Well, never thought I would have to do this but my family has decided to move back ot South Carolina, after 10 years in Tennessee. I have spent the last decade building the WTRR (West Tennessee Railroad), and now we are going to move.
This railroad is pretty large, it fills a big two car garage and eventhough it not complete it has a lot going for it.
So, should I salvage even the bench work. I know this question has been asked before and some say yes and some say no, some even suggest not even using the track. But it has been expensive to say the least.
It is screwed together, and the tables are in the fashion of David Barrow, the “domino” congifuration.
I can remove everything, even ballast and ground cover, no glue. And I can save the track and bench work.
Since you’ve already got a domino configuration, I’d certainly try to move it. If you end up with another garage, you might be able to re-assemble it without a lot of time-consuming changes.
Of course, if you are looking for a reason to build a whole new layout, this is it.
We recently moved from California to Montana and had a similar problem, although my layout was much smaller than yours. I didn’t worry about saving any of the scenery except trees, I tried to salvage the track but eventually gave up; however, I did take my time with the turnouts and managed to save most of them. My track work was glued in place and I found that by soaking the area around the turnouts with water they eventually came up with minimal damage. I was very stingy with ballasting the turnouts so they were far easier to remove than the track, which just didn’t cooperate when I tried to remove it.
Fortunately most of my structures were built on a base that could be easily removed, boxed up, and transported very without causing any damage.
Look at it this way: what would it cost you more than maybe 10-15 hours of your time over a couple of weeks to carefully take it apart? You can remove what you know you should and can, think easily taken up with a sliding knife or a couplef of bolts or screws, maybe some joiners slid back and feeders that have to be nipped nipped. But, apart from some breakage in terrain at ‘ground level’, it should all come apart and be easily slide into a large moving van or trailer. At the other end, you store them until you can retrieve them at your leisure and put it all back together. It would take another two weeks, maybe twice that or more if you want to make a few changes. You would only be out the time and the shipping costs.
I think these days, making a new layout of any size with mostly new stuff is going to cost close to $800, and it could be double that in a large room or most of a basement. What would it cost you to put what you have back together if you had to get new materials, some new track segments, etc? Or, what would it cost you to get what you have if you withdrew all the screws, saved all the lumber and much of the track, and then shipped all that to the new place? Those are about your options. I would think the first, taking it apart carefully and re-constructing it at the far end, will cost you about $300-$500 at most, depending on distance and weight.
Thanks Don. BTW: I did look at the glossary of model railroad terms on this website prior to asking my question. There is no mention of Domino style construction.
Inquiring minds would like to know how this differs from modular layouts? I’ve been involved with model railroading for over 55 years and have never heard of this term before. Guess I need to get out of the basement more often.[:-^]
My thoughts exactly. My layout is rather large and incorporates a lot of time and wood. The the modules can be removed from the legs, the legs can be disassembled. The modules can be stacked in a trailer with the leg shoved under them.
I think what you and most of the others suggested would be the best thing. To buy all new lumber would be expensive, plus all of that cutting and putting it all together when most of the modules that create the “dominoe” design are all intact. I can create a new design then re-attach the legs, if I wanted, re-wire and have it up and running much quicker than having to build all new tables.
Answer some of these questions and you can probably advise yourself:
will the layout fit in the new house without extensive modifications?
who is paying for the move? If you are paying for it yourself, will you be renting a truck and transporting the layout? Or paying professional movers? Either way, estimating the cost of getting the existing layout there should give you an idea of how badly you want to move what.
how much time do you have to prepare train stuff for the move? This was always the killer for me. I never had time to do much more than box up the rolling stock and locomotives. There wasn’t time to do a lot of track removal and salvage. If Uncle Sam was paying for the move, the layout went intact with legs removed and wires taped up, packed as best the movers could do.
do you intend to keep the same theme in the new house?
Selling everything off is often less of a loss than the costs of moving, especially if your desires might be different in the new location.
Great questions. My son and I have already started to removed the trains, buildings, cars, detail materials and trees. Once all of that is cleared he and I will sweep the ground cover, ballast and other material into coffee cans. I don’t glue ground cover or ballast so I can save much of it.
The track can stay intact on the sections which can be separated by removing screws, each deck can be stacked into a trailer with the legs detached. The boxes containing the rolling stock, engines as well as the scenery, etc., can be packed on top. All of this I believe can fit into a U-Haul trailer and hauled to South Carolina.
The new train room is great. It was a former two car garage that has been bircked up, with a new concrete floor, sheet rock, plugs, lighting and it is really clean. It is actually larger than just a two car garage, with extra space, shelving, a work bench, the works. It is like the previousowner knew I was coming. It is dust free with central heat and air.
I can re-configure the layout any way I want with a new design and add on to what I have. It will take time but the end results should be impressive. Once settled in and as I start building I will post pictures.
I would save it. Last spring I moved a 4X8 out of my old house into my new one. I thought about destroying the benchwork (and my layout isn’t the best, I’ll admit it) but I put a lot of hard work into it and I wanted to save it. Yeah, I had to take time to take out the backdrop, trees and structures, but it was worth it. So if it were me, I’d save it if I could.
Modules are a fixed system that can be arranged in any order.
Dominos are a subset of sectional layouts. They can be arranged in one specific way (like a sectional layout) but each section is a fixed size. Like dominos.
Since it sounds like you designed it to come apart in sections, I would move it. Even if it sustains minor damage repair should be ahead of rebuilding.
When I moved 18 months ago, I salvaged 95% of the track and all the bench work. I hadn’t reached the scenery stage and also knew that I would be building a different layout. So I salvaged instead of moving intact. The only parts I couldn’t salvage were the roadbed which was glued down and much of the wiring. The new layout used most of the old benchwork sections as is - one had to be rebuilt. But the arrangement is different. In addition to rebuilding one section, I built 4 fill in sections. All in all, well worth it given the price of wood and track.
Brother Dave Barrow may want to label his modules dominos if he wishes but it doesn’t change the fact that they are still modules; I told him in one of his clinics one time after he had called me to account for calling his dominos modules that I knew a guy who wanted to call meadow muffins roses but it didn’t cover up the fact that thay still smelled like meadow muffins!.. … … Anyway, to the subject at hand:… … … If “my family” is your parents and you are planning on making the move back to South Carolina with them then it is unlikely that your layout, unless it was designed to be moved, will not fare well on a trip of that magnitude. And although garages do tend to be rather uniform in size you may not find yourself with the precise measurements for reassembly at a new location. My advice is to salvage what you can and start all over when you get to South Carolina. Sounds to me like your benchwork has the potential for reassembly; salvage structures, switches and switch machines, and maybe some of the wiring. … … … If, on the other hand, you are planning on a move just across town then it will be a little easier and you can probably at least make an attempt at dis- and reassembly at a new location . . . . . . . . . . assuming, of course, that you can find a two car garage with the precise measurement of the current one. … …
You just need to make that decision of whether to strip and salvage as much as possible or separate into managable sections. I would try to salvage sections if possible and reasonable for the move.
Even if you later decide to recycle track etc, youa can do this on unneeded portions that may not work into a new trackplan.
Special sections, such as yards (especially yard ladder/ throat) and any industrial switching areas are a real must save as intact as possible, If the yard leads/ storage tracks are much too long, these can be separated @ straight trackage w/o turnouts.
To protect the “domino” sections during the move, I would suggest applying protective side panels on the sides of the benchwork extending up a few inches to prtoct the trackwork or any other forms. This can be any cheap plywood or OSB, You could also cover w/ 1/4" luan or MDF and spot cleat to the extended sides. You don’t need to go crazy crating up the RR sections only provive some protection to them. If most are appox the same length, even width the movers will have an easier time stacking them.
Good luck on the move, hope that you will be reassemling it soon.
Thanks. as soon as I get some thing going I thought I would make a photographic diary. The new train room has plenty of light so the photography should be better.
