I have been pretty excited about starting a new layout, but I have to admit some regret in tearing down the Rock Ridge and Train City. Especially since Rock Ridge was shaping up so nicely…
Then it dawned on me. The top section, Rock Ridge, is about 75% done and the trackwork has not broken down. It has a circle track with a turnout for the future mine. I can lift that section off give it a new frame and save it as a 3ft x 4ft layout/diorama. Then when I design the basement layout, I can drop in this section and have the mine operation intact. I’ll have saved the best of the layout.
Spacemouse, Inow how you feel. Im getting ready to redo an older section of my layout. Its hard for me to tear down something that I worked so hard on. Its something that needs to be done. The plans I have will make it much better. Still doesnt make it any easier. Dave
Hey Space! It’s called recycleing and it’s a great thing. I would try to NOT destroy a layout that looked as good as yours. I did the same thing with an old section of mine. Fits right in my new layout and saved me some $$$$$$$$.(Budget is the mother of re-invention.)[:D][;)]
Thanks for making my day! When you announced that the Rock Ridge and Train City was about to join the passenger pigeon, I couldn’t help feeling bad about the loss of the fine subjects of the photos you’d been posting. Congratulations on figuring out how to keep them intact.
My equivalent is the (un-sceniced, unballasted) end-of-the-railroad module I first built in 1980. It’s been operating ever since, sometimes with a layout attached, more frequently not. At present it’s pretending to be a shelf, resting on shelf brackets on my garage wall while I build the hidden track under its intended final home - and originating and terminating trains according to the master timetable. That operation is what keeps me sane while construction moves along (at the pace of an arthritic snail.)
Good for you, Mouse! I could not salvage anything from my former layout, except for a token cast rock face that I have stuck on like a sore thumb. Also, my modest yard is built on an inverted sheet of plywood that was under all that foam on the first layout, but nothing else was salvageable save for rolling stock, structures, and trees.
I’ll bet that was as good as a Christmas present to you!
Chip, I can empathize. On my own layout, I’m thinking of redoing the entire ‘top’, in diagram below, table. Where you see “8’”, well… between that benchwork and the wall there is only about a 15 inch aisle. Now, I can slide in there very well to work the top switch and industry but it is going to be h*ll to work on scenery etc back there. It’s one of those areas that wasn’t planned that way, it just grew that way. The bench should have been placed against the wall, narrowed to 2 feet and then widened to 4 feet for the loop. Now I’m looking at it and deciding whether to tear it out and what I can salvage if I do. I may as well bite the bullet and do it.
