year-round, and it still looks as good as when I set it out. In fact, starting with a "Gingerbread" series house is a pretty good idea. It's one of the simplest sets to paint and assemble, but it uses the same walls and basic construction as many of Piko's US-style buildings, so it's a great introduction to this aspect of the hobby.	King's Gingerbread House (gray) Adam's Gingerbread House (blue) Lewis' Gingerbread House (yellow) Piko Little Red Schoolhouse
Uncle Sam's Farmhouse - This house adds a covered porch to the basic Gingerbread House structure. Construction is almost identical, so once you've painted and assembled a Gingerbread House, you're ready for this one. If you use it in the same "town" as your Gingerbread House(s), you could pretend that this home belongs to someone a bit more prosperous, say the "foreman" of the town's chief industry. Or it's great for using to squeeze a family farm into a tiny space. "Uncle Sam's" is sort of a grayish lavender (to my eyes at least), but Piko makes an identical model in a bright "baby blue" called Cousin Jane's Farm House (not shown). Again, I recommend painting these anyway, but if you'd like to see what it would look like blue, or if the link for "Uncle Sam's" house takes you nowhere, click the link for "Cousin Jane's" house.	Piko Uncle Sam's Farmhouse Piko Cousin Jane's Farm House (not shown)
Grandpa's Farmhouse - This house adds a second story and the sort of side add-ons that are common on old "frame" farmhouses of a century ago. Like "Uncle Sam's," "Grandpa's Farmhouse" is sort of a grayish lavender (to my eyes at least), but Piko makes an identical model in a bright yellow called Aunt Bea's House (not shown). Again, I recommend painting these anyway, but if you'd like to see what it would look like yellow, click here. Unfortunately the Amazon link for Aunt Bea's house shows the wrong photo. That said, if the link for "Grandpa's" house takes you nowhere, click the link for "Aunt Bea's" house to the right. Just be aware you're ordering the yellow version.	Piko Grandpa's Farmhouse PIKO Aunt Bea's Farmhouse
"The" Mansion - This is Piko's largest US-style home. I've seen folks customize this as a haunted house. In many small cities, most of the old mansions like these have been converted to funeral homes, so that's not so far off, either. It also bears an odd resemblance to an old city office building in Dayton (no longer used for city business). In fact, Piko has also issued versions of this as one kind of business or another, as well as a "German Embassy." Again, I recommend painting, so you can make it whatever you want, and whatever color you want.	Piko 'The' Mansion

Colorado Model Structures

CMS's structures tend to be less detailed than Piko's, and they aren't as easy to put together. But, ironically, what puts more people of than anything else is that they have to be painted before you put them togetheror put them on your railroad. Since I paint everything anyway, that doesn't bother me. Nor does the fact that the glazing doesn't come "free" with the buildings like the plastic stuff that comes in the more expensive kits (and which yellows and crystalizes in 3-5 years). I usually glaze my buildings with Lucite anyway. And if you order the glazing from CMS, you'll find a superior product that is easy to use.

One more caveat, and then I'll shut up - because the owner spends so much time coming up with new designs, he doesn't take time to do really nice paint jobs on his models before he photographs them and puts the photos online. (When he does take time, someone inevitably offers him "real money" before he has a chance to post the photos, so he starts over again anyway.) However, the "gallery" page of his site shows some amazing things other folks have done with these buildings. So if you go to his page, be sure to check it out.

Now for the really fun part: CMS buildings is that they are so inexpensive, lots of hobbyists have sliced-and-diced them to make new, very impressive buildings that still cost far less than competing brands.

I haven't written any articles on their houses, but I have written one on painting and assembling their railroad yard tower, and most of the tips and tricks apply to the houses. Next time I build a CMS house, I'll take lots of photos to share.

Unlike other brands, CMS buildings are ONLY available direct from the manufacturer. And I confess, the owner doesn't have the most impressive web page. In fact, every link on the following table will take you to the same page on the owner's site. But he has done more to make garden railroading affordable for families than anyone I know, so I cut him some slack on that account.

Bob & Toms Cabin w/Smokehouse - CMS 3016a This is probably the smallest house CMS makes. It represents a cabin in the woods with a separate smoke house. You could afford to build a whole logging or church camp or motorist campground (remember those?) with these.	Go to the CMS kit page
Carls Homestead CMS3014 is one of the easier-to-build buildings. Main building Height is 8-1/2", Width is 9-3/4", and depth is 5-3/4". Annex is 2-7/8" x 5-3.4".	Go to the CMS kit page
Grandpa's House Need a house that doesn't like it belongs in Greenfield Village? This model is based on the design of several hillside homes built in the late 1970's and early 1980's around Colorado Springs, but it would be at home anywhere. It is a slightly more advanced kit with mitered corners. All door, window, and roof sections are included. The structure fits in a footprint of 18-1/2" x 11-1/2' and stands 9" high.	Go to the CMS kit page
Cascade Summit Section House - This could be a yard office, a bunkhouse, or a starter home. All door, window, and roof sections are included. Building is 13" x 6-1/2" x 6-1/2" high.	Go to the CMS kit page
Cascade Summit Dispatch Office - Again, this is meant to be a yard office or the like, but its interesting shape could represent a very very tiny house. All door, window, and roof sections are included. Size is 9" x 6-1/4" x 6" high at the roof ridge not including roof overhang. To see a version that Robert Segessman fixed up to look like a tiny hobby shop, click here.	Go to the CMS kit page
Fitzwell Inn - This Colonial-style design was created from a selection of several existing buildings in the York County, Pennsyvania area. It is a more advanced kit that requires filing or sanding of matching corners to obtain optimum appearance and has mitered corners. All door, window, and roof sections are included. The structure itself is 16 inches wide by 10 inches deep and 14 inches high. It is molded from high impact polystyrene(styrene).	Go to the CMS kit page

Others? We always enjoy seeing things that other folks come up with, and we're on the lookout for anything new to post. In fact, we have at least one very unusual source that we hope to post in a few weeks.

Conclusion

Best of luck,

Paul