Lordy, 2.7 million!!!!! of course, the layout is half a basketball court and museum quality. The problem is the hedge fund guy will most likely win.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
my mind boggles at spending $700,000 on a layout . or $2.7 million . or having half a basketball court to build it in .
and why would it matter if it was done in time for his daughter's wedding ? is she a model railroader too ? were they having the reception in the layout room ?
and what did the guy do with the other half of the basketball court ?
there are too many unanswered questions in this story
ernie
With a hedge fund fella, it's not personal, it's business!!
modelmaker51 -Yep, and consider the crew is staying on Long Island which aint a cheap place to stay and do work. I would be curious to see the exact details for $2 million in over runs though. It's not often a project exceeds it's estimate by over 200%. It's not like we're talking about $10k going up to $30k.
I know I hate it when that happens!
Bob Boudreau
CANADA
Visit my model railroad photography website: http://sites.google.com/site/railphotog/
And I thought I had overpaid for my Z8 from Division Point. Seems like a bargain now.
CZ
The 2 mil for a 1/2 basket court size - museum quality layout does not sound unreasonable to me having worked for a major layout builder myself. On locatiion costs can build up real fast depending on the size of the crew. On average our layouts took 5 days, 6 to 10 crew. The costs would be delivery, (depending on size, multiple tractor trailers), motels, per diem (food and personal), labor (usually time and half and double time on sundays when on location). It sounds like in this case the on location time was a lot longer due to a deadline they had to meet. Building a large layout can take from 3 months to a year or more depending on size and level of detail, museum quality can take a long time. Our in-house crews tended to be about 10 to12 full-time professional crafts people, including carpenters (cabinet grade), licensed electricians, scenic artists (many from theater and film industries), model builders and a couple of advanced model railroaders for the strickly mr stuff. The $700 000 would barely cover materials for that size layout.
I think it's a case of sour grapes he must of lost his money in the stock market plunge and is trying to get out of paying..
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
I find it hard to believe that this guy shelled out $2.7M and then decided he wasn't getting his money's worth. Sounds more like he is trying to stiff Rail Dreams for his changing his requirements after the work was underway. Given the 10's and 100's of millions these guys have gotten away with, I'm surprised he even noticed a measly $2.7M.
Paul
Now, see, if he'd built the thing himself, he wouldn't be dealing with this at all.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/03/31/2009-03-31_hedge_fund_hotshot_robert_mercer_files_l-2.html
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