Thanks gents, I am absolutely going to go with Mianne. I'm going to. Buy a house with. A large basement (finally), and I'm sure I'll have plenty of other things to work on aside from bench work.
I can tell by how slow the Mianne website is that there's a lot of folks taking a look 
It's so busy it keeps timing out!!!
Well I am in the mode of typing an email to attach my plan and start discussion with Tim.
Good luck Mark!!! I hope his is not a one-man operation, otherwise he's gonna be busy for a while
Bob Delbridge posted:Good luck Mark!!! I hope his is not a one-man operation, otherwise he's gonna be busy for a while
LOL. No from what they said at York there is help!
Mianne is usually pretty busy for a while after York, so be patient. I got my first order in about 2 weeks, placed it in mid August I think it was. The 2nd order (much smaller) was placed right around the time of the fall York meet, just before I think it was, and it took at least a couple of weeks longer than the first. Of course a week of that was their trip to York.
It will be very solid when the top is attached. It is also very easy to re-arrange, modify or add on to by just ordering different (or more) parts which they sell separately. They will help you figure out what you need with that too. As was said above, it's a really well designed and thought out system. Also, fast, easy, no hardware to buy and no mess.
GRJ, I hope you have recovered from your big race last Sat. !!
Thanks RTR, I have always been told I am a very patient man. With 4 needy seniors and an empty house to take care of, my order will probably sit in my train room a while before building any way. LOL
You shouldn't have any problems if it takes a while then. I am also pretty patient myself. During my working life everything was always 'we need this yesterday' so I try to just go with the flow these days! Whenever something gets here, it gets here and I am good with it. 
I hope you are pleased with it, which I am pretty sure you will be. It is really neat stuff and as I have said, I'm 100% sold on it. Good luck!!
Mark Boyce posted:Thanks RTR, I have always been told I am a very patient man. With 4 needy seniors and an empty house to take care of, my order will probably sit in my train room a while before building any way. LOL
Mark;
Looks like your plate is pretty full, but from experience I can tell you, don't forget to look after yourself. One of the beauties of the Mianne system I found is that you don't need to do everything at once (unless you are one of those people who has to finish something once you start!!!). When I received my shipment, I laid out all of the pieces and then started putting together the leg assemblies, then assembling the corners, and finally, adding the connections between the corner. My recommendation would be to put together at least one small piece every day to take your mind off "real life", even if for a few minutes - it also helps to keep the ultimate goal in sight. Here are a few pics of the early stages of my build.
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Paul, I'm curious about something in your pictures. You seem to be in a basement, yet you have a wood floor. How exactly does that work? Are you going to leave it that way? I gather it's probably yes as you're building the benchwork on it...
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Paul,
Your advice is well taken. My wife and I are trying to not let the seniors overrun us. At 61, we aren't as young as the older folks (her mom especially) think we are. 
Have to get everything done right away? No, I gave up on that many years ago. I have an MTH PS-3 upgrade sitting on my work area 3/4 finished that has been going on since mid summer. 
If I didn't have an electronics background, I could never get away with that. I like your plan of just keep plugging away. You have a very nice room for your layout, though I see your May Pole right in the middle. We work with what we have. I have a nice room too finally, although it is only 11' 6" x 11' 4"; it is the largest space I have ever had for a layout, going back to when I was about 12. Thank you for the advice!!
gunrunnerjohn posted:Paul, I'm curious about something in your pictures. You seem to be in a basement, yet you have a wood floor. How exactly does that work? Are you going to leave it that way? I gather it's probably yes as you're building the benchwork on it...
John;
You are correct, my layout is in an in-ground basement. When I built the house a bit over 20 years ago, the basement was just a concrete slab floor and concrete block walls. Shortly after I moved in, I had the first of three "floods of the century" - I guess Mother Nature was catching up on floods. I put in the floor (tongue and groove plywood over pressure treated 2x4's) to raise everything, including my feet, off the cold concrete floor. I tried putting peel and stick tiles on the floor, but that didn't work out too well, so I left the majority of the floor bare. Before I began the layout, I put up the wood paneling and some insulation which led to some umbrage when I suggested that I had a crappy basement. Umbrage aside, it is a crappy basement!!!
I'm big on Mianne benchwork. Great product - and great service.
Just note that I ordered in October, 2016, at York and received the benchwork 2.5 months later. Of course, Tim had many orders - and my order crossed the Christmas season.
Thank you, RT. I just sent my first e-mail out to Mianne. Whenever we work out the details and they can fit it in is fine with me.
Apples55 posted:John;
You are correct, my layout is in an in-ground basement. When I built the house a bit over 20 years ago, the basement was just a concrete slab floor and concrete block walls. Shortly after I moved in, I had the first of three "floods of the century" - I guess Mother Nature was catching up on floods. I put in the floor (tongue and groove plywood over pressure treated 2x4's) to raise everything, including my feet, off the cold concrete floor. I tried putting peel and stick tiles on the floor, but that didn't work out too well, so I left the majority of the floor bare. Before I began the layout, I put up the wood paneling and some insulation which led to some umbrage when I suggested that I had a crappy basement. Umbrage aside, it is a crappy basement!!!
Thanks, makes perfect sense. I have to say, it's the first time I can remember seeing a basement with a wood floor, but the reasoning seems pretty solid. I've never had water in the basement, but I've come close when we had 7" of rain in about 8-10 hours. I had to put a 3rd sump pump in the hole and toss the hose out a window to keep up with the incoming water!
A company called DriCore makes these 2'x2' tongue n' groove subfloor panels that have a rubberized bottom that raises the panel about 7/8" off the basement floor, which may be an option for those designing a new train room and wanting to use a floor besides the cement slab. They also make a leveling kit to go with it.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/DRIco...SB-Sheathing/3603370
It's also a bit lower than using 2'x4's for those with height restrictions.
Wish they had made it 30 years ago when I re-did my basement.
Richie, Those are pretty nice. I was looking at them a few weeks ago at lowes. My train room is on the basement level; walk out to the patio. While there is no moisture problem there, the floor is hard and gets cold in the winter. I plan to put something down. I was looking at the carpet squares also. I don't know yet. Thank you for the link.
My new place is also at basement level, but it's already carpeted, so I think I'm all set.
Like John, mine is fully carpeted, but I always sweat the "100 year" rains that seem to occur every few years nowadays, rather than every 100 years.
Mark - don't know if you also have to be concerned about the height of the DriCore. You don't want to trip every time you go in or out of the patio. For a 12'x12' room the DriCore would run you about $225, plus the cost of carpet squares on top for a nice, finished look. If there's absolutely no water issues though, I'd think about just a vapor barrier and a commercial grade carpet from a discount remnant store.
I have a standard sump pump, a battery powered sump pump, and a spare sump pump with a hose for real torrents. I've had a couple of occasions where all three were running.
Yes, I also have a generator to keep them running, it seems whenever there's a torrential rain, there's also a power outage! 
Yes, Richie, I think you may have the right idea. I don't have any moisture issues; we have one of the few houses around on a slab and we are at the top of a high hill.
I have only a standard and battery backup sump pump, no extras! So far the two of them have been adequate, but both have been running at the same time before. I have been thinking about a generator also, but don't yet have one. We are in a new home (4 years ago) in a new development they are still developing and all utilities are underground, haven't had many problems with power outages. Our old house had overhead power and there were a lot more problems with power and wind, storms, etc.
I argued with the builder about it being their responsibility to include the battery backup sump pump, but lost that one so we had to have it installed. Then the builder installed standard sump pump failed about 2 months after the warranty was up. Somehow that figures...
This thing, a Genrac 10KW generator (along with 2 Zoeller 267 sump pumps) has saved my basement more than once over the past 6 years:
During the storms a few weeks ago I was pumping out about 260 GPM for over 8 hours straight. The only time the pumps stopped was during the lag of losing power and the generator kicking in. We had six separate outages over that weekend.
Rusty
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I'm down in a valley, and a generator for the sump pump is mandatory. Besides, we have on-site water and sewer, so when the power fails we have no water! The wiring to the house is buried, but the tree lined street that the main power comes down has elevated power lines. The red arrow is my house, the yellow arrow is the street where the power lines are. Those wires are the ones that take the hits all the time.
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Rusty Traque posted:This thing, a Genrac 10KW generator (along with 2 Zoeller 267 sump pumps) has saved my basement more than once over the past 6 years:
Once we get settled, the new house is getting a 18-20KW natural gas generator, no more Mr. Nice Guy! Currently, I have a 6kw roll-around that I plug in and throw the manual transfer switch. I'd like it to be whole house and automated.
No generator is definitely the weak link in our setup. Whole area around here is new and has all under ground utilities and the house is well graded away from the foundation, actually quite a bit of slope. But still the generator would be very nice, I may have to get more serious about this part! A licensed electrician may be required for that here as well, not sure? Anyway, I would have it installed and not do it myself, I'm no longer up to that physically.
rthomps posted:I'm big on Mianne benchwork. Great product - and great service.
Just note that I ordered in October, 2016, at York and received the benchwork 2.5 months later. Of course, Tim had many orders - and my order crossed the Christmas season.
I feel I'm in the same situation.
I talked to TF around the end of October, haven't called back nor have I heard anything from him.
I expect I won't see an estimate (so I can place my order) until next year. I may give him another call, but hate to bug him if he's busy.
In the mean time I have 3 old Atlas (made in Austria) ore cars that my bud Bob Comerford from Australia sent me. I was just going to paint them for ACL, but I'm going to replace the cast handgrabs with wire on at least 1 of them.
I held off on commenting because I thought my situation was unique but it took more than 4 months for Tim to get back to me with a benchwork plan for my layout and a parts list. and I think I finally heard back from him because I was such a pest. Just my two cents.
Maybe that's why I never heard back before I had to completely change my plans and no longer needed a price estimate. I had no idea it took so long from initial contact to getting an estimate to receiving parts.
Yes, I didn't expect to hear back on my email for a while, but I got thinking this week I could make use of 2 of the stock kits for the 2 sides and get some parts to join the two sides. I'm thinking of going with that, because I will have varying width overhangs no matter what.
I could probably figure out what I need, but don’t want to buy more than I need (does he take returns if you buy too much or the wrong thing?).
Mark,
When I was considering Mianne, I thought the same thing. But then I read comments that made me think Tim would ask questions I wouldn't think of or he might even make suggestions about the layout design itself to make better use of the space, etc.
For example, RTR12 asked about lower shelves and that required adding holes toward the bottom of the legs so rails could be attached, things Tim did at no extra cost. I was concerned about the number of legs and think Tim would have suggested ways to minimize those and still have a solid base.
I also didn't see any 30"x30" or 30"x48" or even 24"x48" modules in the kits, even though he makes 24", 30" and 48" rails. All the kits I looked at were based on 24"x30" modules placed either vertically or horizontally (look at some of the Super Size Layout designs). However, if you look at the video on the main page, it's built from two 24"x48" modules joined by 48" rails with cross-members at 24" with the minimum number of legs. That made me question how best to make a 30"x120" section I needed at the time. Could I use four 30"x30" modules instead of five 24"x30" modules to get fewer legs and save a few dollars?
My take away was that it's best to talk to Tim and let him suggest the best configuration.
Bob, you or someone has asked that question before and I never read an answer, so I think you're going to have to ask Tim directly.
Thanks Dave, might give him a call today.
In the meantime, I need to get cracking on those remaining 12 or so #6 turnouts! I'm still up in the air determining whether or not it's worth it to build my own or buy already built. My hands hurt like hell these days, I may buy a couple just to see how they "turn out"
Yes Dave, you are right. Funny, I was getting myself in position to start building in January, having to take care of leaf cleanup at my parents' mother-in-law's, and out house, doing a little winterizing at Dad's (he and Mum moved into assisted living this past summer so the house is empty), and then the normal Thanksgiving and Christmas preparations. So, while doing the leaf cleanup with the leaf blower, I realized my arthritis doesn't let me do too much at a time. That got me thinking about Mianne again. Ah well! Better to have patience and do it right at our age! I don't want to rip something out that's big like benchwork and start over.
Just found this thread and wanted to weigh-in in support of Tim and Mianne benchwork. I first built a layout 5 years ago with Mianne and have gone thru at least two major revisions since then. Added the LiftGate (well worth it!) and reconfigured about 30% of the space. Nice thing is that everything is modular and I recommend you hang onto all the spare bits and not attempt to return them, because you _will_ use them again <g>. Secondly, Tim is a cabinet maker first and foremost - he's typically slow to respond to emails, but when you get him on the phone, he knows every item that you mention. Even with major revisions, Tim prints out a new schematic that shows exactly how the new pieces fit in. He is one of the most stand up guys I've spoken to.
I'm not ready to change the layout again [yet], but the next one will use Mianne, but I will have Tim cut the legs to 52" length - the grandkids have grown and I'm ready for a chest level layout.
...gregg
Thanks Gregg!
I haven't heard back from Tim yet, I figure he's busy. I'm wondering if I should just go ahead and place an order or wait for him to come back with a schematic and parts list/price? I'm sure I can ID most of what I need, but don't want to over do it or not get enough.
If I go ahead and order, I'm thinking the best place to start would be in the corners and work from there.
Personally, I think I'd wait to hear from Tim, then you'll have the exact inventory you need to complete your design.
Bob Delbridge posted:Thanks Gregg!
I haven't heard back from Tim yet, I figure he's busy. I'm wondering if I should just go ahead and place an order or wait for him to come back with a schematic and parts list/price? I'm sure I can ID most of what I need, but don't want to over do it or not get enough.
If I go ahead and order, I'm thinking the best place to start would be in the corners and work from there.
I would gently pester him and remind him that you're ready to place an order when he gets the parts list back to you.. That's what I did several times and he eventually got back to me with a schematic.
gunrunnerjohn posted:Personally, I think I'd wait to hear from Tim, then you'll have the exact inventory you need to complete your design.
I would strongly second Gunrunner's recommendation. First, figuring the needed hardware will be very difficult. Then, deciding where lower spreaders are needed almost requires an engineering degree!!! Tim's design will only use lower spreaders where they are needed for stability. Finally, you may need some of the 45 degree angle I-beams, and knowing when (and where) they are needed is very important. And this litany doesn't take into consideration such items as connector blocks and (heaven forbid) a double adapter connection (even with instructions, these were a bear to assemble).
I would take the polite gentle nudge approach. Between York orders and the holidays, I am sure Tim is up to his armpits in alligators, so patience is key. I think you will be very satisfied with the final product.
