Where are the old MR project layouts, models by famous deceased modelers, etc?
I remember an editor showing his authentic Gore and Daphetid steam locomotive. An older Art Curren kitbash was re-scenicked on MR’s club layout.
Where’s the older MR project layouts? It’s fun to see, like, Paul Dolkos’ yellow grain elevator on his newest layout; where are other old models from the pages of the magazines? Brasted’s Bakery? E.L. Moore buildings (the ones he built)? Art Curren’s kitbashes (like his “Buildings on the Bias”-- included in a drawn trackplan of his–was it ever built? Where is it now?) Frank Ellison’s layout?
Just the memorable stuff, please. I’m thinkin’ at least 30 years back and older… (or not…)
John Allens layout was destroyed in a fire not long after he died from what I recall. But I never followed his layout that closely. It was novel and the art and photography were the most notable thing but the RR itself wasn’t my cup of tea, being a kid and interested in real modern RR’s that were all around me.
I don’t know what has happened to most historical pieces featured in the pages of past magazines.
Unfortunately, most layouts wind up being hauled off to a landfill after the owner’s death because the surviving relatives have no interest in the hobby, and prospective house buyers don’t want it, either.
A question was raised here a couple of years ago as to whether a home layout adds to a house’s resale value or is detrimental. A couple of realtors cited examples of prospective buyers walking away from the deal when they saw a basement full of train layout and wondered aloud how much it was going to cost them to have it all torn out and hauled away.
No one knew of a single instance of a purchaser wanting or liking an existing layout. The home layouts I have seen around here are ones that I would not want in my house because I don’t like their track plans and scenery.
A friend of mine in Ravenna, OH, has an Athearn SD40-2 from Allan McClelland’s fleet, still painted in the blue and white V&O scheme. He claims it’s the real deal, got it on eBay.
Cacole answered accurately, off to the dump most of it goes, and let me tell you an awful lot of very expensive brass and other equipment goes with it, people have no value of this and in the event of a death, everything is dismantled( broken up with a sledge hammer)and taken to the dump, remember, to a lot of people this is just a bunch of “toy trains” that someone wasted money on when they could have been sitting in a bar for the last 20 years. I was surprised at the real estate point of view, who would have thunk???
I’d imagine alot does go to land fills. But I’d say as for the actual trains, probably whoever is dealing with the estate tries to sell them off. The question is do they get sold for what they are worth? And does anyone actually know of brass engines going into a dumpster? Layouts I can see.
As for houses with layouts, I would think the only way you could sell one like that is to advertise it in MR magazine and the other train rags hoping that someone who is in your area or moving to your area might be interested. Especially if you live in Florida and a model train fan wants to retire there.
When my company moved from New York to Memphis in early 1987, I had a fully completed HOn30 layout in my basement. I removed most of the structures but they were on foundations so that the overall mountain logging scenery remained in tact. Since the HOn30 track was 9mm, both HO and N gauge trains could be run on the layout and I left it in full working order and only a power pack or two needed to be added.
When the the company movers came, they wanted to move the entire RR but because it was built on two levels with scale 200 ft plaster cliffs between, I knew this would be impossible so they left it. I sold the house to my company and they put it up for sale and I never met the buyers and assumed the company would trash it.
Just after memorial day when I was returning to Memphis from the Indy 500, my phone was ringing when I opened my door. It was the guy who purchased the house asking me how I could get the railroad running!
Build your model railroad layout like you have to move next month.
3’x4’ and 2’x4’ Sections that lock together will allow your relatives to take it apart and haul to the local hobby store to sell or give away if something unfortunate happens to you.
“Permanent House Layout” is an contradiction of terms.
Nothing is permanent in house building and remodeling.
John Allens Gorre & Daphited Burned. I belive most of it was unsavageable, Some equipment does still exsist from it. The MRR Club I belong to has a couple V&O Cars, I don’t know if they where special run or not, But I still like em and I do consider them rare cars
While most have not survived, minor fragments of various “famous” layouts do still exist today but they are few and far between. Some also had interersting fates. A major portion of Frank Ellison’s Delta Lines met its demise on the highway, while being transported to a new location to be restored, the G&D burned of course but many of the older layouts seen in the pages of MR and RMC were just plain broken up and shipped off to the local dump.
I know that a couple of sections of John Armstrong’s O-gauge layout still survive but are currently in storage with their eventual re-use in question. I seem to recall that a couple of small parts of the Alturas & Lone Pine, as well as pieces of some other layouts well known to NMRA members, are stored with the NMRA’s Howell Day Museum collection, which itself will soon be moved cross country to a different location.
Lesser artifacts, like cars and locomotives from historic, or at least generally familiar layouts, remain mostly in small private collections but items do, on rare occasion, surface on such venues as eBay. One of the most amazing of these to appear in recent years was an O-gauge freight car from the famous 1939 New York World’s Fair layout, the huge public exposure to which is often credited to be what jump-started the wide popularity of the model railroading hobby just before and immediately following WWII.
Quite a few of Minton Cronkhite’s exquisite O scale models, from personal locos and rolling stock, to models from the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry’s original layout, are still extant, which is remarkable, considering they were constructed in th 1930’s.
Cronkhite’s family has many of his scratchbuilt models in storage; MSI auctioned the remaining ones from the Museum & Santa Fe (those which were not “lost,” a euphemism for “stolen”) on eBay in 2002 and collectors paid high prices for them.
I’m working on a new website profiling Cronkhite and his work, and it’ll go into detail on this whole subject.
I suspect a lot of those old buildings,locomotives freight cars etc from famous modelers has fell into the hands of private collectors never to be seen in public again.
The N Scale Clinchfield project layout is/was owned by a guy in Florida?
Jay,Those V&O cars was a special run(Bev-Bell Athearn?)…They are extremely rare and hard to find.
My experience has been that someone excitedly wins/buys the project layouts, then, for whatever reason, lets them deteriorate until they’re re-sold or MR finds 'em and does a “rejuvenation” article.
I recall the N-scale clinchfield rejuv article. Rare but happens.
That is exactly how I built my first layout, a 16x19 foot hollow L shapped layout. It was build in sections that could be managed and moved by two people. When I moved, the basement would not accomodate the new layout so I sold it to someone in Indiana where I built the layout. I at least got my money back from the matierals and track and someone got a layout which was ready to scenic and use with minimal effort. It had 30-inch minimum curve mainline and tear drop return loops at both ends with 2 storage tracks in the loops. Decent layout really. My second layout unfortunately was built over storage shelves and couldn’t be salvaged. I did salvage the track tho since it wasn’t ballasted yet.
When we sold our first house, I had a multi-level, around-the-room layout, in its own room in the basement. It was not a good candidate for being moved, but I mentioned to the real estate agent that I would dismantle it before the closing date, unless the buyer want to keep it. It turned out that he did! [:O] The layout had all the basic terrain installed (plaster over screen), but only a very small area actually sceniced. There were no structures, and I kept all of the trains. Being all one block, it was very easy to show the new owner how to run trains (once he bought one, along with a power pack). Quite a few years later, the house came on the market again, and my wife attended an “open house”, noting that the layout was no longer there.
My current layout is quite a bit larger, but has been designed, with open grid benchwork sections, to be moveable. However, there are only a couple of sections that I would even consider keeping, and the rest would likely be dismantled. Looking even further ahead, my family is well aware that my LHS buys model railroad estates,
One of the first projects that got me interested in model railroading.I thought MR gave that layout as a prize some years back(mid 80’s) Lucky lucky person[:P]