Well, I’ve finally started building benchwork for my new layout. That means my current layout is on borrowed time. I find myself dreading the task of dismantling it. While I’m excited about the new layout, I worked hard on the current one and I’m proud of it.
To those of you who’ve been in my situation, how did you get through it? Should I just approach it like removing a band aid?
I am having some friends over to give it a proper send-off.
I was in exactly your situation ~4 years ago. I had this layout in a two-car garage that met all of my original givins and druthers, but had one fatal flaw: Too many duck-unders. When I started hosting op sessions, I saw that my guest operators weren’t even bothering to go into some of the areas that I considered to be the most fun. So I had to start over if I wanted something guest-friendly.
My previous layout was an ‘E’ shaped island, with semi-removable track sections spanning the open parts. OK for a lone wolf, but a PITA for my guests who were taller and not in quite as good physical shape as I was. What I needed to do was dismantle everything except the center peninsula, flip the center peninsula around 180*, and dismantle all of the wooden shelves that covered my garage walls. Then I’d be able to do an around-the-walls layout.
But before I picked up the crowbar, I drew up several different track plans and posted them on the forums I was active on at the time, got plenty of feedback, and made a final choice ~4 weeks later. Now that I had something new to dream about, I started the slow and painful process. I did a little bit of dismantling every evening, and always gazed at the future track plan as an incentive to keep going. It took ~5 months for me to get the garage completely uncluttered and cleaned out. I would set a goal for each week, something small enough that I knew I could get it done if I kept my focus. I also stayed in constant contact with my local mrr friends and got their help if I needed it.
Eventually I had my new benchwork built, track laid & wired, capable of running trains. Reaching that point took me a bit over 3 years [since I still have a daytime job and family commitments]. I haven’t started laying any scenery yet though, because I’ve been having op sessions to make sure my trackwork is bulletproof from both a performance and operating perspective. But I’
Been there myself a couple of times over the nearly nine years I have been in the hobby. Once the decision comes, I start looking beyond the dismantling to what my new goal is. For the last layout, I wanted to free the space for my wife to use, but I also wanted to get a layout where I didn’t have to stand the nearby hot wood stove in the very months I would be most likely to be playing trains…heating season. Oh, I guess I should add that the layout was illuminated by ten GU10 50 watt halogens. Think wood stove plus another heater going on in there.
I look at each layout as a means to an end. One end is to put previous errors behind me. Another is to realize new ambitions, skills, and ideas.
At some point, I had to remove the perfectly fine 90’ built-up turntable, and I didn’t want to have to mount it and redo the approach tracks. So, I had to jig saw it out of the layout module top in a large chunk that I could screw or glue into place on the new layout. Once I did that surgery, the layout was pretty much ruined for me, and it began to lose any sentimental value.
A demolition begins with applying the tool to the first destructive act, be it a pry-bar, large hammer (not recommended unless removing screws is going to be very onerous), or a freshly charged cordless driver. Once you get at it, it’s best to make it a large session before you give up for the day, or do it all at one go. It’ll be over and your attention moves on to the stuff ahead of you.
-Crandell
The hard part is the first step.
Once you have all the trains off and remove the first building, track, etc. it becomes just a chore to get done.
Good luck
Paul
I destroyed a small N scale many years ago and disposed of it.Simple and easy. My other hildhood layout still stands at my father’s house.
BUT: I recently tore my current layout down to the basic “table” with the idea of expanding it to make it “bigger and better”.
Being that I was to “improve it”, I was excited about doing tearing it down.
When the time comes that we have a new MRRing space that happens to have a house on top of or surrounding it, I will have no qualms about tearing this one apart {if i ever get it rebuilt}.
AS Selector Crandell said, It begins with the first destructive tool applied {in a haphazardly manner} to the layout in question.
GO at it like it owes you lots of money or like it stole your wife or significant other or dissed your mother!
That way perhaps you will “get over” smashing it to threads.Demolition destructiveness can be such a cathartic release!
And nothing will beat the thrill of creating the new one!
[8-|]
Galaxy has a good point.
I’d say if you’re having qualms about tearing down the old, you need to rethink where you’re going with the new layout. Maybe that track plan or ops scheme needs refreshing? Could be a lot of things. In any case, not a good reason to not tear down the old, there’s something that can be improved if you’ve gotten to this point already, right? But make sure where you’re going is really where you want to be if this fear of change should paralyze you at the last Moment of No Return…[X-)][swg]
This is a very timely issue for me.
My current layout has been up for 9 years now, and I do like it a lot. But it has its share of problems.
And I constantly think about, plan for, and lust over my Dream Layout.
Oh, how I want to build it.
But, I hesitate.
Cost is one issue.
Inertia is another issue. The thought of dismantling this behemoth is daunting.
One question that I have for those of you who have dismantled a layout is, what can you save?
It seems to me that most of the track, except for turnouts which are more lightly ballasted, has to go.
The under the layout stuff like Tortoises and wiring is salvageable.
Maybe some trees.
Structures are easily moveable.
Forget about the roadbed.
All of the plywood has to go, maybe save some 2x4’s.
What say you?
Rich
I have had several layouts in my over 50 years of modeling. My current layout is going on 20 years old, but it has structures on it that I scratchbuilt back in 1972, some of the rolling stock is older, but it still brings back fond memories. As I look at any given structure I can remember when I built it and for which layout, and where it was on the layout. It is like having an old friend and only contributes to the feeling that the old layouts never did die, they just improved. My current layout fills a 2 car Garage, with min 36" curves and is a really nice model. It is as if the only parts of the old layouts that went away were the bad parts. It is all a matter of prespective. Keep in the right frame of mind and all will be well.
Paul
Dayton and Mad River RR
Once you get the things you want to keep off, it’s all down hill from there.
I know, you guys can give it a Vikings send off! Lol
Rich;
It is relatively simple, Toss out the old you do not want, and bring in the new you do! And remember!: WASTE NOT WANT NOT! While we agonize over such changes it really is like tossing out your favorite pair of shoes or jeans or trading in your favored car: Just DO it, and you will feel better, and soon you will not miss them as much for the new ones will more than adequately replace the old, adn you cannot wait to use the new, even if it means just driving the new car to the mailbox for the fun of driving it!!!.
FOR ME: the excitement of having a bigger, better layout far exceeded the value I had in the old one, and made me want to tear down the old one in a jiffy. Budget has kept me from totally realizing the new one.YET.
Dreams: Most of us DO dream about and maybe even lust after our “dream layout”. I dream to simply have more space for a layout! SO you are not alone. Pining for it will do no good. If I ever get more space, I can then start drooling!
D
Salvage what you can.
I build my bench work so it’s all salvageable - some of it is on the fifth layout.
Track on the last layout had not reached ballast or scenery and was only fastened with nails so I clipped around the soldered connections and carefully removed the nails. Early layouts, it wasn’t worth the hassle of keeping - of course some of those were brass rail with fiber ties [(-D]
Enjoy
Paul
Thanks for all the advice. The layout in question was built when I was in an apartment, so it’s small (40"x60") and portable. It’s survived two moves already but didn’t come out of the last one unscathed. I will definitely salvage the structures, vehicles, trees and track. The layout’s “benchwork” is actually a plastic folding table, so I’'ll salvage it.
Some other things I’ve come to realize about this layout are, that it was constructed for what I was running at the time, some diesels and a handful of freight cars. As such steamers and long passenger cars don’t run well on it at all. Also it wasn’t built for operation because that wasn’t what I was into at the time. I guess that’s giving my impetus for the new layout.
Rich,
Saving track depends on how it’s fastened. I use spikes and ballast set with matte medium over cork roadbed, so the spikes are into the underlying plywood just by the tip. To loosen it, I spray it with 91% alcohol and take a stiff-bladed scraper to gently lift it. Comes right up.
I even recycle the ballast when I need it to help the new trackwork blend in. However, even as cheap as I am [2c] I wouldn’t recommend trying to salvage a whole layout’s worth of ballast.[:o)]
My track is all flex track down down over Woodland Scenics foam track bed. The Woodland Scenics ballast is held down by a water/matte medium mix. I find that when removing the ballasted track, after first applying isopropyl alcohol, the ties have a film on them which tends to discolor the ties. This prompts me to want to put down new flex track, albeit expensive.
Rich
Yeah, that would either need more alcohol or just call it “weathering” [*-)]
I do this with short sections of track. For a whole layout, yes, spiffy new will sure make things easier.
Take lots of pictures, and videos too, if convenient. You’ll want to remember the old layout. Like our children’s “wonder years,” we can only hang on to things for so long, and then it’s time to move on and let them be memories.
I have torn apart layouts in order to move. I finally learned from those experiences.
My current layout is designed so it could be moved if necessary. It is a series of “tables” (sections) which are screwed together and also screwed to the walls of the train room. To move the layout, I would cut the tracks, cut the scenery, and cut the wires at each joint between the sections. It would be moved to another location and re-assembled. Wires would be slices. Tracks would be reconnected. Scenery would be repaired.
There would be one obstacle to this approach. I would not likely move to another location with a train room having the same measurements. My thinking now is I would find a larger train room, and then build partitions to accommodate the layout.
Of course, the best plan is not to move.
You know, i thought it would be easier, but I still have made almost no progress in tearing down my layout - and the only ‘scenerey’ I ever got done was painting allthe pink foam with brown paint, and about 2 feet of track is ballasted. More of it was painted, not not all.
This thread made me think - this is pretty much the first layout I’ve actually had to tear down. Previous efforts when I lived at home mostly still live on, stnading on edge in the basement of my Mom’s house - I never tore them down, I just carried them to the basement to make room for the next one. Being damp down there, they are all pretty much worthless at this point, but all I ever did was take off the structures and vacuum up any loose materials, and of course removed the rolling stock, and then carried them away. My first post-college layout, when I moved from there, I took to the club I belonged to at the time. It was just a single 6 foot long shelf with the track laid and no scenery completed, the club members added scenery and used it as a display to attract people to the main layout. And my previous effort to this one, I was more or less forced out and never took anything down or witnessed its destruction, if indeed it was destroyed. So this current layout really is the first one I have to truly get rid of. I cut out the duckunder across the door and the one that seperated off my workbench area, but that’s it so far. The rest still stands, I haven’t even disconnected any of the electronics yet. I don;t suspect I’ll be keeping much of it besides some track, probably the legs off the sections, and the nuts and bolts holding the legs on. Maybe a few pieces of the foam top reuse as scenery forms, but I don’t knwo what I’d do with ALL of it, full of caulk that glued it together.
–Randy
GP-9_Man,
A model railroad layout is a labor of love, full of memories and connections to family and friends. For some a layout can be as intimate as one’s hometown, the greasy mainline at the foot of the hill, a favorite shady glen, the little bait shop on the road down to the lake. Strong emotions are released during the dismantling process even if in preparation for building another layout.
I began my dismantle by carefully removing and packaging the rolling stock, structures, trees and details. With most of the personality gone it was easier to take hammer, pry bar and screw gun to the vacant layout. There was plenty of pleasant reminiscing along the way and a big measure of comfort knowing that most of the treasured objects, benchwork wood and electrical would eventually become part of the new.
After the dismantling my wife was kind enough to allow me a shelf in one of her glass cabinets to temporarily display a few of my most prized models. A comforting source of inspiration.
good luck and regards, Peter