Yikes, we had an 8-inch water main break suddenly outside our house and it flooded part of my basement where my Siskiyou Line lives.
For more details, see this thread on my web site.
Yuk! [:(]
That’s bad!
Hope that you can claim without too much hassle.
Hope you can get back to normal soon.
Keep us posted please… I hate those news items where a town gets flooded and you never, ever hear anything about them again… until the next flood… like N O.
Hope those guys are doing a bit better now.
That is terrible. What a way to spend the labor day weekend.
Yes, Dave, I can count my blessings that the layout floor was where the damage is confined and the layout itself was not affected.
Still, I had to clear the floors of everything and there’s stuff stacked all over the layout in this area while we run the fans and try to dry things out.
The water damage is mostly confined to wallboard and things stacked on the floor. It looks like the carpet will come though it all relatively unharmed, other than a good soaking. [B)]
That sucks, Joe. I hope the damage is both minimal and easy to fix.
Andre
Talk about close and wake-up calls!! At least you know that when it is all put back together, inside and out, you will have greatly reduced the likelihood of such an event in the future.
I am sorry that your schedule has gone for a #%$^, Joe, and I am sure you could have stood for less excitement on a holiday weekend.
I guess repairing the drywall will be a major pain, and will you have to replace some layout supports, too? I’d almost consider sitting them inside large tomato tins.
-Crandell
my prayers are with you at this time joe. hope things are back to normal very soon. dave
Glad to hear that the layout survived your flash flood. That’s why I always have some kind of platform (or waterproof plastic box) between the stored items and the floor, even in a garage that’s uphill from the street. (I’ve had a water heater explode before!)
I’d strongly suggest that you give that damaged drywall, especially, a good going over with fungicide. Your floodwaters might have been fit to drink where they left the pipe, but (fill in your favorite Diety) knows what was in the dirt they excavated.
Have fun with your insurer. They may (or may not) differentiate between a natural flood and a broken water main.
Chuck
Joe, who will end up footin the bill for all that? It wasn’t YOUR water main, was it?
Sorry to hear the news Joe,
I have been unfortunate to have trains stored on the floor when the flood waters come pouring in. Some of the things still need cleaned up. I can feel your pain.
James
It was the city’s 8-inch main that runs parallel to the street. It remains to be seen how much they pay for and how much we pay for.
I certainly am inclined to plan ahead for the future, to mimize the effects of any such future disasters. I do have a good drain in front of my garage, but you never know. It certainly was not able to handle the flow of water from the 8-inch main we were getting.
Certainly gives you a wierd feeling to be standing in an inch of water and looking at your layout! [:O]
I’m also fortunate the basement floor slopes down a bit toward the garage door, or the whole basement floor could have been covered with water. [tdn]
From the diagram on your forum, it doean’t look like it was too from that anyway. That sucks, Joe. I hope the city will cough it up. At least that will make it a little better.
I hope that everything is restored to as it was or better before the water leak.
I think homes run off a half inch to an inch at the most, 8 inch water main is pretty big.
I worry about water damage that could create a “Pre-existing” problem in the future where if something else happened might not be covered in a future insurance claim.
I hope everything will be well soon.
Remember this the next time somebody starts an “Attic or Basement for my layout?” thread.
I’m no lawyer (yeah, like you couldn’t figure that out) but my guess is the city is 100% liable for the damage, unless the pipe was recently installed and they can hang it on the contractor.
I’m glad to hear that the layout itself is OK. It’s one of the best, no question.
Joe,Sorry about your bad luck…[:(] However…Look on the bright side its only a mere inch instead of 1-3 feet or more…[;)]
Just a comment…I was asked one time why I prefer a spare bedroom over a basement for my layouts…Easy.My wife and I was on a 3 day Holiday and returned home to find 2 feet of water in our basement from 2 days of torrential rains which resulted in a flash flood…Even when the creek behind our house flooded it never entered the basement this time the creek was dam by debris in a culvert pipe under a street which cause the flood water to back up…The County paid the bill for the water damages…
Joe, that is some bad luck you struck!
I hope none of the benchwork got enough water to warp after a while, and that there wasn’t a whole 6’ of water!
It would have been a sad way for the siskiyou line to go under! [:(]
The odd thing is I was in the layout room a couple hours earlier and everything was fine, the power was on, yada, yada. My wife left to go watch the grandkids and I was home all alone.
I turned the layout power off and went upstairs to get some lunch. Then I decided to check the mail and when I went outside, I noticed water running down my driveway. My first thought was my wife left a hose running, but as I looked closer, water was bubbling up out of every nook and cranny in and around my driveway – and then I looked at the bottom of the driveway in front of my garage to see 6 inches of swirling water all around my garage I knew immediately something very bizarre was going on.
I went down into the layout room to find the one end with an inch of water on the floor and the carpet and pad floating in the water.
Since it was a weekend and no one was available in the city offices, I called 911 because this could not go on like this all weekend! They immediately got my address and called the water company off hours emergency number.
I shudder to think what might have ensued had I walked back into the layout room and flipped on the power, since the part of the layout that was flooded cannot be seen from the door. My layout’s main 16VAC power transformer (an old 16 amp BN signal transformer, actually) is on the lower shelf just a couple inches off the floor in the flooded area, and some of the 110V wiring plugs into a power strip that sits on the floor there too. [xx(]
Oh noes!
Try to get that power off the floor and higher if you can.
It might be worth yours or someone else’s life in the future.
Bad deal Joe! Sorry to hear of the trouble. I’m just glad it wasn’t worse! Hope it all works out well!
I’m so sorry to hear what happened! I’ve admired you Siskiyou line, and have learned so much about operations from your railroad. When I saw the title, my jaw dropped, and was relieved to hear the water damage wasn’t too high! I really hope you get back up and running soon. Just like they say keep electrical outlets at least 18 inches above the ground (for many reasons), I guess we should be following this rule for all our electrical equipment in the basement.