As I have foreseen, the time has come to disassemble my current layout as I will be moving soon. As I have noted on my web site the disassemble process will be easy with the moduler construction that I used, but the reassemble will be the trick. As noted I did not think to add any guides to help in the reassemble process when I first built my benchwork.
I look at this as a way to fix this problem as I am or was in the latter parts of the track laying stage. I can just gentle pull up my track and switches saving them to be reused in the reincarnation of Devinville and the Devinville Railroad.
Now I just have to put in an address change so I can get my subscription of “MR” at my new address.
If you need guides for reassembly, simply drill holes thru the sections before you take them apart. A 1/4" drill bit and some 1/4" dowel sections are all you need.
One recomendation to make reassembly easier is to make sure everything possible is numbered. When I moved my layout the last time about 25 years ago, I was smart and labeled every leg and the place where it went with the same code. Made reassembly quite easy. The hard thing was getting everything level as whenever you move the new floor under the layout will be slightly different than the old.
Take an image every at every critical step. As Ray says, mark where things meet each other…use black marker, or coloured ones to mate surface, and draw arrows. A>A’, or A>B if you prefer. Do the drilling now, as Dan mentioned earlier, so that when you take it apart and everything sags sideways, when you go to reassemble it, you force a screwdriver into one pair of to-be-mated holes, and then get a bolt into the one beside it. Remove the screwdriver and get a second bolt into that hole. Tap here and there with a piece of 2X4 to get legs vertical and frame members back into alignment, shim where it needs it for vertical height, and then snug up the nuts on those bolts. With some scenery repair, say using drywall mud or whatever, and some sprinkled ground foam, you are back in business. You only have tracks to align…no real scenery? Too easy…get the track ends lined up, snug up the bolts, and go on with developing your layout where you left off.
Note that you will have some feeders to add to the rails here and there, or some electrical troubleshooting at the very least. Again, method and patience, and you will be on your way.
Yep!! Drill the holes now for the bolts, before you take the sections apart. I used 1/4 inch carriage bolts.
Label things, particularly wiring that you have to cut, then use terminal strips when you get ready to reassemble it.
You can cut the rails at the module joints. At the ends of each module, screw on some 1x2 strips of wood so you track doesn’t catch on the floor or carpet while transporting it or while in storage.
If you have any bridges, you may want to build some supports to help keep them in place. Make the supports from wood and secure them to the layout with drywall screws. You can cover the holes later. You could also remove the bridges if you planned for it.
These are the things I learned when I took my layout (also in modules) down for a move . I just set it up again a few months ago and things went well.
Thanks for the support and helpful information, but the layout is going into storage for the time being.
I will take this time to sort out some problem spots. The yard is too big, the town is too small. The turnouts need reworking; some of them are so close to each other I have to use a pick to move the ground throws. Or I have to move one to move another as the throw bars over lap, the overall layout height is a little high. I need to plan for under layout drawers for transformer and other controls.
Tonight, the dismantling has begun. But I will be saving all the track and ground throws. The cork sub-roadbed will be saved where I can, to be used again in the reincarnation of my layout. The benchwork is going to be used by my sister in her potting shed, as I will be building new benchwork. So I have only destroyed one bridge section of benchwork as it was built in place and built to fit. I look forward to the reincarnation as I will be able to fix a few mistakes in my current design. Namely the lack of alignment pins of some kind from module to module to make the reassembly easier and truly moduler. And a general redesign of the track layout.
Once again I think you all for your support and input.
The disassembly is halfway done. So far all trackage has been saved along with all switches and ground throws. It is getting late and I need to take my medication and go to bed.
Oh to be young again, to take medication for fun and stay up for days. Those were the days. NOT!!!
To be young and stupid again? NO! I do not think so.
To have survived in spite of myself, to be old and have my toys? YES! These are the best days of my life.
I plan to make the new layout a truly modular design with guide pins and/or dowel pins at the joints. But I will be experimenting with soldering the rails to brass screws at the transition joint before cutting the joints. I have seen this done on European modules and after the ballasting is done it is virtually invisible, if not totally invisible.
In my research into modular design I have found out these things after I had already built my last layout, along with operation errors that I had designed into my layout. I had jumped in with both feet before I had a good understanding of the modular design concept.