Looks like a nice dance floor at the one end. 
Dennis
I guess I'll have to move the jukebox to use that. 
gunrunnerjohn posted:I guess I'll have to move the jukebox to use that.
Would go great with that Bar you are going to have to build!
Wait a minute! I was going to build a layout, not a nightclub! 
Definitely don't want water in the train room! We don't have a walk out, so it has to be pumped up about 8' & out the side of the house. I had the drain run to the back of the property to the HOA's green space. Yard was like a marsh where it was dumping in rainy season. Now their space is like a wetland. Several neighbors have also had problems with their sump pumps, either wetlands for yards or for some their basement has flooded, they had no backup pump.
That really does look like a nice place you have and I certainly hope you enjoy it there. I do like the daylight basement too. Makes it nice and bright. I'll be watching for some layout plans and pictures in the spring! It took me longer than I thought to get going again after moving. In fact, everything move related took longer than I had thought it would. Never again!
Well, I know that there will be a bunch of stuff to "adjust" after moving in, and I'm sure just distributing all the stuff we keep will take serious time! However, at least there is light at the end of the tunnel, and I have it on good authority that it's an oncoming train!
I am still adjusting after over 4 years! But it's getting better! I imagine you probably have a better plan than I had though. Our old house needed some remodeling and we just decided one day to move instead of doing it while living there, so not a lot of planning on our end.
It is still an adjustment though, I'm still looking for things...you probably have that part more organized too. Good luck with it all anyway! It will be really nice when you get that Mianne benchwork set up with some trains running around on it.
Well... organized is probably going a little far. I am numbering the boxes as I pack and keeping a spreadsheet with the contents of each box, or at least a gross description. I'd like to at least know within a couple of boxes where to look for stuff. However, there is simply a LOT of stuff! I figure the train stuff is going to be around 45-50 large boxes. The big engine steam boxes will be separate, but anything like a diesel will be packed with a bunch of others. I'm using 18 x 14 x 12 and 23 x 23 x 16 boxes. I never realized if you pack them in there, how heavy a 23 x 23 x 16 box would be just filled with boxcars! Of course, I have a LOT of non-train related stuff to sort through and pack or dispose of. I'm warming up my eBay account to dispense with a bunch of stuff, and Craig's List will be seeing me as well.
Nice room, John!! Looking forward to seeing the layout construction.
John
John:
Best of luck with the move and I'm sure you will enjoy the great new train room!
In my last house in PA, I had a full walk out basement that included a large finished space, a workshop, an office and unfinished storage. It was a dream come true.
I gave all of that up and moved 2,500 miles to CA three years ago. I used my old trusty "TrainMinder" software and inventoried every box which made locating things after the move quite easy. My article about the move and new layout is (hopefully) due to appear in the February 2018 OGR issue.
Using Mianne Benchwork in PA made re-building in CA with the new plan easy.
You may want to include a liftgate in your plans - mine works great and saves my 67 year old knees from some of the trips into the layout center area. It is also fun to demonstrate when visitors come over.
Enjoy!
We'll be in our new house 3 years come January. When we packed up our old house we numbered and noted everything. It's hard to believe all the stuff that you accumulate over the years that you don't remember accumulating.
Between the garage sale and donations to charities we still filled a 4 yard dumpster 6 times with crap. Like RTR12, we're still trying to locate some things we know are here but somehow can't find. Funny thing is when looking for one thing you come across something else you were looking for another time.
I also have 50 LARGE boxes of train stuff I have yet to open. Between the yard and finishing the other half of the basement myself I finally got around to starting the layout last fall. Bench work is up, just starting to lay track.
Anyway, you are definitely styling with that new train room. Get yourself some Doan's Pills, you're going to need them. Good luck and enjoy.
Basement door!?!??
this means we can all sneak in and out to play with trains at all hours of the night!! :-)
Set up some berths under the train table and let us know what fees you charge (food, drink and/or cash) to sleep over for an all nighter train runnin' party
Looking forward to it, I'm here today packing and numbering. I'm going to have to show my wife the post about 50 large boxes of train stuff, she keeps telling me I have way too much. I'm guessing if I use the large boxes, I can get it into around 40-45 boxes.
The lift-gate is a good idea, depending on how my plan develops. I'm thinking about it, but it's been so long since I had a space to put a decent layout that I'm not sure what I'll do yet. I know I want to be able to run all my large steamers comfortably. Once I'm in and I can do an accurate measurement and draft up the room plan, I'll have a better idea what will work in there. I'm generally thinking of having it against the long wall and then have the other three sides open. As to the center, I'll either have it open or have a couple of lift-out or drop-down access hatches to reach stuff, still to be decided.
gunrunnerjohn posted:Looking forward to it, I'm here today packing and numbering. I'm going to have to show my wife the post about 50 large boxes of train stuff, she keeps telling me I have way too much. I'm guessing if I use the large boxes, I can get it into around 40-45 boxes.
The lift-gate is a good idea, depending on how my plan develops. I'm thinking about it, but it's been so long since I had a space to put a decent layout that I'm not sure what I'll do yet. I know I want to be able to run all my large steamers comfortably. Once I'm in and I can do an accurate measurement and draft up the room plan, I'll have a better idea what will work in there. I'm generally thinking of having it against the long wall and then have the other three sides open. As to the center, I'll either have it open or have a couple of lift-out or drop-down access hatches to reach stuff, still to be decided.
Love it! The man hasn't even moved in but the train plans are already coming forth. Good to see you have your priorities right, John!!!! And I meant that!
gunrunnerjohn posted:Looking forward to it, I'm here today packing and numbering. I'm going to have to show my wife the post about 50 large boxes of train stuff, she keeps telling me I have way too much. I'm guessing if I use the large boxes, I can get it into around 40-45 boxes.
...
Just remember, John... those large boxes come in handy, but you (or somebody else) have to lift them when they're loaded too!!!
Congratulations, John.
I noticed the weight of the boxes Dave, I already decided that only rolling stock goes into the big boxes, the locomotives packed in there are TOO HEAVY! I packed one up and realized it was about 100 pounds, so I promptly unpacked it.
Congratulations on your new residence. Many happy days ahead I'm sure.
- walt
That's a condo? That's bigger and nicer than most houses in my area (Including my house.). Where are the other units? Congrats on getting your own space out of the deal.
HI JOHN,
Might have to bring a box or two to sell at YORK? 
I'll take a peek.
Good Luck with the move and pace yourself. Also lift while bending the knees.
This is an end unit, so it is larger. Some of the stuff we wanted was a 2-car garage and a large basement and no outdoor maintenance.
It's fairly good sized inside, the main floor has 1000 sq/ft, the upstairs around 650 sq/ft, and the basement has around 750 sq/ft finished area and a bunch of storage that's not finished. Interestingly, the largest room in the house is the master bedroom, it's enormous! We also liked the large deck, that's a really nice feature as well.
I'm looking forward to it, I just wish all the stuff was already over there and all I had to do is build my train platform!
I'm thinking of putting all the tubular track and switches in my car and having a fire sale! I'm not planning on using any of that stuff here, so it would be nice if someone could use it.
Have fun John. New adventures await.
Not to worry about those heavy boxes and all that other stuff. There a moving company in your area that specializes in moving model train collections. Give them a call at 1-800 MOVE MY TRAINS. After all your supposed to enjoy the move , right?
Early on I also figured out how heavy the larger boxes could get! I saved those for the movers. They sent 5 young, big & strong guys that made short work of the heavy stuff. It's amazing what those guys could pick up and carry! I did notice that none of them appeared to be over about 30 or so. Probably a good reason for that too. Their prices were quite reasonable too, at least I thought they were. Not nearly as much as I was expecting.
We also sold some things, gave a ton of stuff to Goodwill, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities and Habitat for Humanity. Then I ended up getting a LARGE dumpster (biggest they had) and filled it up as well. People kept coming by asking if we had anything metal in the dumpster. I started just putting the metal stuff (old shelves etc.) in front of the dumpster near the street and it would be gone by the next morning. Saved some dumpster space for other junk that way too!
I still have some things I wish I would have unloaded, but keeping them seemed like a good idea at the time. We labeled all the boxes and what room they came from, but it was still a mess when we got all moved in. Some of the best laid plans... Hope yours goes a bit better than ours did.
We also did what you are doing with less home maintenance. Didn't get a maint. provided place, but the exterior is vinyl siding with only a little trim to paint. Trim is all cedar so the paint doesn't peel like pine does. Then we have a lawn service to mow and shovel snow so it works out to be almost no maintenance at probably similar costs to the added HOA fees for the maintenance provided places. I think you will really like the no maint. part! Almost as good as having trains running!!
We looked a some single homes, but in the end I think this will work out well. I don't need stuff like snow blowers, leaf blowers, mowers, etc. I know what you mean about metal, I have put stuff out by the curb and it doesn't last ten minutes!
I will be getting help for the mass move, no way I'm going to do all that myself. I'll probably stage all the boxes in one bay of the garage and then hire a truck and strong backs to move it. That will happen several times before the final "move".
Nice condo. I can't wait for the layout planning and construction threads.
Very nice John. Have good time designing & building
Ken M
Hi John:
Are you going to use your YouTube Channel, to tell your story about this new layout and train room? Just like anything we do in this hobby, there are pros and cons. You have an exciting story to tell your viewers.
Gary: Hope to see you on YouTube
What a gorgeous Condo John. Here in the midwest (my area anyway) when they talk about condo's they're quite literally 3 times smaller compared to this. Truly Looks amazing...
This is on the larger side of condos, they call them "Carriage Houses". I always thought a carriage house was where you put the horses and carriages.
John, looks like you hit the mother lode. Congrats on your new digs. 
Your condo looks close to the size of my house, and a lot more finished. Looks like a very nice place for a layout, have fun on your recent endeavor.
Thanks all, I'm really looking forward to turning the page.
gunrunnerjohn posted:We looked a some single homes, but in the end I think this will work out well. I don't need stuff like snow blowers, leaf blowers, mowers, etc.
I will be getting help for the mass move, no way I'm going to do all that myself. I'll probably stage all the boxes in one bay of the garage and then hire a truck and strong backs to move it. That will happen several times before the final "move".
We did the opposite, started out looking for a condo/townhome with maint. provided and ended up in a single home. We found an area that had ranches with full basements and that did it for us. Ranches around here are very difficult to find newly built. All 2 story and that sort of thing these days. I got rid of all the snow removal, lawn trimming, etc. stuff, but there is still a lawn mower buried out in the garage somewhere. Don't think it's been run since we moved. Not sure why I kept that now, other than it was only a year or so old?
We also did similar to your plan, filling up a bay of the garage and then moving it. We ran out of room for more boxes a couple of times so I had to make a few trips with the lighter boxes to make room for more. We had about a month to move to the new house, got it quite a bit earlier than we had to be out of the old house. Good thing too, or we wouldn't have made it! That plan should work out quite well for you, a very good way to move, IMO!! Having some extra time also is a great help when moving. The more the better too, it goes by very quickly!
Time does go fast, and I'm going to blow three days fooling around at York.
Well, I'm starting the long process! This is about a quarter of my stuff that's been boxed up or simply put in the pile to go. I have another larger pile in the basement that has to go, and I'm still packing and stacking up here and in the basement. However, making good progress, I hope when I make settlement that I have a large part of my stuff packed and it can be moved over to the new place. That will also free up the rooms so we can start to get things ready for selling this place.
Attachments
Well John: Do you remember the age old question in High School, are you a Ford or Chevy guy? I am a Ford 150 guy and a 1970 Classic Ford Mustang 302.
Now for the important question as related to model trains. What is going to be your control system for your 3 Rail Trains? MTH - DCS or Lionel TMCC / Legacy.
Gary
gunrunnerjohn posted:Well, I'm starting the long process! This is about a quarter of my stuff that's been boxed up or simply put in the pile to go. I have another larger pile in the basement that has to go, and I'm still packing and stacking up here and in the basement. However, making good progress, I hope when I make settlement that I have a large part of my stuff packed and it can be moved over to the new place. That will also free up the rooms so we can start to get things ready for selling this place.
That's a quarter of your stuff!!?? You got a lot of moving to do.
trainroomgary posted:Well John: Do you remember the age old question in High School, are you a Ford or Chevy guy? I am a Ford 150 guy and a 1970 Classic Ford Mustang 302.
Now for the important question as related to model trains. What is going to be your control system for your 3 Rail Trains? MTH - DCS or Lionel TMCC / Legacy.
Gary
I had a 67 Camaro that was fire engine red with a black top back in the70's. It had a Craig 8 track stereo with Jenson speakers. I drove the 'you- know- what' out of it.
