Even though my family has a long history of working with and living near the railroad industry – my grandfather worked for both the New York Central and PennCentral railroads – I think one of the reasons I never really got into model railroading – except for the one day a year when I visit the Empire State Plaza’s Train Expo in December – is that I really never developed the ability to scratch-build the buildings and the rolling stock. Yeah, you can make an adequate model railroad in your basement or game room, but in all truth one needs to be able to develop kit-building and kit-bashing techniques that will make your model railroad look less of a “model” and more of a “railroad.”
Example. If I said to you, “I need to get a bottle of PC Green paint,” the majority of you would wonder why I would require paint that was politically correct. Model railroaders, however, know very well that I’m talking about paint that specifically matches the dark green of a PennCentral boxcar.
Now with all that being said, how’s this for coolness.
That’s just one of several model kits manufactured by M&M Built Scale Structures, a company from Garfield, N.J. M&M manufactures O-gauge (Lionel train size) buildings, and has created a series based on classic buildings from downtown Schenectady.
Three years ago, M&M created the “Schenectady series,” featuring such buildings as the Wallace Armer hardware store, Barney’s, Rudnick’s Uniforms, the Trustco Bank building, Proctor’s Theater, the Parker Inn, and, of course, the General Electric building that you see above. Many of these pieces have sold out, but M&M prides itself on custom product manufacture, and they’re always working on new scratchbuilt model buildings.
Definitely take a look at M&M’s website (link listed above) for available Schenectady buildings and architecture – because how cool would it be to have your train go past Proctor’s Theater on its way to that bend around the water heater?
Chuck The Writer 
My father used to make both the houses and the railroad cars, and we had a small set-up in the basement. I think he’d always hoped that one of his substitute sons (aka “his daughters”) would be interested, but, well, neither of us were. The tracks were dismantled long ago, and the buildings and cars are in a little display case. Maybe my nephew will be interested – and I’m passing this along to Dad just in case.
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What a great job on those scale buildings! Although I don’t work with RR, I’m into G scale (1/24-5) cars, I REALLY get a kick out of Lenny’s Mohawk Valley RR store…the time I spent there almost equals the amount of $! Kudos!
-Mike
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M&M used some of my photographs, among others, for their studies, and I’ve had a number of conversations with the model builder. They’re truly spectacular works that I’d love to be able to buy, even though I don’t do model railroading.
Wouldn’t it be fantastic if these were on display somewhere in the Proctor’s complex?
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