I live in an apartment but I’m rarin’ to go and start building something again. I measured a space I could use for an L-shaped shelf-type layout - 13x7 feet. Blocks a window, but at 4’ plug high it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Otherwise it would basically cover up the bookshelves with my collection of MR.
I’m thinking Mianne benchwork since I can’t very well set up and saw lumber in here, plus it can be easily dismantled and moved. Sticking with foam, it worked very well on the last layout and I had no noise issues at all. I discovered that 2" of foam is NOT too long a distance for a Tortoise to work and that wonderful cheap latex caulk glues a Tortoise to the bottom of the foam with plenty of strength - however this time I am thinking of laminating 2 layers of 2" foam to allow for below the tracks scenery. In that case I will need an alternative linkage - probably the wire inside a brass tube method.
Or I could just order some tooling from FasTracks and start mass producing turnouts for some time in the future…
Please excuse me for saying this. I’m really not trying to be offensive, but if I had just had my home repo’d and lost all my trains from it and was now forced into apartment living, I don’t think I would be so eager to jump right back into this hobby in a big way.
Has your situation improved so radically that you can now throw the kind of money at this hobby that you know it will take to build a layout?? Or would maybe just collecting and building some kits be a wiser move right now??
I would really be analyzing what caused the loss of the home in deciding about a new $$$ layout.
Oh I know what caused all the problems, buying a home that I never wanted in the first place, knowing it would be a money pit. But it was only my second home and therefore I was just talkign out my behind when I said things like the heating bill was going to be astronomical. $600/mo electric bills later… 100% increase in taxes the next year and it was all over. My situation is greatly improved right now, cheap apartment living and reasonable utilities and so forth and I’m putting away almost what the mortgage payment was each month. At the moment I can afford probably double what my train budget use to be and STILL grow the savings. Regardless, it will be a while before I can actually build anything, even a kit, since the first thing I have to do is aquire the tools. Especially electronics - I was attempting to make a start of the hobby paying back a little doing decoder installs for people. Keep in mind too that I am VERY cheap when it comes to trains - of all the stuff I had before, the ONLY piece I paid more than $50 for was the T-1 with sound. Every one of those P2K locos, and even the Stewart DS4-4-10 I picked up mostly on ebay but some at shows for $50 or less - the last P2k S-1 I got for $20, new in box! I’m a picky and patient bidder and can wait til i get things for my price. I won’t buy junkers, but neither will I get caught up in a silly bid war and pay MSRP plus shipping. I don;t expect to replace everything tomorrow - it took me about 3 years to aquire what I had plus half the 8x12 layout cost.
Test modules may be the way to go - say 1 sheet of foam cut in half and laminated, a couple pieces of track and a structure on it. Prove out some ideas I’ve had so when I DO have a place to build a decent layout I’ll be ready to go. That’s more or less what I started out to do a long time ag, but it morphed into a full-fledged 8x12 layout which I then was loath to destroy so every plan revolved around expanding that without ripping up all the track. St
Never found modeling to be the cause of many of the difficulties life can hurl at us but, I have found that modeling can help ease the impact of some of life’s catastrophes and irritations - both. Building models has over the years helped ease my way though all kinds of stuff where an alternative panacea would have induced an intake of chemical substances[|)]and strange behaviours[}:)] way outside of those experienced in modeling.[:)]
Something missing in the initial query??? where does it say he lost his house??? what’s going on here?? also Randy says its “only my second house” ONLY ? ? just how many houses are you planning to buy? How many people out there will never own a house and you are thinking of buying another one? I would put MR at the bottom of my reality list.
I believe I remember his post about the house. If you are settled and ready to go, why not give it a try? Don’t worry about blocking a window, we all make sacrifices. I do live in an apartment and have a small bedroom, and have given up half of it to my layout.
My folks were like Gypsy’s. They built a new house and moved about every four years when I was growing up. I think my mom counted she’s lived in around 20 different houses since she was a teen. I got tired of moving my layouts when I was a kid.
We had a nice house that I was more than happy with - in fact if it was available I would buy it back now, years later. Not the biggest basement but it was dry and big enough. But my ex in-laws were having some difficulties so we sold our house and they sold theirs and we all moved into this other one together. Mistake #1. It was oen of the first palces we looked at, and a year later when we still ahnd’t found anything, it was STILl on the market - that should have said something right there (and this was while home sales were BOOMING). As I mentioned in the other thread, it soon turned into the money pit I predicted it would be. Coupled with a 100% increase in taxes (yes, taxes DOUBLED from one year to the next - needless to say none of the involved politicians was re-elected but by then it was too late), and we went from being able to make it to being under water. Bottom line, bank foreclosed, house was sold off at sheriff’s sale. I have most of my things, but none of my trains. Where I was livign I had no room for any of it, and I didn’t want to take any of my stuff to my mom’s house as I figured my nephew would get into it like he had my old N scale stuff and some other things. By the time I got where I am now and had room to at least store some of it, it was too late.
All things for the better in the long run - I am at least back on my feet and actually nearly debt-free, although with a bottomless pit for a credit rating. I’ve never been totally out of the hobby evn though I’ve had long periods of no layout and beign nothign but an armchair railroader, but I’ve been into traisn sicne I was 2 eyars old (have home movie proof (8mm silent) of me at age 2 running HO around the Christmas tree) so this is no fleeting interest. I WILL someday have a relatively large empire - I’ve even toyed with the idea of starting a club but at startup I think the expense would be rather large. Plus I wooldn’t get to have it all ‘my way’.