Cross between a model train and a real RR

You can! It is Tom Miller's "estate" and has been for sale for at least two years. However, you better have LOTS of money in your bank.

Also mentioned here, with a link to satellite imagery:

Seeing this place never gets old

Wow, what is that? 7 1/4" gauge?

I suggest we do some crowd-funding on this here forum and do time-shares. We might manage 1/2 a ride each.......

I think I may be short the full price in my train fund.

Maybe we can all chip in and buy it. The new ORG Forum headquarters. The trestle is awesome.

The entire railroad is 7 1/2" gauge, or mostly 1.5/1.6 Scale. Except for his two Rio Grange 2-8-2 Mikes, which are probably 2" to 2.5" scale, as the run on the equivalent of three foot gauge on the 7 1/5" gauge track, i.e. those two locomotives are BIG.

I am aww struck he built this from blue prints.And did see the bridge he has talk about up there.He has a narrow gauge train layout inside in f scale.

My daughter sent me an email last year telling me she found the perfect house for me if I could convince my wife to move to Oregon.  It included the video that John attached and this one that has a model layout at the same house at around the 3:40 mark.

Tom Miller also has G 1:20.3 Layout in his outbuilding.

There is a American Flyer S layout in the loft too.

He is my ideal rubber gauger.

I am sure he has some lionel & HO somewhere.

According to Realtor.com, it's still for sale at $3.5M. The mortgage estimate is about $16,000/month plus property taxes.

I could drain my retirement fund and keep up the payments for a few years, it sure would be fun!  I'd be out on my butt after that, I doubt SS would cover my monthly expenses.

I can't imagine the labor and expense of maintaining the property.

Ron

Ron, that's what the weekly RR parties with volunteers is for, keeping up the property.

Really cool!  Its the epitomy of real and model railroads.  This is your model rr .  

Beautiful railroad and property. Any idea why he wants to sell it?

Tom is a really interesting guy, and always seems to be building something, then when he considers it totally finished, he tends to move onto something else. As a Machinist, and owner of a pretty large, and very old/established, machining company, he just may have decided to move on to something else. Not like he doesn't have the money, talent, and skills.

Here is another one. Hot Water If I win the lottery. I will buy it and you can run the 4005 anytime you want.  

Thanks but, the 4005 really isn't that much fun, for me anyway. What is REALLY fun, is either one of those BIG Rio Grande 2-8-2 narrow gauge mikes!

That would work for me too. Although I have to admit I will need to add CBQ/GN engines to the roster.

Now that's a layout.

Man, if I ever hit the lotto, I'm buying this place... and throwing a huge OGR party!  

When I hit the lottery and buy and restore all 44 miles of the East Broad Top from Mt. Union to Robertsdale/Woodvale/Alvan you can come and play with my trains.

You are obviously assuming that the current owner would sell it to you.

The bigger problem is a minimum of a million dollars a mile to restore track not used in 60 years...  of course this doesn't include rebuilding and restoration of tunnels and bridges and if I recall at least one of the tunnels has collapsed. 

And just think, the current owner bought the entire railroad with the proceeds of his scrapyard business.  

But as to your point, the Kovalchick family hasn't sold the RR because no one has come up with a viable plan for reconstruction of it (read: no money) and other than the rail itself there isn't much value in scrap outside of what currently runs out of Mt. Union. 

Anyone operated any of these  engines? I'm curious how close to the real deal  it would be.  Can you get them to "down in the corner" when  lifting a heavy train?

Sure looks like fun.

Yes, the reverse gear on those big narrow gauge Rio Grande Mikes works just like the real ones.

Estimated cost to recreate this estate and railroad comes in upwards of $7,00,000, being offered at only $3,500,000.  Maybe if we pool our cash we can do it, maybe then again maybe not.

Jack

John, Here is a company near me that produces these 1/8 scale.  Take a look; really cool.

http://www.mountaincar.com

You might have to dig deeper into your train fund if you want some trains to run after you buy the property. A little way into the video in the link posted by Lehigh74 he mentions that trains are also available for sale. I took that as meaning a separate purchase? Then as others have mentioned, the maintenance. Costs are climbing rapidly!

It surely is am amazing place though, definitely one of a kind. I would settle for just visiting for a day and just be happy I got to see it.

There is a really large 7.5" gauge train club at "Train Mountain" in Oregon:

Train Mountain is the world's largest model railroad ... over 36 miles of 7.5 gauge track on 2205 acres of pine forest spanning 2 miles by 4 miles near Chiloquin in South Central Oregon... 

http://www.trainmountain.org/

Check out the track plan, it takes hours to travel it all ...

http://www.trainmountain.org/p...s/tp_maps_2006.shtml

I want the Big Boy and the big narrow gauge locomotive next to it.  I've thought about building one of those narrow gauge locomotives for that very reason, it'll be big on the 7.5" track if scaled to the gauge.  My Chloe is so small, and I had a hard time keeping it up to pressure the one time I ran it, but then I think it also had to do with my grandpa never running treated water in it, and the time I ran it, the guys helping me automatically added the chemicals so it was trying to clean the boiler out.  Foam coming from the stack every time I opened the throttle does wonders to the pressure.

If this is the property I've heard of, it also has a massive G scale D&GRW-themed layout in one of those buildings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCTPHbjpPcs

http://illianaroad.com/indoor-...y-in-f-scale-indoor/

Thats it!!

I think I am going to start a "go fund me thingy"

I believe that Tom refers to it as "F" Scale, since it is all D&RGW narrow gauge.

Yeah, but few people refer to it as such and if I typed, "massive F scale layout," I don't think it'd had the same impact. Though he can call it whatever he wants, most people still know that general scale as G...

About a year ago showed it to the wife and said when I hit the lottery thats where we are moving to she knowing you I believe it

That may be the gauge of the track but, when scale 3 foot narrow gauge locomotives and rolling stock are operated on G gauge track, isn't that referred to as "F Scale" in the narrow gauge modeling world?

$3.5M or $10.M?  Won't that buy you a real railroad...or at least the Maui one, the

Lahaina, Kaanapoli and Pacific?  What was paid for the Durango and Silverton?

Wonder what shortline I can pick up where for that pocket change?