Alright fellas, only $28,000 and this layout can be yours so buy it now or make an offer they cannot refuse. [(-D][(-D]
“The price quoted includes dismantling and re-installation at buyer’s home or business. It does not include shipping and delivery costs, including hotel for installers, air and ground transport, per diem, and any other associated travel expenses.”
Wow Jim great find. Since you found it first on e-bay. I won’t put in a bid so as not to bid it up on you.
But seriously, “Professionally Built” by who? I’m a professional. LOL. Hey and the thing isn’t finished in spots, no track ballast. Oh well, as someone mentioned in another thread P.T Barnum anyone. This way to the Egress.[swg]
Personally, I love the prototype-sized “hinge” right next to the tower:
[!(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/HO-Model-Railroad-16-X19-feet-Professionally-Bulit-/00/s/MTE5NVgxNjAw/z/NWgAAMXQQANRFDrq/$(KGrHqZ,!hYFDvHereoMBRFDrqQvz!~~60_12.JPG)](http://i.ebayimg.com/t/HO-Model-Railroad-16-X19-feet-Professionally-Bulit-/00/s/MTE5NVgxNjAw/z/NWgAAMXQQANRFDrq/$(KGrHqZ,!hYFDvHereoMBRFDrqQvz!~~60_12.JPG)
I guess you could try camouflaging it with ground foam so that it looks like a hedge-row or something similar.
Tom
Don’t you Tom, that hinge really shows off the “professionally built” quality.[wow]
Those aren’t hinges, they’re concrete pipes that fell off the flat car!
-Bob
The layout schematic says Rail Dreams. A legitimate layout company once based in Michigan’s UP and now in Florida.
What I don’t understand is the lack of ballast. Did they ship this layout as a partial build? Or a track / bench work build only? Then it was up to the owner to finish it and never did?
The hinge does look funny.
There is no freaking way the owner invested $70k on that layout. If he did, he’s stupid as a monkey.
That’s not even a large layout, and its not even finished.
But Rail Dreams could have just done the track plan. Hopefully any interested buyers verify that with Rail Dreams.
I just couldn’t bid on something like that even if I had that kind of money. For me half the fun is going to Hobby Shops and Train shows and finding this stuff. The other half of fun is building all the stuff myself.
But to each his own
According to the write-up, Rail Dreams did the benchwork, trackwork, rough scenery (by which I would assume they mean the land forms), and wiring initially, then more work, including structures, over the years. I don’t know about rates to do stuff like this, but I can believe that he sunk $70 large into it, especially if shipping and installation are included in that total. In fact I would venture a guess that Rail Dreams would be doing the disassembly and reassembly as well (the description of travel expenses sounds very professional). They also refer to the “late owner”, so the Estate is probably trying to get rid of it. I suspect the large barrel hinge was added by the owner, not the builder. If I were crazy enough to want to open a hobby shop, I might be interested
70k into that layout!!! Hey guess what I’m going into the custom layout building business it apparently pays better than the job I have now[(-D]
I keep telling my parents, they should let me build layouts for people. what I make in two weeks at were I currently work, I probably make in two hours building a layout. [swg]
I have no difficulty believing that somebody could put $70,000 into having a layout that size built by a professional layout builder. I’ve been a sub-contractor on a few professional layout projects; You’d be amazed at how much of the cost is simply labor-related.
If you spent a 40+ hour work week building benchwork or doing layout wiring as your means of livelihood, how much would you want or need to be paid for those hours?
As hobbyists, most of us don’t tend to think of what our time is worth in dollars and cents while working on our projects. And unless we start doing work for others commercially, we generally don’t need to.
I used to do custom-painting for others until I realized just how little I was getting back for the amount of time and effort I put into it. It turned into a sub-minimum wage occupation pretty quickly that was taking time away from being able to work on projects for myself. Once I did the math, I realized that I couldn’t really afford to keep doing it for the little enjoyment I was getting from it. Having deadlines and having to meet others’ quality expectations pretty much took all of the fun out of it.
When I’m doing train stuff for my own enjoyment, that’s one thing. When I’m doing it for someone else, it needs to be worth my while either in the pleasure of helping out a friend, or in terms of dollars and cents for doing it for a stranger.
Gee, I feel so, so “inadequate”…
I noticed the hinge and no ballast thing too, first thing. I thought , "for a professionally built layout, that don’t look none to ‘professional’ "!!! It also doesn’t look like “80% of scenery and detailing complete”…
I also wasn’t aware we “stuffed” locos for display when decomissioned and displayed for posterity… "One of the fun structures is the old depot on the edge of the industrial area which has been converted to a railroad museum, complete with “stuffed” locos and cars on display "
It also says it " Runs well"… For 28K, the price of a car, I would hope it “runs well”!
Wonder how many nights do I have to put them up in a hotel???
One thing I can tell you, is, I won’t bid on it!!! So have at it all you interested parties!!!
[8-|]
Wow, such a deal! I’ll take one for here and one to go, please.
I wonder if the guy selling this layout is reading all this?
It ain’t me, either, guys…
P.S. You could probably get a real live, running, but really used up, SW-1 for this price!
Richard
The same people paying $20.00 for a Circitron Tortise will be jumping all over this one.
I think you might be scared if you actually had every receipt for everything you ever spent money on for your layout.
Even getting nearly all of my locos for under $40, I have at least several thousand dollars invested in my layout and it’s much smaller and even less finished than that one. Had I been buying more steam locos, the cost would go up greatly.
–Randy
Whether the custom builder installed the hinges on this layout or not, I’m not at all impressed with anything I see on the builder’s site http://www.raildreams.com/gallery.html . Some of the backdrops don’t look too bad, but quality elsewhere strikes me as being rather poor, although that may be partially the fault of the photography. Unfortunately the labor hours to crank out that kind of work would add up just as fast as with something better.
There’s an ongoing discussion on another forum about whether layouts have resale value, and a project like this is a good illustration of how they mostly don’t. Unless this layout suits someone’s tastes exactly, the estate will likely have a very difficult time recouping much of the cost sunk into it by the former owner. Even the suggested bid for the auction seems highly optimistic.
“Used” layouts seldom have any re-sale value. I know of a few local layouts that were sold and used as built. One is next door to my shop. Its in a trailer approx 12 x 50 feet. Most times, they are hardly worth hauling away. A perfect example is Allen McCelland’s inability to sell the original V&O with a house on top of it. However, if I had still been living in Dayton when it was for sale I would have given it serious consideration. It was less than a mile from my job.
I read this thread with a bit of sadness and dismay. Afterall, we all, or our survivors that is, will have to somehow dispose of our various sized layouts or collections of rolling stock and other “stuff.” This poor guy died and I’m guessing he would have spruced up his layout if he had known it was going to be featured here for our critical eyes.
If I died today what would my family ultimately do with my layout and associated treasures? I’d probably flip over in my grave (or urn) and I know for a fact that no one has a clue as to what I actually paid and what todays value is for any of my equipment.
Take a look at your own layout and imagine you don’t exist anymore… then bring a photographer and an estate auctioneer in to appraise your work, just as it is at this moment. I know my layout wouldn’t pass muster! I’ve got piles of crud all over the place, boxes of half finished projects, tools and what not all over the place.
That $70K investment also says memorabilia, etc. so maybe there’s other stuff besides the layout? Anyone in this position is going to Ask High and Sell Low… it’s the forces of the market at play.
Maybe this guy was laid up with medical problems, maybe he had to rely on others to do his designing and maybe he never thought to put the hinges on the underside and make a drop bridge instead of a lift bridge? Maybe he didn’t want ballast for fear that it would get in gearboxes or whatever…
My only point is that sooner or later we’re all going to be in his shoes. Sad…
Have fun! Ed
Several years ago a friend of mine visited a widow who wanted to sell her late husband’s layout and all of the stuff with it. He dropped by for a look, and noticed most of the rolling stock was cheap Model Power and such, nothing of much value. He was considering offering the widow $200.00 for the lot when she mentioned that nothing was leaving until she had $2000.00 in her hands. I imagine its still there.
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