I have just completed my layout and then the wife says, "You can have a bigger room for your trains so what do I do?
Do I scrap the new one and canabilize it for parts?
Do I try to add onto the new layout (This would mean extensive work).
Do I start fresh with a whole new design?
I can’t do both because the two will be too big for the space alotted?
I don’t know what I want to do, I like the finished layout a lot and put a lot of work into it, I’m thinking of adding on to the new one that I just finished, this would involve as much work as building a new one.???
After I finished this one I watched a special on diamond mining and wished that I had thought to have a diamond mine on my layout…I’m so confused!!!
I PM’ed a good friend to get his advice but also wanted some input from others who may have faced this same problem?
I’ll concider all opinions!
Jess Red Horse of the “Bigger is Better” Tribe!
In order to extend your current layout all you really need is a turnout that leads off table on your current layout. The rest goes from there.
I think before you decide one way or the other, you need to answer a couple of questions…some of them you already brought up.
The glaring questions I didn’t see you hit on are, would starting from scratch allow you to improve (significantly?) on your previous efforts? Also, would you want to switch prototypes (I know you mostly freelance) or locations?
By that, I mean, if you were to just extend the current layout, would the new portion look funny next to or always leave you second guessing your decision to add on to your existing layout? If the difference wouldn’t be huge, you could freshen up the scenery on the older portion to match the new, but then if the difference is big then you’ll be doing a lot of “freshening”, and maybe starting over might be easier and allow you to fix a few mistakes (trackwork and such…we all make them!) made the first time around.
In the end, all our talk is really just beating a dead horse. 
The decision is up to you.
Myself, I have always salvaged and started over, but thats just me.
If you have the option to use both rooms and they are side by side, just run a spur from the current layout into the room where the new will be built and expand. As all railroads know expansion is the only way to grow.
If you cain’t run it from one room to the other, then I’d just scrap the layout (if you have the money), otherwise, just keep it and detail it, or heck start another in a different scale.
NOW she tells you!![banghead][banghead][banghead]
As fast as you work, I’d say start over.[2c]
Nope, I can’t use both rooms and punching a hole through the wall will surely get me in deep doo doo with the wife.
I could add on to this one by rebuilding one end of the finished one that would allow me to expand on this one , as for the detail and style I’m not nailed down to any particular prototype as it is a free lanced.
After much thought I really don’t have the cash flow to start one in a different scale, this one is HO and I like the scale so switching a totally new one to another scale is out of my budget range.
I think at this point I’d be best off redoing a 1/4 of this layout to be able to flow off this one into the expanded area.
Yikes, I just gave myself a headache on this one.
thanks for the input everyone, looks like “Buffalo Grove” is about to get 50% bigger!!!
Jess Red Horse of the “Growing layout” people!
You’re a lucky man. My wife thinks we have a diamond mine in the back yard, but she’s wrong.
If you do get a diamond mine, please don’t use slave labor as in Blood Diamonds.
Mark
Diamonds are nice but how about a gold mine with nuggets the size of your fist…
In the tunnel wall…
Gold fillings the same size…
Ok, educate me. Why would a diamond mine need rail service? To haul away the overburden? All the diamond mines I’ve seen process their “tailings” on site.
Wow, that mine shot is great!, And the fossil dig site is outragious!!!
Yup, I’ll need the train too my diamond mine to cart workers and supplies in and out, I just like the idea of a dimond mine.
Thanks, Happy Rails.
Good luck on the room issue. I still would work on the hole in the wall theory, There must be something you can “TRADE” for that.
As for the Diamond mine, the one on Arkansa would be boring to model. The holes in Africa could be modeled the way I did my Malachite quarry, with stacked foam and paint. Here is one pic.
Ah, the joys of Model Railroading, Descisions. Descisions. Descisions. Descisions, where does it end???
