Due to the passing of my mother in law (May she rest in peace) I am facing the need to move my layout from our upstairs apartment to the downstairs apartment in preparation of getting the upstairs ready to rent out.
I am trying to avoid a total tear down and rebuil if possible My wife thinks that if we remove the legs from the bench work and the structures etc. fromp the top that we might be able to shrink wrap the table top and carry it downstairs with minimal damage, while preserving the track work.
Has anyone here ever had this problem and what did you do.
Joe Staten Island West
LION goes the total rebuild route. Him never made a layout small enough to move..
Layout of LION has much attached to the walls. Cannot move the wals anway.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
BroadwayLion LION goes the total rebuild route. Him never made a layout small enough to move.. Layout of LION has much attached to the walls. Cannot move the wals anway. ROAR
My understanding from your previous posts is that Lion has taken vow to stay in his den.
Anyway SIW is not fixed to wall and can be moved in theory anyway. Knowing that Mom was near the end we discussed what we wanted to do once it happened and for that reason I never got to placing my photographic back drop which is still in mailing tube.
I can see going either way.
Which way could be influenced by:
How much I loved the existing layout.
If it's super-duper, near perfection, with hours of work getting it that way,
if the trackwork never has derailments and allows me to operate just the way I want,
if the electrical system is dead reliable,
if the scenery is just fantastic,
if the buildings look perfect,
I would lean towards moving it rather than tearing it down.
And then there's whether it can fit in the new place. Since we're talking about changing apartments in the same building, this might be the unusual time where the layout is a drop-in in the new place.
I do wonder about the shrinkwrap idea. It doesn't seem like it would protect it from getting dinged. What is it supposed to do?
Since I'm in Free-mo, I'm pretty experienced with moving layout (parts) around. It's good to have friends to help; it's good to plan extensively; it's good not to be rushed; it's good to reward friends afterwards for helping; it's good to reward oneself for getting the job done.
Ed
Joe, Is stat an Island?
LION will be staying at Newark Abbey for a week in October.
Yes as in Staten Island not far from Newark. The borough without but should have had a subway.
You didn’t mention how big the layout is. If it is small enough to carry, go for it. At worst it gets damaged and you have to start over. I would skip the shrink wrap. That sounds like it might do more damage than prevent. Just remove all of the details that are loose before you move it and reinstall them after the move. Hopefully you glued down all of the ground cover and trees when you installed them. If not you should do it to the ground cover and remove the trees and reinstall them.
The size is critical for being able to maneuver it through doorways, around corners or stairways, not to mention actually being able to lift it. If you used plaster for scenery, that adds to the weigh issue.
I don't see the advantage of shrink wrap.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I learned early on, that for me at least, destroying an old layout and starting over is very liberating. I always have new ideas for the next layout.
.
If you are on the other end of the spectrum, you should try to move it carefully.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
To Answer some of the questions the layout is an L shaped ISL with the two wings extending out about 5 feet.
The track plan is good enough but not perfect. However, I feel I can correct my mistakes without a total tear down once the layout is moved. I intend to work on the wiring a bit while the layout is on its side. Also I intend to drill holes for more feeders and lighting. At the moment I am marking the locations of buildings.
No plaster as there are no mountains in this ISL except one vinyl preformed one that is caulked down and therefore removable as a unit.
Ultimately the carpenter that helped me build the bench work will be the one to decide if he can move it with his son. I cannot lift anything like that due to severe back issues.
if it does get torn down I have a contingency plan to rebuild it with a new track plan that corrects my mistake.
there are very few trees and those that are there will be removed for shipping so to speak.
i have extra ballast if needed too.
my wife seems to feel shrink wrap will protect it I'm not so sure.
Finally the new space is the same as the old space just a 12 ft shift in altitude:-) wonder what that is in scale feet.
If it can fit through the doors and make it around any corners you have to turn, it should be fine. I don't know about the shrink wrap - sometimes you might WANT all the loose stuff to come off - ballast, ground foam, etx. And shrink wrapping it won't protect the track from damage if it gets bashed into the corner of a door frame anyway.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
joe323if it does get torn down I have a contingency plan to rebuild it with a new track plan that corrects my mistake.
That makes it sound like you cannot lose. If it moves OK, Yay! If it gets destroyed, YAY! You get to correct your mistakes and try new things.
I also think shrink wrap is a terrible idea.
However, if my wife suggested it, I might go ahead and do it anyway. Otherwise, if anything does get damaged, all you will ever hear about is how you did not use the shrink wrap she suggested.
Randy:
I can see your point about the excess ballast and so on coming off. I think though that I have vacuumed up most of the excess by now. I have layout only dustbuster that works very well just for that purpose vacuum and save for future use.
I've got recent experience in this. My home goes on the market this week, and part of the preparation has been to remove the layout and store it in the garage.
My layout consisted of a 5x12 single-piece table at first. Realizing later that I might someday want to move it, all the subsequent additions, about 8 sections in all, were much smaller. Because of the room arrangement of the home, I had no issues with stairs, halls or doorways. For that one big section and one other long one that was awkward, I asked the painters for help, which they graciously provided.
I took everything off the layout - every building, tree and figure. When and if I ever put this up again, it will likely be reconfigured, but with all those things safely stored they will be protected and should be easy to either put up as is or build new scenery. I left all the track and wiring with the layout.
One suggestion - go to an appliance store and pick up a few empty appliance boxes - like for refrigerators. Cut them up and staple them to the underside of the layout. This will protect the wiring, Tortoise machines and other stuff. It's the right price and does not take long, either.
After struggling with that last big original layout section, I decided that I should have removed the track and the subway stations and trashed the rest. It's too big to go anywhere I'm likely to end up. The smaller sections can be moved and reconfigured pretty easily, but that one big chunk? Nah. It will give me a chance to correct a lot of mistakes by simply starting over with that.
This is the 5x12 foot section, legs removed and tipped on its side:
When I built this, I designed the control panels to be removeable. The early ones had long wires so the panels could be moved to the other side of the layout if desired. I eventually abandoned that scheme, but at least I could put the panels beneath the layout for protection, and I did not have to unwire anything. Here's a shot with the cardboard box protection stapled in place:
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Cardboard seems like a good idea
Fortunately there is not a lot of wires to protect the switching is manual (though while I am in a drilling mood pehaps I will drill holes for a tortoise or two someday) and I never got to lighting the layout so there is only my three point feeders to protect (one in the center two at the ends thats why I will add more if I move it more feeders = less cleaning).