Moving the layout

Very simple.....if you are downsizing or upsizing....demolition. That is what I did with my old layout. My boys and me completely gutted the room and carried it all up to the garage where a trash hauler took it all away. 

Atlas track with plastic ties may be able to get reused with a lot of effort to get off the glued on ballast. Try soaking them for a while, that may help. Mine was all "wood tie" Gargraves and ROSS. Much, much harder to try to reuse. Ultimately, after much effort (add a few more "much's") , everything (including the switches) got tossed. It was just not feasible to reuse. The turntable got donated to a club who never used it anyway!

My old layout was around 12' x 25'. It was the cover feature in Run 255.

New layout is twice as big.

I never looked back or regretted my decision. Stayed tuned for the brand new layout shortly.

I am also a lot older and my kids are grown and moved away. I understand your limited options. But I built my old layout during that same time in my life. It just takes a lot more time and usually funds are allocated elsewhere.

Donald

If you know you won't have time to; you've kinda answered the question, leave it.  If the cost of a switch or two is just unacceptable, again, there is your answer.

I don't know if it would work out, but maybe used two sections tops facing each other with some scrap wood, four corner ties and some diagnals to make a self protecting crate out of them.

We only have one earth and it's being treated like junk. Re-purpose everything you can. Plus it's fun to see it in use again on a different layout. It's your heritage as a model railroader. 

I  salvaged sections of my prior layout and reused them in an entirely new configuration.

It saved a lot of time when building the new layout.

Checkout my website for photos of both layouts and the tear down  

I was in the camp of reusing everything. Kept the track (Lionel tubular) screwed down, switches (Lionel 022) still in place, but removed switch lanterns and controllers because they would be more susceptible to damage. Also keep I mind that mine was only a single table at 8x5.5 feet. 

The most important thing that I recommend is to maintain as much control over the “train stuff” move as you can. With the help of family members, I personally moved the table and boxes of train stuff. That way I could be sure that we loaded it carefully as necessary, straps went across areas that wouldn’t get damaged, etc.  

How far is you move? Across town, state, country?  Will you be doing all/most/some/none of the other moving? 

I have done this a couple of times. It is often disagreeable but one needs to make firm decisions what's next. There are financial and emotional and certainly time investments in our layouts. To some they become a self (and family) identifying chapter of our lives. If you have time to redistribute or the need to move it to the next chapter it would be optimal to have a well designated plan for this, kind of like a mission. 

I ended up donating benchwork track and switches control panels to interested parties. Nothing was trashed, that worked out well but a lot of assisted work .the benchwork I had were modular like bolted together.  Trains were kept.  Started fresh next house in new modelling directions. Looking at the photos justs reminds me of how tough it felt to dismantle. Reuse of recirculate what you can.

Best of luck to you.

The more i continue to disassemble the layout the more I tend to naturally disassemble in a way that I will just reassemble it the same way.  Fastest way to get the trains running while beginning life in a new house and other adventures.  I cut some blocks of 2x4 out to add some protection to switches during the move.  It'll be a tight squeeze getting this up the steps and around the corner and not hit a wall.

Sounds like you have this under control, I am late to the post, but I'd leave the track down,  if your concerned about the switches,  I'd cover the switches with  3/4 x 3/4 stock between the tracks and screw 1/4 inch plywood over the area.   I'd load them standing on their edges, and use some 1 x 4 or 2x4 stock to keep them spaced a safe distance apart during the ride.   I built my entire railroad in modules knowing that the move was inevitable.  I figured,  I would lay down 2 x 4's then add some more short ones to create blocking between the sections standing up, then to the same on the top that way they won't slide and run into each other going over the road.   

Like other responders, I have "been there and done that." Since my previous layouts were not of the "high rail" type, there were no artfully crafted plaster or foam scenic features to contend with -- mountains, tunnels, rivers, etc.  Although removing the houses and accessories from several platforms was easy to do and would be easy to re-install, the under-platform wiring was complicated:  multiple transformers for track wiring, accessory wiring, lighting for buildings, switch wiring, TMCC wiring, etc.

Separating the platforms would require extensive labeling of every wire for possible re-use, so I opted out of that task because the "new" layout would be quite different anyway.  I trashed the platforms, track sections, and all associated wiring but kept the O22 switches for re-use. Later, I decided to adopt O42 tubular track and switches as a minimum standard, so I sold all 20+ Lionel O22 switches and "traded up" to K-Line O42 low-profile switches. I never regretted that choice. 

When I hauled the "old" layout platform sections with track and wiring attached to the local landfill, the on-duty workmen accepted the "deposit" and said they had never seen anything like that before.

The upside of starting a successor layout with a fresh design and new track and wiring is ... you can destroy the evidence of previous layout mistakes and awkward (even if temporarily sufficient) fixes.  Every new layout is "an opportunity to get it right this time."

Carry on, regardless ...

Mike Mottler   (ritrainguy)
mottlerm@gmail.com