Trains and 55+ Active Adult Communities

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

As an HO model railroader who is becoming more mature (getting older), my wife and I are considering retirement to an active adult community somewhere. We have a mutual agreement where she gets a first floor front room for her library and I get a basement (where available), or loft (in the house or over the garage) or, last but not least, a sun room.

Regardless of the size of the space – I am not looking to take on a 30-year project. By the same token, I do not want a small second or third bedroom layout. I know there are other options – communities that have MRR clubs (like some of the Sun City communities) or nearby clubs, round robins, etc., but I do want my own RR. If you have a MRR club in your community, do you still have your own layout?

I would be interested to hear from some of you who have experienced this situation and what you are doing, planning or thinking for MRRing in an active adult community.

In other words – How do you get your train fix?

(PLEASE NOTE: This is not a thread about bashing HOA fees and how many more trains you could buy!! There is life beyond trains – I have a really great wife – she has to have some activities while I am in the train zone. Remember – a happy wife is a happy life).

2

I am 62, and just retired about 8 months ago. I have thought about ‘down-sizing’ from my too large of a house and have even looked at 2 bedroom condo’s and townhouse type units. For me, I still can do yard work, and the cost of down-sizing really offers me nothing at this time.

I do have a layout downstairs, and I am a member of a local club. Most of the members are retirement age(7), and there are only 3 members who are not retired(says something about our hobby). In my case, I do not have to ‘share’ my living space(divorced).

If I did have to move, I suspect a large layout will not be in the future. I have a ‘man cave’ that was a 9’ by 10’ bedroom upstairs. I have an ‘L’ shaped workbench/desk and lots of cabinets for storage. I have a Digitrax Zephyr DCC system with a test track/program track attached to my laptop. Lots of lighting and I tend to spend more time working on models there than down stairs at the layout. Of course, ‘empty nesting’ produced that extra bedroom when my son went to college,

Jim

3

I am now 65 and just 12 years ago we built a new house!

Most everyone ask WHY such a large home - 1900 sq ft.

I first stated that I wanted to have a decent sized layout (I have added a room and also built into my basement Office - layout now covers 2500 sq ft)(103 by 40 at the longest and wides points)!

I also wanted to have room to hold family get togethers (Thanksgiving) and entertaining. I was tired of the old house that only had 2 bedrooms and no storage space.

And with my 2 boys grown and married - they now have kids and with a small House - CONDO is not a good place to have the kids bring the kids home to!

That is if your kids want to visit?

This seems to be the thoughts of many as the talk of down sizing - but fail to think about the kids coming home to visit!

They won’t if you are living in a Condo or some such!

And another thing most of us fail to understand as we get older is the maintenance of the home.

I saw this with my Dad as he got older and his home was a maintenance nightmare !

When we built our new home - I made sure that the place was LOW Maintenance. It can be done!

The house has NO exterior painting needed ever.

The Patio we added is the PLASTIC Wood - no painting of the deck boards - NO Railings to maintain as the deck is only 12 inches off the ground.

Steel Roof (50 years)

The Yard/Grass is the only real maintenance and I eliminated any Leaves to rake (what few trees there are) by the way the landscaping was done - the wind just blows the leaves into the neighbors yards! :wink:

Shrubs & Flowers are Low maintenance and very colorfulland laid out so the Mower can be run right next to the Mulched areas (NO Weed Eating)!

Now removal is NIL - Thanks to global warming - we have little snow any more - or what we get is so little our SUV 4wd easily drives over it.

If we get a big snow - just stay home and play Trains and the wife sews!

It can’t get an

4

My graduation to full retirement coincided with a move from an oversize, high-maintenance house on a rural Tennessee woodlot (with a layout in a frequently-occupied guest bedroom) to a physically smaller low-maintenance tract house in Sin City (with a double garage that went from half mine to all mine.)

I have no problem with the layout being a long-term project. The basic plan has been set in concrete for two generations now (my toddlers’ toddlers have toddlers - 3 great-grandsons) and is about as likely to change as the orbit of Mars.

As for the guests, we have a guest bedroom, one each. If a mob scene wants to visit, there’s a nice hotel-casino with a theater complex about two miles down the road. It gives discounts to frequent players like my wife - so we eat free meals there several times a month and the visitors are guaranteed a deal.

As for outdoor maintenance - you don’t have to mow gravel, and plants that aren’t watered don’t grow. There are some advantages to living in a desert. As for snow - that’s what they tell me that white stuff on the higher peaks is supposed to be. Here in the valley, winter is when the eye candy has to wear long sleeves and closed collars.

My wife and I prefer to live in a mixed-age, mixed-ethnicity neighborhood, and that’s where we ended up. My personal idea of Hades would be a place where everyone is as ol, infirm and crotchety as I am.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in a Southern Nevada garage)

5

We live near Myrtle Beach, SC home to many, many retirees, and we are surrounded by a number of 55+ communities. That being said there is a club that is re-building not too far from our house that also does a number of outreach activities, the most important of which is a twice a week open house showing 3 different layouts - a tinplate already built and an HO and N scale layouts under construction. The few times I’ve visited I can say they are doing great work.

Those in this area that do have RR’s tend to have them in spare rooms (typically bonus rooms over garages), garages or outbuildings. There are no basements given the locale. Mine is my garage - an under construction double-deck RR. Tinplate is also active given the age group. Unfortunately, there is no hobby shop in the area that caters to model railroads - so mail order/internet is the norm to get supplies. There are ample big-box DIY places like Lowes and what not for lumber,etc.

There are train shows several times a year that are day trips within the state and parts of North Carolina. The NMRA region has a very limited presence or impact in the immediate area. However, historical socities are active - I think one of the past presidents of the SCL group lives in the aera as an example. Theera are also active railfan locations and related museums no too far away. We also have a regional shortline in the area, but for a number of months now they have been under a self selected embargo while some urgent bridge work is done.

Charles

6

I’m 65 and retired 2 years ago. My wife and I looked at some 55+ communities before then and they had models with basements or lofts. But they had various restrictions we didn’t really want to live with and we really wanted to live in a more age varied environment.

We actually wound up two blocks from my oldest son and his wife - and last year our first grandchild was born. We love being baby sitters. The house is too big, but it has a nice view of the lake and on a summer evening I can hear the cows across the lake. And I can have as much of the 1400 sq ft basement as I want for a layout. (Construction has begun!!!)

Enjoy

Paul

7

A lot of 55+ adult communities don’t allow pets, which kills them for me. You may have to do most benchwork in their workshop as they don’t allow noise.

8

I am 76, my wife and I are still active and we still live in the home we have had for 35 years. I still maintain my Santa Fe in Oklahoma in the basement, though crawling under for a wiring project gives me cold chills. I can still do all the yard work with wife’s help, we maintain our home and all is well. Joyce is 10 years younger than me and has some problems but nothing that keeps us down. We may well be an exception and not the rule, but neither of us want or even talk about moving to smaller housing. We take one day at a time, remain in our faith, and all is well at this point. What more could I ask?

Bob

9

I live in The Villages in Florida. Our Model Railroad club has over 120 members and covers 5 scales. We do not have a permanent club house but do modular shows several times a year. Many of us also have layouts in our homes. My is a 10 x 16 around the room shelf layout in HO. So, there are a few ways to get that fix; build a module(s), run trains that you own at a club show or have your own layout.

10

I visited my Aunt & Uncle who live in a gated community retirement, they have a recreation building with swimming pool, games room, crafts area, woodworking shop, etc. etc. etc. my Uncles has been there 7 years and has never seen anyone in this facility ever use any part of the building, everything is brand new never been used of course, they have now emptied the pool as no one used it ever, My Uncle then asked the community director if he could access a large unused room in the facility for a train setup, completely moveable if need be, the community voted and they all turned him down. He was so upset he moved to another area and they were glad to see him, a neighbour let him use his garage as a train room. My Uncle returned to the previous retirement home for a visit and the recreation building was closed permanently.

11

Hi all

I am 51 I cannot comment on the housing side as such I don’t live in the US.

But my Mum now lives in mature age accommodation and some of the rules can be quite restrictive.So check on any rules they may have that could cramp the life you want to live. Also that the facilities will let you build your own railway assuming they don’t have some daft rule that prevents it. Or worse some weird government rule and there are some strange ones of those that at least is a universal problem.

However I live in a small house with a very small railway and I wanted a big railway.

As I have the at one time standard for here 1/4 acre suburban block I built a large shed for the new railway. That gives me the possibility of an 19’6" by 22’9" railway which by our standards is a huge model railway

Also the workshop to be able to build the big railway and do the honey do list was included in the shed size

I don’t plan on moving there is not a lot of garden space left so that will be less of an issue later on

Going on the US hobby press that seems to be what the US calls average sized for a model railway.

Regardless big or small there is a natural law of physics that states a model railway will expand to fill all the available space.

So some how I don’t think lack space will end up being an issue.

regards John

12

Uh, Oh!!! I must apologize to all of you and want to thank you for participating and sharing your insights, thoughts, and even some very personal information in this thread. It was a great help to me and my wife’s’ thinking process in sorting out our anticipated move and relocation.

Right in the middle of this thread I got an e-mail from a classmate, the person who arranges reunions and forwards other news about classmates. They reported that a friend of mine for 67 years (from age 3), who had moved out of the area, had lost his spouse! OH, my!! I then got involved in going to the funeral, follow-up conversations, and of course other “stuff” in life and forgot to say “thank you” to all of you who so kindly responded to my post.

Again, thank you for sharing!

13

What was that Thread,about no,“” Bio’s’', I have to laugh,ha ha, all anyone, has to do is read this,Thread,

Nothing, personnel,Just my thought!!! LOL

Cheers,

Frank

14

Frank,

Where do I begin my outrage about your post – I cannot believe your nasty reply to someone who was concerned that he may have been inconsiderate to the respondents to a thread about trains (MRR’s) in an active adult community. OR – Was it the distracting pain of a friend’s grief over losing his wife that got to you. At our age, I would hope the respondents would understand this lapse in etiquette. Obviously, you don’t!!

Yes, I took it personally… real personal. By the way – this is the correct spelling of “personal.”

Guess you pushed the wrong button on the wrong day !!!

15

Mr. Pennsy, I believe that you jumped the gun a little in your response to Frank. I believe that his comment had nothing to do with your post, nor anything to do with any of the other posts to this thread. I believe that his comment was related to another current contentious thread that had to do with the posting of biographies and whether or not personal information was at risk. Unfortunately, you probably don’t know (a good thing perhaps) about the other thread and have made an incorrect assumption as to the meaning of Frank’s response.

16

Pennsy, I don’t think Frank even meant to reply to your post, specifically. There’s another thread running, called Why No Biographys, were many express their desire to to maintain their privacy and not post a lot of personal details, and then this thread comes along and everyone comes out of the woodwork to say how old they are, what their retirememt status is and how they deal with their spouses regarding allocation of space for a layout. I don’t think he meant you any disrespect at all.

Back on topic, I have recently seen an ad in one of the train magazines I susbscribe to for an adult community that is centered around its model railroad club. I have to chuckle at the idea that guys like us who “still play with trains” should be considered “adults.”

17

You might say that the LION lives in a retirement community. Very few monks under 40, most over 60.

LION has train room in former classroom above the Library.

LION counts himself lucky. Monks do not really retire until they are too senile to even answer the telephone, so LION has many things him must do. But him is free to play with trains pretty much whenever he wants, just so long as everybody else is in good health (LION is a nurse), has a working computer (LION is computer technician), and the guests can get into the Wine Cellar when they want to (LION is master of Wine Cellar). LION is also curator of two courtyard cats, and must mow the grass in the courtyard. No rush on that, this is the first day that the lawn was free of snow. LION also cleans the community room daily, and does the dishes on Sunday.

Nice LION.

ROAR

18

Odd.

MOH {My Other Half} and I {more the I than the other half, though the OH agrees} have been giving pause to the idea of SR living as we age and have watched parents in their 80s struggle with care and taking care of things and as we exhaust ourself helping too…

We are also looking to warmer climes and DO NOT want FL or AZ or Las Vegas as one. . So we are looking elsewhere, and looking at SR as well as a house with MRRing space. {MOH is into trains too, aren’t I lucky?}

Due to the restrictions I am going to experiment with a Z scale layout In a under the bed box! It may work now in the 50s but not so much the 80s! We will see iff’n I can handle Z scale.

We will see…but like someone said they may have NOISE ordinances that Might preclude cutting, BUT most Lowes or Home Depot Do cut, so only screwing would be needed on a pieced together modular layout!

These are some things to htink about and inspect when looking for Sr housing complexes:

Examine ALL requirements first…thinking of future needs, too…check to see the availability of nursing assistance when assisted living is needed in the future, the associated costs, and find out the regs on noise production and 'building things" within the unit.

Check to see about food asistance, when you may not be able to cook for self anymore.{do they have a dining room?}

Check to find out about assisted transportation to the grocery and pharmacy and Wally World even.

Oh, don’t forget the rental costs…are they based on a % of your gross income for instance…that may make a difference if your income declines as you age and medical costs go up! {Or MUST you buy?}

Check thoroughly ALL services offered adn THINK aobut future needs…you may save yourself some grief at a time when a move would not be an option. Check out what ALL Sr housings offer and go from there…then pick the best to suit your needs.

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19

I found it, with a bit of Googling:

http://www.greenridgevillage.org/page/4977-model-railroad-club

This is a retirement community in Pennsylvania with a 44 by 36 foot train room. It’s a pretty impressive HO-scale layout.

20

Hi MisterBeasley:

Thank you for your response and input. That particular “retirement home” was featured on one of our local TV news shows about two years ago. At the time, we did go to the website and review it. As you may know, that community is what is known as a Continuing Care Residential Community (CCRC) where you own nothing. Most require very high “buy-in fees” plus monthly fees for maintenance, different levels of care (medical), and meal packages for the dinning room. The buy-in can be equivalent to or more than the price of a house (usually non-refundable – There goes the Kids’ inheritance). We probably will not be able to afford a CCRC retirement home. So we are looking at age restricted, 55+, “Active Adult” Communities where you own your home. However, the information you sent may be of interest to others reading this thread. Again, thank you.

Below I put some web links to builder-developers who have 55+, “Active Adult” Communities – for anyone that may be interested.

Please, notice Model Railroaders will love some of the basement options on the Lennar plans and the loft options on the Del Webb plans (Copper Ridge, Surrey Crest, Vernon Hill, etc.) This way, you still own your home, an asset that can be used later or willed to an heir. Many homeowners in these communities have workshops with all kinds of power tools, storage and use options. Some communities even have Model RR clubs on site (Sun City Hilton Head – Club has an HO layout and they are now starting an N scale layout; Sun City Carolina lakes has a RR club – no layout but round-robin – many individuals have basement or loft layouts); Lake Providence. Mt. Juliet TN – No On-site RR Club – But outside Club with member who posts here.

Oh, I put a link to one in the Plymouth, MA area just for you. I believe they have basements.

Lennar