Most of us who have some history with the hobby will have torn down a model railroad or two and started over again for what ever reason. If the outgoing pike was a beauty it can be a traumatic event to lay a wrecking bar to such a masterpiece. So much so that I’ve been putting it off repeatedly. All those carefully crafted scenes and efficient, reliable trackwork. The scenery built a square inch at a time to become so believable. This is like an old friend to me.
I suppose it’s mind over matter. What did you finally do?
i can’t imagine spending x number of years building and detailing a layout and then tearing it down unless i was moving , or for some reason become dissatisfied with the layout . i suppose there’s always the desire to try something new … new prototype inspiration , new techniques , new scale . i’ll let you know for sure in 20 years when i’ve actually built and ‘completed’ a layout [:)]
my first two layouts were on sheets of plywood and basically, disasters…my third layout was beautiful but my (now ex) wife took a wrecking bar to it and destroyed a lot of my work…I went a few years without a layout and what was left of the old one was stored in boxes…my fourth layout was ok too but too small and then i remarried and we decided to move and just two years ago, i started my 5th and probably my final layout…don’t plan on tearing this one down because I don’t want to ever tear down another one ever again…chuck
Right now I’m building a so called learning layout. That was not the idea from the beginning. Sometimes I just want to start all over, with my big dream layout. I have learned so much since I started to build the learning layout. I will not use foam any more for example. It will be spline roadbed, cardboard with masking tape. But right now I really can’t decide what to do. I just can’t start tearing it down, I think I must see a shrink…
As your skills progress, each one gets harder. In my earlier years, I repeatedly tore things up long before getting to the scenery stage. Then I put them all away while I went back to college. That was hard but I knew if I didn’t, I would never get any studying done.
The layout I am building now will be harder to tear down because of the level I am building it to. I am taking my time and trying scenery, buildings, kits, people, etc. Right now, the only way I will tear it down is with dissatifaction over operational possibilities. I will more likely rebuild scenes one at a time.
Dateline 2002 a reprint of an article written for our Family Newspaper.
A SAD Time for Model Railroads
Three model railroads came to the end of the line the first half of this year. The first was the Ironton & Merrimac Valley. It was an 8’ x 6’ O-Scale layout built in 1981 for the first “Great American Train Show” in St. Louis. The layout had been moved with the family to two houses in Colorado. It was a very hard decision, but it had come to the point where it just consumed too much space. For a while it even had to sit outside under a tarp. The layout did not go to its scrap yard easily. Its original engineering held strong and it took a sledgehammer and saws to cut it apart.
The second railroad was the HO scale Southern Arizona and Douglas, or SAD, belonging to XXXXX. This 26’ x 16’ railroad had been featured in the Model Railroad Craftsman and operated for over 20 years. With advancing age XX was no longer able to operate it or maintain it. Its built-in construction precluded it being moved. The final operation session on May 11 was by invitation only and both my son and I attended. It was an honor to be asked to be a part of this Denver model railroad history. The following Saturday all of the equipment was auctioned off and the Saturday after that the saws and sledge hammers followed. It was sad to see the pieces of the SAD and a wad of old bent up rail poking out the top of the dumpster as we drove away.
The third railroad was the 29 year old “Pine Ridge and North River”. The Pine Ridge was a 2’ x 8’ N-scale railroad that original construction began in 1973. It was one of the first tiny layouts to use a concept of hidden tracks for staging trains. It had undergone two major reworks before taking on its final form in 1981. It had also survived 8 moves to different residences. At its prime it ran three trains simultaneously, at its end the white glue had cracked and the paper-mache scenery dry and chipping. It was s
I’ve been considering that myself, if I do that I can’t run any trains so that has stopped me. I am also seriously thinking of building another room. To rebuild would be a lot cheaper but my RR is out back of my house upstairs in my storage building. So, the weather is a real factor. don’t know what I’ll do??
I find myself in the same position as Electrolove. I started my current layout almost 1 year ago (Jan.1,2005) with plans that this would be my experimental layout. It would be 8x4, small enough to appease my wife’s desire not let it take over the whole basement, and big enough for a rookie to learn on. It’s come a long, long way in that year. I’ve learned a lot from my mistakes…and I’ve made a lot of mistakes…and throughout the journey I have a discovered what I really like about it, and what I do not like.
Now that it’s fully operational, and has scenery over a great portion of it (there’s no white plaster or pink foam showing anywhere on it) I have been given to thoughts of expansion or stripping it down to the bench work and starting over with a bigger around the room.
The hard part of that decision is thinking about how much money I’ve sunk into the 8x4. Sure there’s a lot I can salvage and reuse, but there’s also a lot which has to go to the trash can. I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do. I wish Bob and all of you in this position the best of luck. I hope you make decisons that your happy with in the end. I hope I do too.
I’ve lost three layouts to moves, and two to changes in modeling philosophy. Luckily the trauma was limited because only two had any type of advanced scenery. And both of those were due to moves. It was difficult but necessary.
I feel exactly like you do. The hardets thing is how much money that are lost. But maybe that is not a problem when you think about it. It cost money to learn.
My next layout will be a around-the-room layout, or around the rooms, hehe. I will never build anything else in the future. I have volume 1, 2 and 3 of Joe Fugate’s DVD. I have learned a lot from them, things that I will take with me to my dream layout.
So at the moment I have stopped building and I’m only experimenting with scenery on my little diorama. It feels better and better.
I’ve got one that is still in the subroadbed and tracklaying stage that may need to be blown up next year, for a move. If so, the move is good for us, but it will be hard. The space I currently have is ideal, I like the track plan I developed (large but not complex and plenty of room for scenery), the ideas I had and what I had done so far. Right now, not knowing whether we are staying or going and having the construction on hold is eating me up.
If the move happens, I will rebuild. I haven’t decided whether I will start right away or wait to make sure we aren’t moving again (an insane desire my wife seems to have). But I will rebuild.
I, too, am at the point where my first layout, started in Jan 05 and finished in early April, has outlived its usefulness, and therefor its purpose. I spent a lot of time, money, and anxiety on it, and I give myself credit for doing all that I accomplished. Still, I made some serious errors, and I am torn between the superior vistas that three sheets of ply side-by-side can afford the modeler and running trains more easily, including solving derailments and working on the track and switches. The limitations of such a slab will be obvious to everyone.
So, a re-do I must. I have my loco limit already, and no place to park them, aside from three stalls in a roundhouse. I planned no sidings, no passing track, no yard…oy vey.
The one I had in my old house was not difficult to dismantle. I was never really satisfied with it and hardly touched it the last 5 years. I knew I was going to be moving in a few years so I lost interest in trying to complete it. It was more a learning experience than anything else. I tried to save as much as I could but I am finding there is very little that is in good enough shape to put on my old layout.
The end for that layout came sooner than I had anticipated. I had to replace the water main to my house so I had to rip out the benchwork over the water meter so the city crew could work there. Once I did that, any thoughts I may have had about resurrecting it vanished.
I have no choice, I have to dismantle my (luckily incomplete) indoor layout as the garage is going to get bulldozed to make way for a new garage. Also luckily the new will be a much better place to work that the old one.
If I may, my advice is to work darned hard for a few days to figure out a way to add on. If a solution can be had, save the time and money. Rip up some track, add a shelf, whatever, but salvage and improve upon what you have. On the other hand, if you know your entire approach was flawed, then there isn’t much you can do except perhaps to try to save the one or two parts that you did well to place into the new layout. I am quite happy, for example, with my engine house and turntable area, so I wll bust my butt to salvage that sheet of ply.
No matter what, please remember, it is meant to be fulfilling. Don’t do anything train-related when you are cross or demotivated. [:)]
I hope you took a wrecking bar to head for that. I don’t think I could control myself if that happened to me.
I had two layouts I outgrew when I was younger. I sold one and gave the other away.
Well, after my divorce in 88, I armchaired for twelve years, finally met a woman with a house [(-D][(-D] So now I’m building again, 12x16 room in the basement just for me !! this is the last, I can’t take anymore.