About a year ago circumstances changed for me, and I found it necessary to relocate my household some 5,143 scale miles to the south. I know that many (most?) modelers take a move as an opportunity to dismantle and start over, but I've been pretty happy with my layout and some of it would have been heartbreaking to destroy (e.g, the concentric timber trestles). So, I decided to undertake moving the layout along with the rest of my stuff.
Granted, my layout isn't huge, but it is bulky, delicate, and awkward. Here's a "before" picture:
And here are a couple of shots after the move:
It's a little worse for wear, but this time there's no furnace in the middle of it, and the trestle and all of the structures made the trip intact.
As soon as I get the rest of my stuff unpacked, I'll be bringing the old girl back to life, and building the L shaped addition for which my new digs offer space.
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
Well, the up side would also be that probably know one will refer to your layout as the "Furnace Creek Central" anymore........
Looks to be some nice work from what I can see there., Now you can expand that middle section all you want. Good job on saving it.
Mark
Nicely done!
Did you design it to be transportable?
The Location: Forests of the Pacific Northwest, OregonThe Year: 1948The Scale: On30The Blog: http://bvlcorr.tumblr.com
Tell us a little bit about the logistics of the move.
Where did you move from, and where did you move to?
Did the mover just simply pick up the "pieces" of the layout, track, structures, and all, and move them?
What is the physical size of each "piece" of the layout that was moved?
I can see why you were anxious to save the trestles.
Rich
Alton Junction
HA! He tricked us all. He just painted a new "room backdrop"!
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
5143 scale miles makes it about 60 1:1 miles. You must have done an excellent packing job to get that trestle through in one piece; congrats on a sucessful move!! When I saw the title of this post, I thought you might be getting a jump on April Fools - like the MR item a couple of years ago where someone was going to model the entire BN system
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Thanks for the comments/complements. Sorry it has taken so long to reply to your questions, but here goes:
A long time ago I read that making a layout in segments, starting with the benchwork was a good idea - just in case it had to be relocated. On a previous layout I built it this way, in an L configuration; later I rearranged the layout into a long straight line. After that, it has been my practice to build the benchwork in descrete chunks that can be disassembled and reassembled.
I actually had no intention of moving the layout as I was building it, but the segmented benchwork made it fairly easy. The biggest piece is 8 feet by 45".
The move was from Mendon, Utah to a storage unit in Ogden, then to my new house in Layton, Utah a few months later. I took the legs off and the movers took it from there. Once they saw it, they were extra careful.
I did saw off the top half of a mountain; I'll rebuild it later. But that was the only modification that I made. Of course I packed all of the people, vehicles, and other "loose" stuff separately, but it made the trip pretty much as you see it.
My current task is patching the gap where the furnace once separated the two pieces. I'm also setting up my work-space so I can get back to building on the layout (this is taking a lot of time).
As it comes together I'll post pictures on WPF.
shayfan84325 About a year ago circumstances changed for me, and I found it necessary to relocate my household some 5,143 scale miles to the south. I know that many (most?) modelers take a move as an opportunity to dismantle and start over, but I've been pretty happy with my layout and some of it would have been heartbreaking to destroy (e.g, the concentric timber trestles). So, I decided to undertake moving the layout along with the rest of my stuff. Granted, my layout isn't huge, but it is bulky, delicate, and awkward. Here's a "before" picture: And here are a couple of shots after the move: It's a little worse for wear, but this time there's no furnace in the middle of it, and the trestle and all of the structures made the trip intact. As soon as I get the rest of my stuff unpacked, I'll be bringing the old girl back to life, and building the L shaped addition for which my new digs offer space.
Great job Phil! One thing you have the opportunity to do now, if you have the space and the desire, would be to locate one half on around the room, or even on the other side of the room, and the build up the middle to meet. You could use this as a great opportunity to include a nice yard or some additional switching areas to the layout. Definitely keep us posted as to your progress!
John
That is a great looking layout,man. Well done. Glad it made it intact. Looking forward to pictures of your add on's.
That's why I would design a modular or domino layout along the lines of what Dave Barrow and the Cat Mountain & Santa Fe. Even if you have scenery along the module joints, you can always touch them up.
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Mike Kieran
Port Able Railway
I just do what the majority of the voices in my head vote on.
jwhitten One thing you have the opportunity to do now, if you have the space and the desire, would be to locate one half on around the room, or even on the other side of the room, and the build up the middle to meet. You could use this as a great opportunity to include a nice yard or some additional switching areas to the layout. John
One thing you have the opportunity to do now, if you have the space and the desire, would be to locate one half on around the room, or even on the other side of the room, and the build up the middle to meet. You could use this as a great opportunity to include a nice yard or some additional switching areas to the layout.
Thanks, John.
I considered doing something in the middle, but decided to add on to the left end. There is about 2 feet between the end of the layout and the wall, so the main line has room to curve into an addition with a reversing loop, making the layout a loop to loop in an L shape. The new section will include the town of Ashland, Oregon (where I grew up).
Thanks to the rest of you for the complements.
Looks terrific, jwhitten. Anymore "after" photos?
- Harry
HarryHotspur Looks terrific, jwhitten. Anymore "after" photos?
Er, I think he means you, Phil... :-)