Marx Tin Town Building panel kit

PART OF THE allure of tinplate trains is their construction material – sheet metal. So what better way to complement operation of those trains than through the use of sheet-metal structures on your layout? But your choices are limited. On one hand you have scarce and expensive prewar structures (primarily railroad stations and right-of-way pieces) and on the other you have modern-day reproductions of those very same structures.

Tin Town building kits from Marx Trains help fill the void. Not only are they 100 percent sheet metal, but they can be built in any configuration you can imagine with nothing more than your two hands.

Patterned after a 1930s panel structure kit, Tin Town components are produced with all-new tooling. The modular High-Rise Outfit consists of enough different wall, floor, and cornice components to construct a 30-square building.

Wall and cornice pieces are painted terra-cotta, gray, or tan. All have tabs that fit into slots in folded sheet-metal “squares” that make up the floors and ceilings of the building.

The panels are small – two inches square – and although the door and window openings are tiny for O gauge, a towering Tin Town structure still looks right when next placed next to a tinplate train.

Tin Town structures are panel construction at its most basic – there are no clear plastic window or door inserts, and no stickers or decals to adorn the exterior of the building. Also, and with a structure composed of dozens of two-inch panels, it’s sometimes difficult to get the building to sit squarely.

I spent an enjoyable two hours designing and building the Tin Town structure in the photograph. I was so involved in construction that I was 45 minutes late leaving the office to pick up my kids!

Marx sells Tin Town kits in three different sizes and also sells all Tin Town components individually for occasions when you need just one more window panel to top off your version of the Empire State Building.

Tin Town offers a charm that will never be available from plastic kits. Hi-rail it isn’t, but for those of you with your hearts firmly into tinplate, Tin Town should be a stop on our railroad.