I would like to hear from those that have dismantled a layout for what ever reason. We can spend years putting these things together and often discuss how long we have been at it. So please tell me how big was the layout and how long did it take to be ready for the movers. How did you box up what was going with you?
Obviously sectional/module layouts are a different beast, so I am looking for those layouts that were built in and/or considered permanent.
I go into the train room and keep thinking to myself, it will take longer than I think it is going to take.
Thoughts!
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Brent, I tried. I really did. I enlisted the help of my giant of a son-in-law and we got the movers to take all the modules 5 km away to our new place. Problem was, there was no place to put them. We piled them into the garage, but....no place to erect them again. Finally, while I was out of the country for a week, Her Royal Highness sneakily asked a jobber/contractor friend to partition the garage. I ended up with a very nicely framed room that was impossible for me to use with my modules again. I was out of the loop. You should have better luck since we both know of your circumstances.
It took me perhaps two hours to take it apart. No measuring, hemming, hawing, recutting after the first piece didn't work, no rail bending, no soldering, etc. So, just backed out screws, severed feeders at the bus which I knew I'd replace, cut through window screen backing holding dried ground goop, and pulled it apart.
What will get you is if you have/had planned to cut the rails where they cross over modules. In my case, at least, the cut-off wheels snagged the rails in three places, and I got PO'd and began ripping through it knowing I had to replace rails as well.
The longest part of dismantling the last layout I took down for a move was carefully packaging the buildings and vehicles. I wrapped each building or vehicle in cut down wastebasket bags which were taped closed to retain any parts that might fall off, then boxed in styro peanuts. That took a week or so of evenings.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Brent,
I took apart a 4’ x 16’ layout and another larger layout
It took roughly a day on the last layout to remove details and items that I wanted to keep including track. Another day to pack it safely into boxes. On the larger layout it took roughly the same amount of time.
In both instances I had to demo the scenery and bench work – that took some time to clean up the mess but the actual demo didn’t take long at all. It is easier if you aren’t going to try and save any scenery.
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
I reread your post and this doesn't help you at all. I will leave it for those who it might help
The youtube guy jlwii2000 is in the army. No doubt he moves a lot.
He has a modular layout and he has only touched briefly on moving in only a few of his videos. What I remember is that the movers are not kind. You should ask him to do a video on that topic.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Several years ago due to foreclosure I had three days to move my entire house. I had family helping with kitchen etc. I packed up a garage filling layout on my own. It took one day. First I boxed up all of my locomotives and rolling stock into small boxes that held about half a dozen or so of them. The boxes were just tall enough to fit the tallest cars. I placed them right side up in the bottom of the box and put a piece of white packing foam that comes in Athearn Blue Box kits between each item or used something similar. I put some bubble wrap on top of them and closed the box and taped it shut. Now I have plastic stationary drawers made by Sterilite which hold all of my rolling stock and locos so if I ever have to move again they are ready. Next I grabbed all of my vehicles and boxed them up just like the locos and rolling stock. Cars went into old Athearn blue boxes while trucks, trailers and containers went into boxes that they fit into. After that I picked up all of my figures (people) and put them back into the little plastic cases they came out of. Other figures and detail parts ended up in the small cases that Model Power vehicles came in. They all then went into a shoebox. Fences, signs, signals, trees etc were put into old Athearn boxes. All of these small boxes went into larger boxes. Structures where put into cardboard boxes. I built them once, if they got damaged I could always build them again. I put my transformers, phone jacks, and wire into a box, then I used a nail puller to remove all of the nails which held down the track. I put all of the turnouts into a box, all of the short pieces of track into another box and all of the long pieces of flex track into some nice long boxes that a set of microphone stands came in. The mic stands came with a carry bag. After all of that all that was left was some bench work covered in plaster mountains and some tunnel portholes and a couple of bridges. I removed those and boxed them up. I saved one peninsula that was built on part of a 4x8 sheet of plywood. This was the only area where I had ballasted. I didn’t remove the track. I just left the track intact and grabbed the whole town. The rest of the bench work and plaster scenery was left behind to go in a dumpster. It really wasn’t worth saving. The only things damaged were mirrors were broken off of some trucks and visors broken off of some diesel locos. Visors were an easy fix because they get broken off frequently anyway. The truck mirrors I am still replacing. They are hard to find and are very fragile. I never did reuse the peninsula that I saved because it had 18 inch radius curves and snap track turnouts. It is better to just start fresh and build to fit the new space. Plus your skills are going to be better. We were the movers. We used U-Haul so I knew to carefully handle everything instead of some apes throwing stuff around like airline luggage.
My previous layoout, filling a spare bedroom (well, actually the bigger of the two bedrooms), I built the benchwork in sections but I laided the roadbed and track continuous, with no gaps. I had already packed up rolling stock, tools, etc. but the layout was still standing when the movers came. Only took a few minutes with the Dremel and a couple of wrenches to break it down into sections and tak the legs off. The bigger pieces were 2x8 - still easily moved through standard doors and around 2 tight turns down 2 flights of stairs. It's now sat for over 3 years stacked in my basement and I will be salvaging usable bits off it and tossing most of it as it will not fit in with my new plan. Basically taking off the electronics. I may save the turnouts for resale, but I won't be using Atlas turnouts plus they are all #4's and I won't be using much if any that small on the new layout.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I helped clean up a friend's model railroad hobby after he passed away. By far, most of the time was spent going through all of the stuff and separating out what could be reused from what was beyond salvage.
Taking the layout down went pretty quick. It was partially complete, so there wasn't much scenery. We had to cut the roadbed up into managable pieces, but otherwise, things were unscrewed and the lumber piled up.
I saved a few of the 16-foot-long L-girders he built for future use. It's hard to find good, clear lumber that long. I guess the layout demo itself took two of us about two days, then another day to remove the lumber and debris from the basement.
We used one of those Waste Management Bagsters to dispose of the roadbed sections. The thought that kept going through our heads was how quickly a quarter-century's worth of work came down.
I moved all the trains my self. The layout was in two parts of the basement - not yet connected - 11x18 and 10x23. I boxed up the trains and structures pretty quickly - probably a couple of days, but then I only had a few structures. Salvaging and packing the track took longer - probably a week. Salvaging the benchwork was probably another week. I had no scenery to contend with which made it easier.
These are very rough estimates because I was packing and moving other stuff at the same time - the train related activities were interspersed in the overall move.
Paul
BATMAN I would like to hear from those that have dismantled a layout for what ever reason. We can spend years putting these things together and often discuss how long we have been at it. So please tell me how big was the layout and how long did it take to be ready for the movers. How did you box up what was going with you? Obviously sectional/module layouts are a different beast, so I am looking for those layouts that were built in and/or considered permanent. I go into the train room and keep thinking to myself, it will take longer than I think it is going to take. Thoughts!
Timely post. My wife wants to move, and you know ... happy wife, happy life! J/k It's a big hassle to have to move but hopefully silver lining is a bigger better layout room where I can build something a little more satisfying and incorporate lessons learned on the last layout, and there is nothing like building a layout to learn about things you would like to do better.
Here are photo's from my "dismantling the layout" fun during last month:
Last "domino" to fall:
I'm saving as much as I can toward the next layout including saving all of the basic benchwork frames to incorporate wherever possible. While dismantling, since track was not glued down I've pulled out and saved all of the track nails and spikes that weren't bent, saved all the rail joiners, some of the foleage that I made, and nearly all of the drywall screws. I had to pull them out to break down the layout after-all so might as well save and re-use. Building layouts ain't cheap after all. So about all that was destroyed was the plaster scenery.
So in conclusion, it took about 3 years (minus some 6-8 months down time to work on the basement) to get this 10x18' layout built to a partial scenery stage and semi operational, and about a month to break it down carefully and save as much components as possible.
I've finshed getting the basement ready for selling - painted and patched walls and looking good now.
Cheers
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
A timely topic. Thanks to a divorce (Yay!) and having to sell the house (boo) I'm taking my layout down now. It takes up most of a 24x24 foot room and was mostly finished, although I've been working on part of it for a couple of years and it's not close to photo-ready yet.
I have to pack up now to get the house ready to put on the market. I plan to rent when I move out, but that will be at least a couple of months from now, so I don't have a "new place" yet. So far, I'm storing things in the "bike room" off the garage, a storage space I was wise enough to add to the plans years ago.
I bought a bunch of boxes from Ocean State Job Lot, so I've got those, and some wrapping paper from Home Depot. I then removed all the rolling stock and locomotives and started wrapping them individually and putting them in boxes. Next, I did the same for the structures. I've been removing lights, figures and other accessories at the same time. It's down to the base now, with scenery and track being the only things left to tell you it was once a model railroad.
I've already taken down Phase 4, a thin shelf which serves as staging and a branch line. This was still under construction and had minimal scenery with a few buildings. I built it in easy sections, so disconnecting the wires (all terminal blocks) and disassembly was easy, as was putting it in temporary storage downstairs.
The older layout will be more work. There are a lot more wires to deal with, and I got lazy when I wired it so there are a lot of wires between sections, and not as many terminal blocks to make the job easy. A lot of what's to be done will mean labelling wires and then snipping them, knowing that it will be a chore to reassemble, but I don't have either the time or desire to rewire at this stage.
My girlfriend is enthusiastic about setting up the layout again once we move in together. That is some time away, and first I have to get rid of the wife.
This is sad. Tearing down the layout is not something I want to do, and doing it under duress makes it worse. I envy those of you with happy marriages, really.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Been there done that Mr. Beasley. In 2000 my 1st wife, who was very model train unfriendly, demanded I move out. I had a layout in the plywood Pacific phase nearly to the point of completing the loop when I had to tear it all down. Unfortunately at that point I had a 5 year old daughter and NY state is a bad place to get divorced as judges force support through age 21, not 18. My daughter just finished college and started work with a government DOD contractor in June so there is the reason why my wife and I are moving - a major financial burden is now discharged. Don't get me wrong, the very large sum of money devoted to my daughter was well spent, but the world is certainly not a fair place. OTOH, I was forced to pay a very high level of support while underemployed or unemployed, but my 2nd wife while she was in England had to raise 2 kids with no support from her deadbeat ex. England legal system has no teeth and jerks can get away with all kinds of things due to the "soft pillow" of the law in England. Two extreems to be sure.
Moral of the story, choose wisely young padowans when getting married for the first time if you are a model railroader! Sounds like you will be back in layout territory much sooner than I was after my separation and divorce. Happy marriages are a big factor in being able to enjoy the hobby for sure.
You still never can tell. Thought I had a "train friendly" wife since her father is a retired railroader. Us getting a house with a large basement was great for him, he's collected much equipment over the years but never had anything more than a length of straight track to run it back and forth on due to no space (partly because of her - she moved back hme and they turned their decent size basement into an apartment for her, so no room for trains). As it turned out, she started to resent the time I spent with him down in the basement working on our layout, and that was one of the major factors leading to divorce. Even worse, I only ever got a part of my stuff back, so I had to start over nearly from scratch aquiring locos and rolling stock. At least her dad and I still get along - if I get enough of a layout built in my new place while he's still able to make the drive, he's always welcome to come over and run stuff.
rrinker You still never can tell. Thought I had a "train friendly" wife since her father is a retired railroader. Us getting a house with a large basement was great for him, he's collected much equipment over the years but never had anything more than a length of straight track to run it back and forth on due to no space (partly because of her - she moved back hme and they turned their decent size basement into an apartment for her, so no room for trains). As it turned out, she started to resent the time I spent with him down in the basement working on our layout, --Randy
You still never can tell. Thought I had a "train friendly" wife since her father is a retired railroader. Us getting a house with a large basement was great for him, he's collected much equipment over the years but never had anything more than a length of straight track to run it back and forth on due to no space (partly because of her - she moved back hme and they turned their decent size basement into an apartment for her, so no room for trains). As it turned out, she started to resent the time I spent with him down in the basement working on our layout,
So what house was it you got? Was it her fathers house you were living in? Interestingly, sounds a bit similar to my 1st wife. After finishing graduate school, my ex and I moved into her childhood home. We sold our house in Indiana and the proceeds went to her father to purchase her childhood home. Her bedroom was still as she left it from high school. Looking back, that should have been a HUGE red flag. I mostly built the layout in an unfinished storage area about 7x25' in the basement and part of the mainline came out into the finished part and back in. Of course when things went south, I was kicked out and got no value in the home even though we jointly owned it and I felt lucky to escape with my trains - she had threatened to throw them out on the curb. Yeah, fun times. In hind sight, the home was always her's and she just shared it with me until I was kicked to the curb. But in any marriage where there is no "equity", it is essentially set-up for eventual failure. Lesson to those who are looking at getting married - look for the warning signs. There were plenty for me but I didn't head the signs and paid for it with many years of my life wasted.
Anyway, just because a girl is a daughter of a railroader doesn't mean she is train friendly - I'm not seeing the connection there. It matters more, is she willing to let you have your hobby assuming each partner in the relationship has a fair share of the given and take? Of course budget, and time are open to negotiation and we all know that the train hobby can be fairly time consuming. So you have to come up with something acceptable to both so the other person isn't unhappy and eventually gets bitter. This topic has come up in a few stories in Model Railroader magazines, ie topic of wife and her husbands train hobby. In one story, a wife was talking to someone who told her "hey, at least you know where your husband is (basement) and at least he is not in a bar somewhere. To that she replied: "yeah well, at least if he was in a bar, could be there with him!" Ouch. Point being, you still need to find ways to have regular time together. Remember, happy wife, happy life! Ideally, a basement layout would have a space where the wife could hang out and so there would be some "together time" and abilitly to chat and talk about things whatever.
I've been looking at what still needs to be done and I think it's less of a job than I thought. There are fewer wires crossing section boundries. I'll do the same as I did on the other side and just label and clip those that are soldered. Most of the rest run through terminal blocks. I'll be adding one more terminal block to simplify re-assembly.
My soon-to-be ex-wife was the one who encouraged me to pull my trains out of the attic and set them up. I think she was anticipating some silly little decorative Christmas Village around the tree, and when it started to take shape and size as a model railroad, she didn't like it anymore. She began to resent it, but she would have resented anything else I did that took me away from being her yard-and-garden slave, so the hobby itself was no more than a convenient target.
I feel for you guys that have had to go through the divorce process. In retrospect I am just realizing how lucky I am. My wife of 42 years must have thought she married a nut case. My first layout after getting married was a 9' x 5' island ISL in one end of our master bedroom! After a few years and start of a family I cut it into four pieces and crammed it into the attic. It was still there when we sold the house years later. I often wonder what the new owners thought when they found it.
l'm planning and dreaming now since I don't feel like starting a layout with a retirement move several years hence. The thought of having to dismantle another layout feeds my inaction. Just wish I knew what the post retirement housing situation will be.
Ray
BATMANI would like to hear from those that have dismantled a layout for what ever reason.
.
As I have described in previous threads, I have lived in a retirement community nearly my entire life. In that time I have dismantled several layout after their builders had passed to get them out of the houses so the widow could continue her life.
I don't know if this will answer your question exactly. When I remove a layout I try to save the best structures for my own use. I just need to get them back to my house, so packing on styrofoam popcorn is good enough.
The biggest problem when removing a layout is seperating it from the wall. I try to avoid as much damage as possible. Almost all layouts are built to be permanent so this can be a challenge. Except for the parts that attachto the wall, a "Saws-All" reciprocating saw with an 8" multipurpose blade gets it done fast, but messy. Make sure all power is off. ALL POWER! run extension cords from as far away in the house as possible and turn off all other breakers.
I have removed several of my own layouts, but never been careful with any of these. My purges are legendary for how destructive and fast I can get rid of the old to start on the new.
I have never had any layout removal take more than a day. I usually have one non-model-railroader with me to help.
I doubt I will ever remove another layout. I am getting up there myself now, and I don't need to scavenge parts from other peoples layouts to build a monster of my own. All those plans have changed. I don't move like I used to, and I am also not a strong.
Good luck.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Colorado Rayl'm planning and dreaming now since I don't feel like starting a layout with a retirement move several years hence. The thought of having to dismantle another layout feeds my inaction. Just wish I knew what the post retirement housing situation will be.
Don't be afraid to build a layout even if you know you are going to move in the future. Every time you build a layout your skills will improve. The more layouts you build the better you will be at it.
riogrande5761just because a girl is a daughter of a railroader doesn't mean she is train friendly - I'm not seeing the connection there.
Right. If her father and brothers were model railroaders she might be more electric train friendly.
I think that if the girl is into doing arts and crafts she is more likely to accept your model trains. That is more of the same type of mind set, someone who is creative and artistic. Also if she works different hours than you then while she is at work and you are at home is when to work on your railroad. Always play with your wife more than you play with yourself. Make sure she comes first and the railroad comes second.
Personally I would never want to be with a girl who would rather be at a bar than to be doing something creative. I would rather meet a girl at an arts and crafts store than a bar.
Also never move into a girl's house. In her mind that house will always be hers. Always get a new house that is yours together. And avoid living with her parents or yours. That always complicates things.
In 2008 I made the decision to take down my 11x15 two level layout and begin a new similar one. The existing one was 14 years old and looked pretty good (IMO).
After removing the structures and cars/locos, the track was next. Man, it was hard to get started but once I did it was easy. Then came the benchwork. I used a recipricating saw and as they say, the first cut was the hardest.
Once the emotion was gone, it went pretty fast and continued momentum until the room was cleaned out and I could start on the new one.
Certainly glad I did it, for the replacement layout is in DCC, without the bugaboos of the previous one, and definitely more user friendly.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Lone Wolf and Santa FeDon't be afraid to build a layout even if you know you are going to move in the future.
When I started my layout, I built it without consideration for moving. Later on, as I planned to possibly downsize and relocate, I became more conscious of building benchwork in more easily manageable sections, smaller and less permanently connected. Now, the more recent sections are taken down and stored, while I'm still working on the older parts.
One of the big things is wiring. I managed to keep most of the wiring isolated by building "local" control panels around the fascia rather than having "one big panel" where everything was run. Still, I have a lot of wires crossing between sections, and those are proving difficult to deal with.