Bus Terminal/Shopping Mall
Aurora's "Modern Station and
Restaurant" (4111) became my bus terminal/shopping mall. Having two kits on hand made
it easier to modify the base to suit the structure's new purpose. The changes included removing the steps
along the main entrance, as well as the seats from the back, which originally faced railroad tracks. From the spare kit I removed the
strip of base with the seats, and installed it along the front on either side of the main entrance to extend the base out to meet the roadway.
I also removed the small set of steps on the right, and enlarged the base there. The remaining notch will get trees and flowers. Before:
After:
The structure itself received just a couple of minor modifications: I reduced the number of doors along the former train platform from three down to one to serve as the main entrance to the shopping mall, and I squared off the front of the bus terminal—the sloped walls blocked the sidewalk, and I was never really keen on their shape. In addition, I omitted those items (such as signs, clocks, etc.) that identified it as a train station, as well as European details like flowerboxes. The rest was down to a lot of painting—I used a family of "boring" neutral colors to further Americanize the building.
