I started building my first layout back in 1992, and finished it 2008. That is 16 years of work,& 16 years of building craft-men structures, bridges, trees,and water-ways. It was a very nice lay-out to look at.I got many very nice compliments from all that visited. Last week I started to tear it all down. All that is left is the bench-work… Most people think that I have lost it, but I feel that first lay-out of mine was all for the learning. Has anyone else done such a crazy thing? Also how did you feel about it?
The only thing I have had to take down is a 10’ x 5’ Plywood Pacific and that was hard enough. But when I see where I am now it makes me chuckle. Think of it as losing a girlfriend and how exciting the new ones always are.[:-,]
My last large layout was up and running for 20 years or so. At the time I built it, twin coil switch machines were the norm. However, as time went by, keeping the layout maintained and working correctly became more of a chore than a pleasure.
A couple of things force me to tear it down and start over. The main one is that we sold our house. Then there was the advances in technology with DCC, sound decoders for locomotives, computers, and the availability of practical signal systems.
I thought that I was going to regret it, but did not. I had learned new things through the years, and learned how to do other things better.
I reused a lot of the old layout raw material even though I changed scales at the same time. Mainly I was able to reuse the wood and screws from the benchwork, plus the electrical terminal strips, wire clamps, and some electrical switches.
You may, in fact, be a “builder.” I know I am. I enjoy running my trains, but after a while I just want to build something. Given that you’ve built craftsman structures, bridges and such, it’s clear that you enjoy that, too.
I’m lucky, right now. My original 5x12 foot HO layout is as “complete” as a layout gets, but I’ve got permission to expand the layout, and Phase 2 is now under construction. I’m back to being excited about being in the train room again. At the same time, I’m even more annoyed when I have to go back and deal with some minor maintenance chore on Phase 1. I tell myself that Phase 2 will make my layout more fun to run, because it adds staging, longer runs and more industries to switch. But, if that’s the case, why am I already planning Phase 3?
When my wife and I bought our house I was still in college. To relax I built my first layout. It was made from one of the Atlas track plans. When I built it the basement was unfinished and I knew I needed to complete the area before a really good layout was built. So, I went into the process of building the model knowing it was for learning, relaxing and that it would be torn apart after I was done with it.
That layout is now just memories a few pictures and a few videos.
I did not put in as many years on my first layout as you did on yours but I think you will very much enjoy the adventure of building a new Empire.
I want to have the layout, not build it. But I don’t have deep pockets, so build it I must. Unfortunately, it means that I tend to rush the job and then have to make do with whatever it becomes/became for the next several years.
I had to tear down the first at 12 months of age due to a basement finishing project. It had no finishing, and She Who Must be Obeyed directed me to finish the basement. So, down came the first layout…no hard feelings, to be truthful. [(-D] Took me two hours to get it all out to the curb and the floor vacuumed. Wife was visiting her sister, and I could do it as I pleased.
We are about to sell, and when that happens, down comes the current layout. I’ll salvage lots, but not the layout. For example, I like how the turntable and roundhouse work. I expect to import that much on a chunk of plywood in which they currently sit. I’ll probably not mess too much with the Micro Engineering combination girder bridge, but the approaches on either side will change.
To close off, though, I would rather have the use of a nice layout, but I really find building them to be a race, almost against myself. It isn’t relaxing, and not really much fun. So, as much as I respect your own approach to the hobby (I’m glad your in it!), my approach is to try to tame my inner beast, build something respectable and sensible, and improved, and then to live with it for as long as possible…measured in years.
When I moved from Ohio to Colorado almost 12 years ago, I had a layout all tracked and wired and operational and ready to “spread plaster”. I disassembled the benchwork, saved all the track (it was nailed, not glued down). Then when in Colorado the basement was finished with a layout room. With limited funds and a career that was going nowhere at the time, I never built the layout that I had planned for that space. Now, 4 1/2 years after moving from Colorado to where I am now, I have this fairly respectable collection of HO equipment but I live in an apartemtment where the beginnings of a tiny switching layout shares space in the second bedroom with my office. The current layout will be part of a larger layout when I move into a house again.
Out of the 6 layouts I have built in my 46 years in the hobby, I only took down one. It was my first layout, built as a teenager. It was Marklin, using Marklin sectional track. I was able to salvage all of the track and some of the structures, which I later sold, together with all my locos and rolling stock - sigh! They´d be collector´s items by now.
The other layouts I was able to sell, as they were small, portable layouts.
I was in a house for 13 years and about half way through that time I decided to build a layout. I worked on it for about 6 years then I sold the house and had to disassemble the layout. Fortunately I was able to salvage a couple fairly large sections which sat in my new garage for about 2 years. To be honest, I was glad to take the old one down just because of where it was located - in the basement which was more akin to a dungeon. But it was also a learning experience because I know I made some mistakes and cut corners where I shouldn’t have - and that translated into problems which translated into loss of interest for periods of time.
Then about 2 years ago I hauled the sections to this basement and began to reassemble them, but this time in a different configuration than before. I also shortened it by 4 feet to make it a little more manageable size for one person and now it’s coming along quite well. I feel pretty good about the progress and have learned from the mistakes I made before.
When I sold my old house at first I thought I was going to be spared the heart ache of tearing down the layout,when the potential buyers who had two young boys. When dad and the two sons walked down into the 50’x100’ basement their jaws hit the floor and the father told me please tell me this comes with the house. I said sure I’ll throw it in everything except the engines and rolling stock.Even he agreed he could hit a hobby shop and pick up some of that stuff at a decent price bla bla. Well mom had different ideas she wanted to make it into a family/rec room. I was scratching my head what do you think this is? Well they didn’t qualify for the mortgage any way and the next buyer who had all his ducks in a row had zero interest in the layout. Well something that took over 5 years to build came down awfully fast. My one friend and I boxed up all the structures in two nights and just took a dremel tool with a cut off wheel to all the turnout and forgot about trying to save any of the track work. By the end of the week I took a sawsall to the bench work in it was nothing but a memory. It amazed me as to how fast it came down. How did I feel well i had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that lasted for about two weeks until I got handed a big fat check at closing. As I took the check in my hand one of the first things that crossed my mind was building a new pike in the new house.
I have torn down at least 7 layouts (maybe more but I have lost count) that were in various stages of completion. They went for all the usual reasons - newborn got the bedroom, moved, went in a new direction, etc.
Currently I have a 5’4" x 12’ temporary layout, it will last until the basement is finished and I start the next one.
Built first layout in 1958, it slid under the bed in my dorm at college. Since then, built and tore down 6 different layouts between 1961 and 1982. All but one fairly large and detailed.
Then in 1983 I finally decided what I really wanted to model, my hometown area in Oklahoma where I grew up and watched the grain trains during harvest moving in and out of the town I grew up in, which was Enid Oklahoma, which was hidden from view by all the large grain elevator complexes surrounding it. So I started my 3 deck ATSF in Oklahoma layout, which is still alive and well in the basement today. Yesterday I finished the last of 13 grain elevators in my model of Enid, and another large grain complex located in Oklahoma City.
This layout is “finished” and has been for 10 years, and at age 73, and the strong chance I will not move into another house before leaving this earth, I have no interest, need or complusion to tear it down and start another. In short, I am happy with what I have.
Don’t worry about it! Most of us that have been “playing with trains” for awhile have gone through the same scenario. I built my previous layout in 1993-4, an 11x15 room filling two level HO layout with a lot of rock facings, etc. It was nice to look at, but after 10 years or so I found that the 3 or 4 “flaws” in it were causing me to lose interest.
Finally, in late 2008, I took it down. That first cut with the recipricating saw was like torture. But, soon the room was clear and I started on my “new and improved” layout. Today, the benchwork is finished, the lower level storage/staging is finished, and the double main line is done as well. My first attempt at DCC is installed, and right now I am putting in the transition scenery from the main level to the backdrop. I am extremely happy I did what I did, and tha my “last” layout (I’m 66) will be what I want.
By the way, the flaws (in my opinion) of my previous layout were:
Way too many blocks and reverse loops, etc., that made operation difficult for me - especially after being away from it for more than a week or so. The wiring was sound, but too complicated.
Way too much rockwork that took valuable space which limited my terminal space and sidings. It looked pretty good, but…
I put some turnouts in tunnels and while they never malfunctioned, I invariably had a derailment at those locations due to a wrongly turned turnout.
My rockwork was too dark. I should have done more beige and lighter colors. I knew better, but…
I am on my second layout in 4 years … I though the first layout was a good way to test ideas and different track designs … I never nailed or glued any track down and caught myself changing the layout weekly … I just fininshed the bench work and added the 2" foam on layout number 2 … I have just started laying the new track when I ran over budget for this month[swg]… I am planning to make this new layout an ongoing project , Good luck with the new layout …
After all of the stories about tear down the layout for this reason or that reason I think I will build my layout in sections that can be saved and reused. You see my wife and I just bought some land and once we can sell the place we have and the one I am about to inherit we will build our very first new house.
One of the things we will do with this new house is build space for both of us to pursue our respective hobbies that we have both put off for so long. Kids and family obligations came first for us for the last 25 plus years. No regrets but now we will soon have time to do things for us instead of always doing for someone else. I keep telling my wife it is never too late to have a perfect childhood, we are going to try.
Yes! Been there done that although my first layout was a junker compared with what yours sounds like!
I started to quick, built something that got old real quick with no real plan, made alot of mistakes and so it didnt last to long before it was all down the tip! (maybe 2 years)
Sure, it was costly but i learnt alot from it and now ive built something im realy happy with, thanks to the likes of John Armstrong, some sound planning etc etc.
Having just torn down my third layout and being in the middle of rebuilding it into my fourth one (from N to HOn3, as well), I can say that I didn’t feel anything about taking down the 3rd layout - or the 2nd or first. The first was done when I was a kid, and the N scales were done after I moved out from my parents. I’ve learnt from all 3 of my previous layouts, and I think that with all I’ve learnt - and a move away from the flat tabletop mentality - this will be the ultimate layout for me. I’ve also got permission to expand the layout once we buy a house as well.
I have built and torn down three layouts over the time period between 78 and 98 the first one was done on a very limited budget (which ones are’nt?) The second one was done on a slightly better budget, but had to be taken down due to the fact that I had to move. The third one was probably the best of the three but had to go because I had to move again. All of these layouts were good considering that they were all done with very little planning or knowledge of what I was doing at the time. After I moved back to northern Ca I started another layout in a house I bought, hallulujah!.. a house of my own I could do anything I wanted and had plenty of room to do it.
Had a good layout going in that house, not real big but enough to keep a person busy. had several industries to switch and a small continouis loop for just watching trains roll. Then things started to get real tight, Economy wise and I could not afford to live in Ca anymore so another move this time to NM.
I have the bare framework up now of a small point to point but unfortunately I may be moving again in a while and will not have a place for a layout. So back to square one, This upcoming move will be the last as I am NOT going to move again. I will probably have to put up a small building somewhere on the property, insulate/heat and AC in it and start over. I guess it is a good thing that I like the building part as much as doing the trackwork and scenery/buildings/etc. can’t say I care for wiring very much but unfortunate part of the hobby unless of course you like static displays. As long as you can make improvements on whatever you do then you can always be proud of what you did, after all that is what any hobby is about, to relax have fun.
Remember the only person you really have to please is yourself. I know a couple of people back in Ca who have a very small layout and run basically an out o
My 2nd layout was a 13’x20’ around the room layout that I built over the course of about 5 years. I was young and had lots of free time and disposable income. The I got married and abandoned the layout for about 13 years. Then when my oldest son was 4, he showed an interest an getting “daddy’s” train running again. So we built a 5’x8’ at our house salvaging equipment and buildings from the old layout. Now 2 years later the new layout is looking great. The smaller layout has allowed me to detail the layout to a much greater degree than than the old layout. And the old layout was torn down and hauled to the dump. No regrets.
But I do have plans for another large layout when time and money permits.