Is your layout in your final home?

[FJ and G]

America is a mobile society. I can't speak for everyone, but during the last nearly 50 years, I've moved to dozens of places, many states and several countries. I feel that I'm settled down for now with my layout under construction but I never really thought of the D.C. area as my final resting place.

Thus, this undoubtedly will not be my final layout. Long-range plans, perhaps 10 years hence, I'd like to move into a large swath of wilderness, perhaps in Idaho or South Dakota, where my beagle can run free and where the final layout will be built before my final rest.

And you? ...

[Big_Boy_4005]

Unlike you Dave, this is my final home, and my final layout. There will be no more.

[FJ and G]

Elliot,

Perhaps unlike the Twin cities, DC area just doesn't have the quality I like to think of as a hometown. Just a lot of busy commuters trying to make as much money as they can.

Looking forward to the progress of your layout (keep posting anything to whet our appetites). And lastly, do it right. It's your final layout!!!!!!!! :-)

[lionelsoni]

I'm afraid I won't know for sure until I'm dead.

[FJ and G]

Bob,

After you're dead, you might still get a chance to build another layout in a new home up in the sky. A heavenly model railway. But the devil is in the details of what it will look like.

[Big_Boy_4005]

I understand what you are saying about that hometown feel of DC Dave. I would probably find it lacking too. Maybe that's why I like it so much where I am. I live on the edge of the metro area. My home sits on 2.5 acres, which is the minimum lot size in the area. There is agriculture within a half a mile, but there are 3 cities within 5 miles. Just far enough away to be tranquil, and just close enough to be convenient.

I also have all the basement I need. Hang on, I'll go snap a fresh shot of the progress.



Here is one from today. I just placed the track there to give everyone a better idea of what it will look like when it's done.

[spankybird]

Dave, I lived in last home for 25 years and in this one so far for 6 years, I hoping I am here to stay.

[92hatchattack]

i wish i had enough room to make any kind of a layout but im stuck here in an apartment ....Ever since getting back into trains since my sons first xmas ive been dying to get out some glue and track and build something....

i have about enough room here to build a small Z scale layout :(

[TexasEd]

No, Think I'll be moving in a year or two.

[FJ and G]

Elliot, I smell the fresh plywood. Those shop vacs are great, aren't they?

Texas Ed. When people in Texas move, they move to somewhere else in Texas.

Hatch,

Post a blueprint of your apartment and bet we can come up w/some creative trackplans. Big isn't always better.

Tom,

As long as Spankybird approves.

[92hatchattack]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G


Hatch,

Post a blueprint of your apartment and bet we can come up w/some creative trackplans. Big isn't always better.

Tom,

As long as Spankybird approves.

trust me, if it was up to me this place would have no doors and id be building a layout that ran conecting all the rooms. But alas, with a 4 month old son and my fiance(sp) here in this apartment, im simply just not allowed ...... lol, no love for the big kid [:D]

[Frank53]

I'm thinking I'll be here ten or so years, and if all goes well, we'll head to somewhere in the Montana, Idaho, Dakotas region for the balance.

Or, we'll stay here forever, but it's one or the other. I've made my last Florida move.

As an aside, my Dad came home from WWII, bought a two lots for $50.00 each and built his house at night while he worked building his business during the day. He built that house pretty much singlehandedly and did every aspect of the work. He built with the money he sent home to my mother from teh war and never had a mortgage. He also never had a credit card.

He started building it in 1949 and moved in with my mother and sister in 1950.

and he died in that house 52 years later.

We had eight houses on our street and in the entirety of my lifetime, no one every moved. The people next door lived there when I was born and still do. Only when a neighbor on the other side died did a house on our street ever get sold to an "outsider".

It was a different time, and a simpler time, and maybe a better time.

[dougdagrump]

Only if I owned the Museum Building and Balboa Park. [swg] [:o)] [:-,]

[Anonymous]

I was born and raised in the DC area and will always have fond memories of it as such. I left for college and never went back.

My layout is in a small utility trailer, so what does that meeen as far as this topic?

[jonadel]

I think we are in our final home. The next one will have nurses and a big dining room. We are only 25 minutes from great entertainment, 15 minutes to malls, etc., yet we live in the timber with 5 acres and no neighbors. I do wish we had a bigger basement but I'm probably luckier than most.

Mom always said "be happy with what your have" and I am.
Jon

[Anonymous]

My final home is the ground... maybe I can take my trains with me?

[cnw1995]

I think so, Dave, or rather I hope so. I'm not sure I'll be able to afford the taxes on it in the future though. I have three children, age 14, 10 and 2 - so I hope we can be in this house for a while. It's funny, after getting married, my wife and I drove out along the C&NW tracks until we got to a place where we could afford something and it was 46 miles out of the city - after 12 years, we moved a few blocks to a slightly larger home - with ...ta da!... a basement. Though it was only recently after taking a look around the space, I cleared off the crawlspace for a layout...

BTW, this is Suburbia with a capital 'S' - acres of farmland being transformed into thousands of similar-looking homes connected by overloaded roads lined with strip malls and the same five or six big-box stores every few miles. It used to be a town of about 20,000... but I'm not really complaining, no one forced me to move out here - I saw it coming..and it has the advantage of being a metro area of 8 million....

[Anonymous]

The new layout I'm constructing is in our new and final home. I can prove that by telling you that the cremated remains, and spirits, of our last two German Shephard dogs were ceremoniously released from their urns and sprinkled in the woods on our property. Part of the property is considered 'wet lands' and will be free and open in perpetuity.
BillFromWayne

[Anonymous]

I'm 18 and I don't plan on living with my parents for the rest of my life, so I innevitably am going to be building a new layout someplace else in the future.

[Roger Bielen]

We'll probably stay where we are. The areas we'd be interested in for retirement have become too high a cost of living. The only downside to where we are is the maintenance of 3 acres of lawn, I don't worry about the woods.

It would be nice to have a basement rather than have my layout in a separate building, it discourages the impulse running of trains between TV programs of interest or killing other short stretches of time.

[Anonymous]

Nope...I live in a relatively small 3 level townhome. When I purchased it I was modeling European Marklin HO and all was OK. Then along came MTH in the '90's and everything changed! I'm out of room and now have plans to build a basement for my Choo-choo's with a ranch house above. It is planned to be my last move except for a dusting over the hills of Eastern Kentucky! [angel][}:)]

[garyseven]

Go West Young Man, Go West! (no sales tax!)

http://www.ci.bend.or.us/leadpages/About_Bend.htm

[okiechoochoo]

Go West, OK, where is it they don't have sales taxes. I know Texas has no income taxes but never heard of one with no sales taxes. Something must be high, property taxes or income taxes, they got to get it from some source. To keep on topic, I have been in this home for 33 years. I highly suspect this is the final one, although when I bought it I would never have planned it that way. We live in about the cheapest place to live and salaries reflected that over the years. Now it seems like we can not afford to move anywhere else. Such are the woes of life.

[Back2Trains]

I started collecting postwar Lionel trains and accessories to build a layout in the basement of our home of 25 years in Michigan. Two years later we found ourselves in Florida where I got a den big enough for an 8x12 1/2 layout. Got that up and running for less than a year and we moved again. I'm now putting it back together after tearing it down to move it. The benchwork was built in four sections bolted together so that part wasn't so bad, but the wiring was mostly direct because I hadn't planned on being there for just 3 years. This time I'm using a lot of Molex plugs and barrier strips and may cut the track on the seams as much as I can. I don't know what will happen to the four track operating ceiling-hung layout from the other house.
The thing I really miss is the 35 foot main line I had planned for the basement. I was looking foreward to getting those old F3s up to speed.

[laz 57]

yepper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
laz57

[railfanespee4449]

In a few weeks, I am leaving my old Terrier Division RR in huxley, IA for the Ohio Southern in ames, IA I'll be glad. Imagine a basement that was only used to store trash and as a restroom for my dog when she is too tiered. My new condo will have a nice basement and a SWIMMING POOL out back. We are also keeping the huxley, IA house

[FJ and G]

Gary 7:

Are you out on a boat in the Pacific! :-)

[ole1]

Being an old codger this question of finality struck me as kind of strange but I'll relate this as some food for thought . I'm a retired farmer (who enjoys his trains) and was once asked by a young guy from the city "have you lived on the farm all your life?".To which I replied "not yet". Ole

[wrmcclellan]

I built my layout (8 x 12) to be moved if necessary. I made 4 legs that are 4 " square and use balance and side boards to put the 3 4x8 sheets of plywood on it. The layout legs and side panels are stained and finished poplar (furniture grade) to give it a nice look. The side panels can be removed and the 3 plywood sheets separated (cut the wires) for transport. The design also allows for expansion by dropping in additional plywood sheets.

We will probably move one more time after the kids get out of high school, somewhere in Texas or Colorado.

Regards,
Roy

[camarokid]

Yes, it is and I'm going to start layout #7 this summer. Ain't it Great!!
Elliot: Those 2 pictures are the same and not the same. The pink foam makes all the difference and the trackwork is excellent.
Archie