Has anyone been to St. Louis to the Arch? Talking about models, try having one of those on your layout. There are a few railroads close by. Maybe your layout is entirely one huge city; bring in the glass skyscrapers of Dallas or, for that matter, any skyscraper. 8)
Talk about awesome!!!
;) ;) Sam ;) ;)
I've seen a variety of different sizes of the Arch in various places around St. Louis. Souvenir shops, truck stops, carnival supply etc. You could probably find one close to HO scale.
The Eads Bridge would be a good project because the railroad ran underneath the highway part.
It depends on what time period you want to model if you did the riverfront. The Arch put there in '66.
I plan to put an old, abandoned skyscraper on my layout. It'll probably be kitbashed from inexpensive kits. I'll use some big-city skyscrapers as an inspiration.
a real easy way to do a haunted skyscraper would be to pick up one of the old Skyline building sets from the 60s, they still show up on E-Bay with some regularity.. P.M.
You can find some of that stuff on line, by Googling "souvenirs" and the city, but you may have to take the extreme step of going there on vacation and looking around in person. (Incorporate your layout as an educational museum and deduct it from your income tax??? ;D)
You can also Google for "architectural models," but those get awfully pricey. I did look up some drawings and photos of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago, and that might not be too hard to build from scratch: smooth lines and simple shapes.
The St. Louis Arch would be a nice challenge. My bet is that someone there has crafted it in plastic for tourist sales, if you can just figure out where to look for it.
Railsider
The Arch is 630' tall. It would be 88.2 inches in HO. One foot equals .14 inches