Review

Typical model railroad layouts often focus on intricate track plans, containing miles and miles of track. There you'll find classification yards, rail side industries, locomotive servicing facilities, freight stations, passenger stations, bridges, tunnels, and a host of railroad related scenes. What is often overlooked in these miniature worlds, however, are the towns and cities where the people who ride our trains call home. We may have downtown areas, full of skyscrapers, warehouses, and businesses, but where are the sleepy neighborhoods full of houses far from the railroad tracks? Where can you find small streets lined with houses and children playing in the backyards? At the end of a long day or work, where do your miniature people sit in their comfy chair, read the paper, and nod off to sleep? Where do they call home?

Perhaps you have an area of unfinished layout, a stretch of bare plywood waiting for inspiration. Instead of filling it up with more tracks or another industry, why not create a small neighborhood? All it takes is two or three short streets lined by homes on both sides, dotted with trees, children, bicycles, dogs, and cats. Every neighborhood has character, something you'll have to decide for your layout. In my case, I have a small area of historic homes that date back to the early 1920s. Many of them will be scratch-built from information that I've found in books and photos, but now thanks to Atlas, come will be purchased pre-assembled or as kits. I'm referring of course to the latest release in their Lovely Ladies Home Series, Bart's Bungalow.

Barb's Bungalow is offered both as a plastic kit and as a pre-assembled structure. The latter version is the subject of this review. Bart's Bungalow represents one of many catalog homes available for purchase in the 1920s. Refereed to as the Classical or Four-Square Bungalow, it is one story with a square or rectangular footprint. Having typically four to six rooms, it is called "classical" because of the use of symmetrical front styling, full-width porch and large columns.

Steps leading up the porch arrive at a centered front door, accompanied by windows on both sides, giving the house its distinctive symmetrical look. Three roof styles were used on the classic bungalow; the simple gable roof, sloping down from the centerline to the left and right of the house; the broadside gable roof, sloping down from the centerline to the front and back of the house, with a central attic dormer on the front roof; and finally the hip roof, sloping down from the center of the house in all four directions with a central attic dormer on the front roof.

The simple nature of the bungalow design led to a variety of plans available through inexpensive plan books and catalog firms, such as Sears Roebuck. For a trip down memory lane, visit their archives at www.searsarchives.com/homes and learn all about the catalog homes offered from 1908 to 1940. There you can find examples of classic bungalows including Model 147 and 165 (in the 1908-1914 section). Both very similar to Barb's from Atlas. For a selection of book and articles on Sears Roebuck catalog homes, visit

www.oldhouseweb.com/stories/Features?Sears_Kit_Houses

The latest offering from Atlas includes many features, such as glazed windows, period clapboard siding, detailed shingles, porch and brick chimney, rain gutters with down spouts, and cellar doors from the Bilco Company, which has been in business since 1926. Both plastic kit and pre-assembled versions are molded in appropriate colors, making painting an optional step. The kit version of offered in one paint scheme: off-white, brick red, and tan. The pre-assembled version is offered in three paint schemes: smoky gray, light blue, and black; mustard, pine green, and tan; and white, dark green, and black.

The model measure 22 scale feet wide by 32 scale feet deep, not including the porch. That's 704 square feet, giving you an idea of the approximate living space in these small homes - - not very much! This is very close to Sears Roebuck Model 147, a small two-bedroom, one bath home measuring 24 feet by 38 feet deep. Although Model 147 sports a gamble roof while Barb's Bungalow has a hip roof, a visual comparison between the two reveals how faithfully Atlas has captured the look and feel of the classic bungalow. Well done, Atlas!