So you have been working on your layout for a significant amount of time, maybe a few years, or a decade, or what seems like, or is a lifetime. It's time to move and it can't come with you. You have to start over. How do, did, will, would you feel about that?????
For me, I think it would be like going on vacation. When I get to the new digs it will be like going to somewhere you have not been to before. There will be a new room with a different size and shape, a blank canvas if you will. We never finish our layouts and how far we get before we have to start over is like playing "snakes and ladders".
What say you? Devastated, heartbroken or looking forward to a new layout adventure. Building is the thing and do you carry on like a Doozer from "Fraggle Rock".
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Brent, why the move if I may ask?
Anyway, I decided a while back to never completely start over from scratch again. I have spend considerable time designing a layout that meets my goals but that can also be disassembled and relocated. Also that layout is actually designed to be somewhat flexible and expandable when reinstalled in its new home.
I am working on that layout now, knowing that in 3-5 years we will want to move to a differnt situation than our current one. However complete the layout isd, it will come apart in sections and make the trip.
Sure there will be things to "redo", but core design, trackwork, major benchwork, wiring and more will all be saved.
One key element of this process is to build nearly furniture like bench work modules.......
And yes it will require choosing a new home with at least a similar if not larger space. That is not realy a problem in our situation.
In fact, it is my expectation that thelayout may grow from 1000 sq ft to possibly nearly double that when we move.
The layout is designed with stratigic expansion in mind.
No interest here in starting over completely.......
Sheldon
When we moved two summers ago, I place my hopes for a new train facility well into the furthest reaches of the stove. I had some ideas, but they meant losing the garage, a double-wide (my dad had to move, so wife and I bought his place as a favour. He sweatened..er sweetened the deal so that he didn't have to list it, keep it tidy, leave while it was being shown, and also get a bunch of stuff to the local land fill. The typo because wife and I made a total of 13 trips to the dump between the two properties when we were finally settled. It was time for us to leave our ocean view anyway and get closer to facilities).
I did try to salvage a sectional around-the-loft layout I was about 3/4 of the way through scenicking, but taking it apart was more difficult than I expected, and it would not have fit in the garage anyway without a very odd partitioning of it.
Even so, I am finally starting to lay track on the newest version, another around-the-room, a style that keeps me within a few steps of everything, and the view all around me providing a great illusion of actually 'being there'. I find every new build a challenge, mostly because I want the largest curves, longest sidings, largest/longest yard ladder....the usual stuff. Then I have to back off those for the secondary tracks of the kind that make running the rails interesting and rewarding hour after hour.
I envy you. You sound excited. You'll have to realize the space in scale, but once you have that information, the world is your oyster. Hey, have you thought about Oyster Bay? Nice property there. Only 25 minutes to a hospital, and 15 to Best Buy and Wally's.
My previous layout in our Michigan home was of the 1900 era, and I built it thinking I would never move. Things changed. I moved, and the layout was dismantled.
For many years, most of my train stuff was in storage. I spent spare time building more 1900 era model trains. I soon had more than enough. Just for fun, I began working on 1950 era trains especially CB&Q. I grew up next to the Burlington, and that is why I did that.
We moved into our home in Kentucky in 2001. Since then, I have been building the Heartland Division of the CB&Q in 1950's and early 1960's. Track plan fits around the wall in a 64' long room.
I studied the Domino type modular construction in Model Railroader. I modified it to fit my needs with modular type construction. The layout could be moved if I had to move it, but I certainly do not want to do that.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
How's the old saying go? ... "Like watching your mother-in-law drive off a cliff in your new Cadillac!"
Its a sad moment knowing your current layout won't be finished, but positive in that you've learned more about what you want in a layout, you get to bury some past mistakes, your skills improved, you can now upgrade to newer products (track, etc.), incorporate newer design concepts, and maybe, just maybe your new home will have a bigger train room.
My 3rd and 4th layouts only made it to "mostly complete plywood-pacific stage", with 5+ years invested in each. I'm 4 years into my 5th layout now, and since I'm retired, I'm confident that this one will see some level of completion.
Jim
My layout ended with a divorce in 2000. I saved the L-girders and some turnouts and all the rolling stock & locos. I threw the L-girders away in 2014 thinking there were no more model railroads in my future.
In 2015 decided to build an around the Christmas tree layout. From there the next build was on. That absoulute reinforces my belief that nothing should be thrown away.
I assume the "Domino module" means you could turn any section around 180 degrees and it would all line up. I'm not sure my skills are that good, but having movable module is the root I am taking. Thank you to the old timer I met in Pro Custom hobbies a couple years ago.
My house is what might be called a modern 2 story colonial. I urge everyone who is approaching Social Security age to reconsider that. My MIL and my mother became prisoners in their houses. In the first case the MIL couldn't get down the stairs to the front door of her split level. In my mother's case all the full bathrooms were upstairs and she could get up the stairs.
n
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Bring all of your models with you and leave all of the plaster behind. You should have better skills now than you did before so your new layout will be an improvement. You can fix all of your short comings, erase all of your mistakes, make all new ones.
The joys of 12 foot or less ISLs you can pick them up and take them with you All the preparation needed is to remove the cars,engine(s),structures and vehicles and carefully wrap in a furniture pad..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
My layout, The CB&Q in Wyoming, was a basement filling, double deck layout with a ginormous four track helix. I've posted elements of it here in the past.
An opportunity to transfer from New Jersey to Charleston SC with my employer ended that layout, which was several years into construction and a couple years from its first operating session. At the time tearing the layout down was no big deal. It was something I'd done many times before. What's one more time? It's a chance to start again somewhere else.
Now, seven years later, I look back with very fond memories of that old layout - much more than any other layout I've ever built.
Once I find my retirement haven next year, I plan to start a new layout. I am finding, though, that along with the excitement of a new layout is something new - an ill-defined sense of dread at starting another new layout. I've never felt that way before.
My point is this. If you're uncertain about taking the old layout down, take a very close look at what is important to you and your family, and act accordingly. Yeah, it's just a hobby. But if what you've accomplished on your layout is important to you, give it the proper weight when evaluating your choices. You may decide to stay put. And only you can decide if that the right thing or not.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
ATLANTIC CENTRALBrent, why the move if I may ask?
Sheldon, any Canadian on the forum will tell you that many nights on the news the cost of real estate in Vancouver and Toronto is the lead story.
As a blue collar Federal Government employee in 1996, 39 and still single, I sold my average run of the mill house in a next door suburb of Vancouver and moved to the country where I bought a near new 4000 SQ.FT. house with a 1200 Sq.FT. garage on 1.25 acres for the same price as my 2100 SQ.FT.house in town. Train room here we come. Being close to an hour out of Vancouver you get a big train room in a big house for the same price as living in the city. Three miles up the road there was a large champion horse breeding operation and across the road from that a cattle operation. There is now a Walmart where the cows were and a Home Depot where the horse farm was.
Vancouver was listed as having the third highest real estate cost in the world recently and even though I am an hour away in what is still considered the agricultural belt, the value of real estate here reflects the value in Vancouver. My property tax bill is nearing a $1000.00 a month because the price of property has gone up so much. I hit the lottery as far as the value of my home goes, however, I can't afford to live here and be able to do those things I want to do.
My daughter will graduate in two years and will likely be off to medical school in Edinborough, Scotland. The wife and I have decided to move to Vancouver Island where we can get what we have now for a third of the price. Comox is where Crandell (Selector) lives and we really like it there, it is at the top of the list to move to. We will see what happens, I am looking forward to the change and getting back to a rural lifestyle.
My layout was built to be moved and thus taken apart easily, and like yours could be added on to and/or reconfigured in a heartbeat. The cost of going on the ferry to Vancouver Island with the 5-ton truck required to move it would be a whole lot of extra money. So I will bite the bullet and start over.
Crandell, we will check out Oyster Bay when we are over, nothing is written in stone yet. I have done a lot of Salmon fishing in the past and a return to that is something I am thinking about as well. The in-laws are getting their house ready to sell, so I guess they are coming as well when the time comes. The FIL helps keep the vehicles running, and I hope he has a shop like he does now at the new place.
Things sure change when the kids start to fly the coup.
Whenever I get my life together, get a nice house and am able to build a big layout, I'm designing it to be dissassembled easily into sections and moved. I get so obessed with what I'm working on, If I had to do it over again...it would just bring me down to know I'd have to tear down my work.
(My Model Railroad, My Rules)
These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).
Wow, no offense but I'm happy to be where I am.......
My 4,000 sq ft house, with its pool and 1200 sq ft detached garage on 1 acre has a tax bill less than $4,000 a year. Here in the Mid Atlantic we are niether the highest or the lowest in terms of real estate values in the US, but being close to Washington DC, we are easily in the upper third.
We actually have laws that limit how fast residential real estate taxes can increase on owner occupied properties......
We are 30 min from Baltimore, an hour from DC, about 2 hours from Philly, in a mix of rural and suburb that is endless from Richmond to Boston.
We have three rental properties as investments, my combined tax bills on all four properties is only slightly more than your tax billl.....
Good luck in your move.
ATLANTIC CENTRALWe actually have laws that limit how fast residential real estate taxes can increase on owner occupied properties......
Sounds like Socialism to me. All kidding aside I fully agree with that and think property taxes should be grandfathered. I think it is a shame that we can't stay where we raised our family. We would still move just because of the encroachment of civilization.
The property taxes include garbage, water and a bunch of other things and run about $250.00 a month per million in value.
BATMAN ATLANTIC CENTRAL We actually have laws that limit how fast residential real estate taxes can increase on owner occupied properties...... Sounds like Socialism to me. All kidding aside I fully agree with that and think property taxes should be grandfathered. I think it is a shame that we can't stay where we raised our family. We would still move just because of the encroachment of civilization. The property taxes include garbage, water and a bunch of other things and run about $250.00 a month per million in value.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL We actually have laws that limit how fast residential real estate taxes can increase on owner occupied properties......
And there is the difference, your tax rate per value is higher, and your "value" per sq foot is higher.
Our house has a government apprasal of $332,000, it would sell on the market for about $725,000, US dollars of course. Yet its size and features are similar to yours, as is its relative location to shopping, cities, hospitals, etc.
Around here 2 million buys 8,000 sq ft on 8 acres, maybe with a water view of the bay or Susquehanna, with a six car garage and pool, and there are more than few neighborhoods of that type......
BigDaddyMy house is what might be called a modern 2 story colonial. I urge everyone who is approaching Social Security age to reconsider that. My MIL and my mother became prisoners in their houses. In the first case the MIL couldn't get down the stairs to the front door of her split level. In my mother's case all the full bathrooms were upstairs and she could get up the stairs.
There's also a safety issue as you get older (my wife and I are 70). I'm closing on a new house tomorrow. We're moving from a 2 story to a 1 story because my wife fell down a full flight of stairs last November. (She's mostly alright although the recovery is still going on.)
The new basement is bigger than the last one, but I expect to only use part of it - about 500 sq ft. A plus is that since this house is being built for us, the train room is finished and I had extra lights put in for the layout. If need be the layout can expand, but I think this will be enough for what I am doing. My current layout was planned to be about 1000 sq ft, but I have come to realize that's more than I need for what I am doing.
On the moving the layout - I will salvage most of the track and turnouts since I never got to the scenery stage. I will also salvage most of the benchwork - a couple of layouts ago I started building benchwork with screws and no glue. I expect that most of the sections will be modified or rebuilt.
I'm not sorry to move the layout since I will have a better plan.
Paul
.
Here the limit on increases in taxable value of an owner occupied dwelling is 3% per year.
I really won the real estate tax lottery when the housing market crashed last decade. My house's "market" value went from $350,000.00 to $40,000.00. Now they can only raise that $40,000 by 3% per year. My taxable value is currently $55,400.00, but with the $50,000.00 "Homestead Exemption", I am only being taxed on $27,700.00 of house value. My annual taxes are just about $475.00!
As icing on the cake, the house will be paid for in 3 months!
So, to answer the OP's question, I am pretty sure I will never be moving. The current house remodel includes wheelchair access and safety bars everywhere even though my wife and I are in good health. Just getting ready for our future.
My layout will be anchored to the wall with no plans for moving.
-Kevin
Living the dream.