Welcome back to the forum Bear. I've been away from the forum myself for close to a year. I'm looking forward to seeing you and the Misses at Friday's where I'll be with my trusty Nikon D60 to capture the highlights of the Thursday at Friday's dinner!
Steve Tapper
Bear,
You are not alone in dealing with the mortage company's fiasco. I know of at least a half dozend folks delaing with the 'please send the xyz form' (for the 3rd time) syndrome. This maybe a Colorado thing, not sure. It got to a point for one friend that he and his wife made triplicate copies of all of the forms / docs and would just resend the entire package. (They were given a check list by the mortgage company and included that along with an index of where to find the doc in the packet). I do not know how many times I heard his cell ring and would have to guide an underwriter through the packet only for the unewrtier to say 'Oh' and thank you.. click. When I refied I used USAA and told them to please make sure they asked for everything possible for a worse case scenerio (I too have been self employed on and off during my career). The process took 7 weeks, the only thing we had to do was to allow an appraiser in the house. I think what made it easy for us was that we were nowhere near underwater.
Congrats on your house and have fun at York!
Bear,
Now, "I know the rest of the story."
Congrats on the new house and train room, and the end of all that drama!
I look forward to seeing you at York on Friday.
Thanks, Jim. I'll look forward to seeing you in Orange in the Orange Hall!
Steve! Great to hear from you! Let's resolve to not be strangers on the Forum in the future. It's the best forum in model railroading and represents a tremendous achievement by the founders at OGR and the loyal support of our train industry sponsors. No one should overestimate what wonderful friendships have been spawned here, but I can sincerely say that it has changed the course of my life in immeasureably positive ways, including getting to know you, my friend!
John G., Thanks for sharing your friend's experience with mortgage applications run amok. It's comforting to know that I was not alone. Lessons learned department: Had I to do it over, I would have passed on the inducement to save closing costs by using the builder's in-house mortgage company and selected a lender from my trusty stable of knowledgeable and efficient loan officers who have served my clients so ably over the years.
Hindsight is always 20/20 of course, but going in, check the track record of your lender before you sign up to a nightmare like the one I experienced. I will grant you that since the Mortgage Meltdown that started in '07, people like me whose round pegs don't fit into the square holes of standardized mortgage buyers such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae (VA loan secondary mortgage market), are going to have a tougher time, even when dealing with an otherwise competent lending institution. As a Realtor, I should have anticipated that, but when the builder dangled that $20,000 piece of bait in front of my nose, my pocketbook got the better of me, and in terms of my mental health, it cost me dearly! Those of you who are asset rich, tax sheltered, and rental property invested, beware! If you don't need to borrow the money, the lender will probably not loan it to you without exacting some painful and frustrating emotional costs!
Craig, can't wait to see you. I still don't believe you would let an Orioles game come between you and your loved ones at Friday's! See you on Friday at Thursday's.
Episode 11: Home Free? Don't Count On It!....
So, I closed on the house and turned the cabinet makers loose on the master bedroom closet and my home office/study, put a "For Rent" sign in front of our old house, and left with Jophie and the Marinaris for Southwestern Colorado, our noses in the air, sniffing for a whiff of bituminous coal smoke! Little did I know then just how long and frustrating it would be before I took that "For Rent" sign down! But, I'm getting ahead of my story.
The weather was glorious and despite being early July, the rarified air of Colorado's "Altiplano" was pleasantly cool and inviting. We worked our way down through South Park and into the Rio Grande Valley surrounding the historic railroad town of Alamosa. We poked around the former Rio Grande Western yards, (now UP by merger) currently shared with the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad, "The La Veta Pass Route":
https://www.coloradotrain.com/
There were some interesting relics of mid-20th Century railroading to look at, all in various stages of decay or renovation. We then headed down to Chama, NM via Antonito, the northern terminus of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, where we were treated to the daily post-trip servicing of one of the line's K-28 Mikados.
The journey up and over the San Juan Mountains' 10,000' Cumbres Pass (somewhat redundantly named, since "cumbres" in Spanish means "summit" in English.") was spectacular as always. We made a leisurely meander down the south side of the pass, tracing the twin steel ribbons of the old Rio Grande 3' narrow gauge San Juan Extension, and finally reached our destination for the day, the (very) sleepy village of Chama. The previous weekend had featured a local celebration of the Gallopin' Geese, and No. 7 was still tied up in the Cumbres and Toltec's Chama yard. We checked in to the hotel and then made it back over to the No. 7 to check this venerable Rio Grande Southern machine. We would encounter it several times over the next few days of our trip.
The description of the rest of this wonderful pair of rail trips is for another thread on another day, but suffice it to say, relaxing aboard the "parlor car" on the scenic Cumbres and Toltec with Pat and Jean the next day, was the perfect way to relax after the initial stage of the "ordeal of the house" passed into history! Three days later, we boarded Amtrak's California Zephyr for a second very relaxing rail trip through the Rockies and the Sierras to Sacramento, the California State Railroad Museum, and a memorable stay in Yosemite National Park.
To be continued....
Hey Bear,
As one of the original members of this forum let me tell you I was wondering where you've been.
Glad to see your back!!
Mike R
Well, I'm glad it's over for you, and us. Last time we talked in person, you were planning to hire someone to build your layout. I guess, unfortunately, you spent the money on the train room. That's a heck of a start though, especially with Jophie happy too. Good luck with it, Bear.
.....
OccasionalpalDennis
P.S. I was kidding about wanting to throttle you. I enjoyed the whole thing.
Thanks, Mike, glad to hear from another one of the original "plank owners"! Good to be back!
Dennis, it's not over, there's more "Perils of Pauline" to drag you through in the saga of the house.
Nonetheless, it's an astute observation on your part....it's kinda like building an expensive garage and then realizing that as a result, you can't afford the car to park in it!
I'm buying lottery tickets and schlepping real estate in the hope that one or the other will enable me to hire the likes of the Hikel brothers to build the layout. The timing might be fortuitous though. It could take a few years to accumulate the bucks to hire them, but they've also got a few more years to get Peter Hambling's layout up in Medina, Washington finished! Might work out. But I gotta get with it, the Grim Reaper is gaining on me!! I might, oh horrors, be forced to learn how to build my own layout, in which case I would have a lot of fun building a pathetic mess....oh well!
LookingOverMyShoulderBear
It is possible. I've been building mine for 12 years.
.....
Dennis
Well, Dennis, I understand and believe in the concept of "....my layout is never finished." I'm sure that a good measure of the fun is in the building of it. The percentage of that "good measure" varies from one individual to the next, but probably being somewhat proportional to how talented we are at any one of the wide variety of tasks involved in building and operating a layout....carpentry, scenery, trackwork, backdrop painting, wiring, high tech control systems, and so on.
I'm pretty good at laying track, but I have trepidation about trying to create believable looking scenery. I think I can learn some basic carpentry skills by watching videos, reading books, and getting some hands-on training from friends who are accomplished carpenters and woodworkers. But, for skills that I have real doubts about, such as artistic talent, I intend to call on the pros, like my step-son, Joe, the bronze sculptor. That's one reason I'm dragging him to York to see if I can at least get him hooked on building realistic scenery.
http://www.joecampbellsculpture.com/portfolio.html
Lynn Gaines and I flew down to Melbourne, FL after a York meet a couple of years ago to visit John Shankland's fantastic high rail layout. I remember John's admonition to not "over-engineer" a layout. "Just start cutting lumber." He pointed out that the carpentry of your benchwork is hidden under the layout. "Nobody is going to care what it looks like, it just needs to hold up the weight of the trains and the scenery!" He made us get under his layout and inspect the benchwork to verify the fact that his carpentry skills, while not professional, were nonetheless adequate for the job. He said, "If I can learn to do it, anybody can!"
SnowBoundBear
Bear
I was wondering about John Shanklands layout in Florida. I remember his video of his layout in the Midwest and used his switching yard idea for my own layout. I enjoy running my yard the most. Is his new layout almost done in FL. I did visit his website which used to have a camera you can view his layout.
The Collins Foundation has one
, I might even pitch in for gas
If somebody would lend me a flyable F-4 for an hour or two, I would gladly oblige, right over the sales office and in full afterburner!
Chris,
I haven't talked with John in over a year, so I can't tell you what's going on down there.
When Lynn and I went to Melbourne, the layout's geological scenery was largely complete except for the large central penninsula that housed his roundhouse and large classification yard. The big project while we were there seemed to be one of de-bugging electronic control and signalling schemes, both big items of interest to John.
As you may recall from John's Chicagoland Burlington-themed layout, featured in, I believe, a Tom McComas video, John was a fan of Dr. Bruce Chubb's computer-managed block control and signalling system that had been developed primarily for HO layouts like Bruce's famed SP multi-tiered shelf layout. John had adapted the concept to 3-rail O.
During the period when John was mastering the intricacies of building the computer modules and incorporating Chubb's system into his Chicago layout, TMCC and a bit later, DCS were worming their way into the hearts of high railers, and DCC into the hands of 2 railers of all scales. In my understanding of the situation, these onboard control systems were revolutionizing prototypical model railroading control architecture at every level of the hobby from toy trains to 2-rail scale, effectively doing an end-run on Chubb's proprietary electronic control concept that relied on the old tried and true variable track voltage for "conventional" control of locomotive speed and direction, while emulating the prototypical signaling and turnout positioning of 1:1 railroads' centralized traffic control (CTC) from a remote location.
John might disagree with my assessment, but I left Florida thinking that John had invested so much time and energy in learning and applying the Chubb system to 3-rail O in general and his layout in particular, he didn't want to junk his human and electro-mechanical control system investment and switch to a pure TMCC/DCS scheme of operations.
When Lynn and I were there, he was still trying to integrate the two technologies so that he could retain the prototypical signaling and centralized route control characteristics of Chubb with the walk-around crew member following and controlling his individual locomotive via the remote hand-held control of DCS or TMCC, obeying the signals and being routed into sidings by a distant CTC operator watching the progress of trains on a computer screen and routing trains to avoid collisions and to rationalize opposing or overtaking traffic flows. That's a very cool concept which mimics the way many modern railroads are controlled today.
I could see John's point. He wanted to be able to run the railroad by remote dispatching and centralized train control (CTC) while discrete crews followed their trains around the layout and commanded them with a Cab One or DCS hand-held remote controller. That would replicate railroad operations about as prototypically as anything available at that time and maybe even today.
Unfortunately in Melbourne, the electrons were not cooperating. Based on the frustration John had expressed to us at the time of our visit, the TMCC and DCS signals were getting lost or interfered with in the complex maze of Chubb computer-directed relays.
John never used to miss York, but I haven't seen him there in a long time. I don't know if he ever was able to sort out the difficulties he was having with electronically controlling operations on his layout and bending them to the will of the Chubb system or not. I would certainly like to know.
Unrelated to the issues of Chubb or no Chubb, on the layout's track plan, I learned a lot from John's design philosophy, the most influential element of which, at least for me, was the concept of double decked hidden staging yards in a separate room built on the reverse side of a backdrop wall at one whole side of the layout. The layout was designed so that all made-up trains originated and terminated their trips around the 2,500 sqft layout out of or into the upper or lower hidden staging yards.
The entry throats of each yard (one facing in each layout direction) were equipped with Ross Custom turnouts positioned by Tortoise switch machines. The exit throats had ladders of Ross switches with "floating points" which a train departing the hidden staging yard to enter the action on the layout would simply slide to the correct "non derailing" position without the need for switch machines. Obviously, each hidden staging yard was uni-directional by design. Backing in from the layout would virtually guarantee disaster!
John had designed the layout so that the upper hidden staging yard was the western terminus of the railroad, and the lower was the eastern terminus. Trains entered or exited upper or lower tunnel portals onto the layout or into the room containing the hidden staging yards. A door was provided on each enf of the staging yard for an engineer with a Cab 1 or a DCS remote to follow his/her train off of the layout and into hidden staging, then shut it down, start up another, and run it onto the layout.
In this scheme, the large classification yard on the mid-point penninsula of the layout represented a major rail hub midway between the extreme western and eastern ends of the railroad, perhaps Chicago or St. Louis, or maybe a Spokane, Denver, Ogden, Dallas, Loisville, or Atlanta? The concept fits for virtually all regions or roads of the country.
This is a concept of design that I definitely intend to incorpoate into my own layout, and my thanks to John Shankland for the inspiration!
ColoradoPolarBearToday
Here is Johns website http://www.jnstrains.com/florida.htm
It is my understanding that John's Florida layout is in limbo. He never did get the control systems resolved and became very frustrated. Lately he's been traveling extensively throughout the US and Mexico in his motor home.
Okay, I'll take you up on that, Tim!
Warning, check to make sure that you have a sufficient limit on your credit card if you're buying the gas. In full afterburner, two J-79s burn about 20,000 gallons per hour, depending on temperature and other atmospheric factors!
DreamingBear
Hey, Bob!
Thanks for the update on John's possible whereabouts. I know that the last time I talked to him, he had developed the motorhome and photography wanderlust.
By the way, your layout is at the top of my list to see before I cut any lumber on my own in the new house, so you've been warned!
InTheHuntBear
Bear,
Thanks for the update on John's layout.
Bear, congratulations on settling the new Train Room and the nice house addition for Jophie! I knew you wouldn't be denied and that you'll do fine building your layout.
Just realize that as you build it, you're gonna sweat, you're gonna bleed and you're gonna pay the price. So much fun!
See you at the Fairgrounds!!
Thanks, Brian! See you soon. Gotta go pack the bag. More snow in the morning may make us late for the DCS dinner, but we'll hope for the best and stay flexible.
YorkBoundBear
Bear -
Great story but I think you're under a bit of a misimpression about Dr. Chubb's Computer/Model Railroad Interface or C/MRI. C/MRI is completely independent of control systems - it works equally well with conventional or any command control system. It does have available features such as automatic block control that can be used with conventional control to eliminate flipping of toggle switches to get the right block connected to the right cab or power source. I believe most model railroaders (including John Shankland) use C/MRI primarily for signaling and occupancy detection. It can be set up to mimic prototype signaling and control systems including CTC. Dr. Chubb's work has been used for robotics and it has virtually infinite potential. But its main contribution to model railroading at this point is that it makes prototypical signaling (and CTC dispatching) both feasible and affordable.
Peter Gentieu
Bear, on the 15th you said " Remember, I said last Thursday at 4:30 PM, MDT, a climactic event in the saga was about to take place?"
So, what happened? or did I miss something?
Before I write the epilogue and satisfy Susan Deats' and others' curiosity, I want to report that yesterday yet another York meet faded into the history books. I'm sorry to report that attendance appeared to be down considerably from previous years, at least in my experience. At the Friday OGR Forum Grandstand Meeting I gazed out upon a completely deserted horse track infield and the empty surrounding grassy areas which are normally crowded wtih overflow parking. I recall in the past that these areas were almost always jammed with cars.
Regardless, I had a wonderful time, schmoozing with my buddies and sniffing around the halls to see what the latest technological advancements and new products are in the wind. The social aspect of going to York, for me always outweighs the shopping and sleuthing, so once again, I was not disappointed.
I just missed visiting with Craig Shelley yesterday. I spotted him from a distance in the Orange Hall yesterday morning, but was unable to track him down before departure for Chester County with my family dragged me away.
Peter,
You're right that I don't fully understand the details of Dr. Chubb's system and I appreciate your attempt to succinctly differentiate its characteristics and purpose from TMCC and DCS. My point I was trying to make was that John Shankland and others familiar with his layout, from both the DCS and TMCC worlds, believed that the block detection and power distribution complexity built into John's trackwork by incorporating the Chubb system was interfering with TMCC and DCS signal propagation and contributed to John's frustration with trying to operate locomotives reliably. I can't say with any sense of assurance whether that was true or not, but John definitely thought it was a factor.
In Dave Hikel's journey to where no man has gone before in terms of layout size and complexity with the Northwest Trunk Lines, he is utilizing contemporary computing power in concert with DCS (and compatibly with TMCC) to track train location, block occupancy, and to logically route trains from Point A to Point B in a way analogous to how a CTC dispatcher would accomplish that task in the real world, throwing the appropriate switches and showing the proper signaling aspects to the trackside engineer following his locomotive around the layout, etc.
In the process, and in working with MTH's "Michigan Skunk Works", Dave has gained a tremendously intimate understanding of DCS, its strengths and limitations, and developed some mind-boggling future applications of DCS's and TMCC's technology to realistic train and layout operations. After a long conversation with him last night, I become convinced that despite the limitations inherent in any available electronic train control system architecture, the future is bright beyond our wildest expectations and limited only by the imaginations and economic constraints of the train hobby industry!
Susan,
The "Epilogue" of my story is coming as soon as I can find the time to wrap up all the literary loose ends. For now, rest assured that a good dose of York's decompressing effects have brought the stressful period of the "House Saga" down to a manageable level. Scores of people approached me at York to comment on my "train room procurement story". That was very gratifying for me, and I want to thank you all for the interest you've shown. I hope that for a few of you, caught in similar dilemmas, the happy outcome of my ordeal will inspire you to persevere in your own quest for the appropriate space for layout dreams to be fulfilled. Determination and commitment to your goal are powerful tools!
HappyBear
Bear, So sorry I didn't get a chance to chat with you at York. I was there all day on Friday and ran into lyn and Pat. You were off somewhere else so our paths never crossed.. I've been following your adventures in buying your dream basement with a house attached.. Looking forward to hearing all the rest of the story. I know you will be a Lynns on Tuesday and I'll try to get by to see you guys if time permits.
Carl
Bear,
We waiting for the ending. 
and waiting and waiting and waiting......
Simon
May 3rd.....Bear it is snowing here in Missouri. Did I miss the ending ? Sure would like to hear if there is an end to this wonderful story.
Bear, you're scarin' me, lol!! Mrs. and I have just contracted for a house to be
built in Townsend, De. Like you I'm retired and took the lump-sum, so at least
in my circumstances, some of that will go to pay it outright, as we didn't quite
come equal with what we got for our previous house. A heck of a story you
told and I'm glad you came out okay.
Much happiness to you and yours in your new home!
P.S. I still have the post with the pics of your final flight!
Hoppy
This is beginning to look like Lionel; The Movie. You buy/watch the first half and it is
never completed.
Scott Smith
Well, at this rate, I'll be retired, and have plenty of reading time available before Bear writes the conclusion.
Carl "Ho, Ho, Ho, but not aitcho" Condon,
I was looking for you too. Sorry we missed. I had heard a rumor that maybe you and your mom were going to get together with us at the lake. Don't know what happened to that plan. Make sure we don't let this happen again in October!
Time to write the final chapter(s) and/or epilogue to this tale. I've been busy catching up on all the loose ends inevitably attendant to being away from work for 8 days at York, etc. on vacation! We got back to Denver a week ago Thursday night. The next day was prep for our Colorado Toy Train Group's big auction at the Ranch Country Club in Westminster, CO and the auction demanded about 11 hours both Saturday and Sunday. Needless to say, we were a beat bunch of train goobers by sundown on Sunday, and then I had to face the real estate backlog bright and early on Monday! I'm happy to report that the train auction was a roaring success, surpassing all of our members' expectations. I guess the economy really is starting to turn around. People were spending money, probably double what they were a year ago or so.
I think I can finally muster the time now to put the story to bed properly.
BeenBuriedBear
Perhaps Bear is approaching it like a TV series--a cliffhanger at the end of the season (York Meet) and the continuing installments around the next York Meet "season."
Episode 12....Epilogue:
Before I launch into the "end of the story", let me say how great it was to see so many of you at York and to receive your kind reaction to the "saga of the house". Also, thanks to all of you who have commented favorably on the story here on the Forum as it has unfolded, and who have endured this therapeutic act of stress dumping on my behalf!
Conclusion: When we returned from our vacation with the Marinaris, all that was left to do, and this was no small task, was to manage the completion of the cabinet makers' installation, and prepare for the unenviable job of moving the household 5 miles across town from Superior to Broomfield after nearly two decades in one house, and then get the old house rented. As most families do, we had accumulated a ton of stuff in those 20 years! Trust me, the most normal human reaction under such circumstances is PROCRASTINATION! Besides all the household effects, I had accumulated a ton of trains, many of which were un-boxed and out on the Bear's Bare Bones RR 16'X24' layout! Moving all that was going to be a daunting proposition.
When my brother in law and I had built the simple tabletop layout back in '97, it had never occurred to me at the time that I would ever move again. In retrospect, that is understandable. So, my main concern was to build a table that would support as many big diecast steamers as my budget could supply. The subroadbed was 3/4" plywood. The supporting structure was composed of 1X4 and 2X4 bracing and 4X4 legs. The seven component tables were screwed together and the whole thing weighed a figurative ton. I had originally laid four concentric loops of 1/2" homemade Homasote roadbed designed to be interconnected by Ross #6 switches. Before all the track was laid, I came to the realization that eventually I wanted more room and an around-the-room track plan layout, so I stopped at just two loops of Gargraves Phantom flextrack interconnected on both sides of the ovals with Ross switch crossovers. So, the question was, should I tear up the track, salvage what I could, and demolish the tables for building the next layout and scrap the rest?
Meanwhile, back at the (new) ranch, the cabinet guys had taken forever, a couple of months, but were finally in the home stretch. I couldn't really complain much, because I had put them off every time the lender had promised they were ready to close and then reneged yet again. The cabinet guys had other jobs to install so they were fitting mine in as best they could. Nevertheless, excuses for not moving yet were fast disappearing. Then, I got the wild idea of installing crown molding in the new house before we moved in. 920 linear feet of the stuff and nearly another month later, I had finally run out of excuses for calling the movers!
I had had a "For Rent" sign in the front yard of the old house since the beginning of July, but so far only nibbles, since I couldn't fully commit to a change of possession date yet until the new house was fully ready. Waiting for the cabinet guys to finish, I had eaten up the two month cushion before I would be facing the prospect of making two mortgage payments without any offsetting rent coming in to cushion the blow. That was turning up the heat a bit as the money clock continued to tick.
My buddies from the Colorado Toy Train Group (CTTG) had generously volunteered to help me pack the trains and get them ready to move. We had three train packing "parties" in the old basement. I planned to move them myself since I didn't want to trust the movers with my most precious material possessions, as I'm sure you all would understand!
The movers packed and transported all the household effects to the new house, and we spent the first night in our new digs, exhausted and wondering if this was all worth it. Jophie still loved the house and as she got unpacked and settled in, she really started to enjoy the newness of it and the fantastic views of the mountains.
I still had not resolved the question of what to do with the BBBRR layout. At a midsummer meeting of the CTTG, I had volunteered our new house for the annual Christmas and winter holiday party. The CTTGers who were helping me pack the trains urged me to dismantle the layout with their help and move it to the new house, reassemble it, lay two additional loops of track on the previously unused roadbed for a total of four loops of track, and have the whole thing up and running in time for the Christmas party on December 15th. It made some sort of crazy sense to me, so I said, "Why not?!). I still had misgivings about the decision, because I didn't want an operational table layout to become a subliminal excuse for not starting on my new layout, but I also figured it might be a couple of years before I could get started on constructing the new layout, and I still wanted to be able to run and test trains. So, I committed to the plan.
Two guys from CTTG and I took up all the track that traversed more than one module, carefully marking it for re-installation on the relocated layout. A Sawsall was used to carefully cut through the Homasote roadbed so we could take the layout apart into its seven component module tables. The movers showed up again. Before we could move the modules, my rental property handyman and his assistant had to remove the sliding glass doors from both the old and new basements because the modules wouldn't fit through the slider halves of either doorway! It was quite an operation!
Meanwhile, another buddy of mine with occasional help from the CTTG, used my Expedition and his large camper-top-covered-bed pickup, to move all the trains to the new house in phases. I had previously employed a concrete contractor to pour a sidewalk around one side of the house and down to the sliding door, and enlarging the patio pad out back. We staged the trains in one of the 3 bays of the new garage, and then with a hand truck, over a period of a couple of weeks, I moved all the trains down and into the new basement. A few more plastic storage shelf units added to what I already had, made enough shelf space for all the boxed up trains to fit in one end of the spacious new 2,800 sqft basement. I'm embarrassed to say that it gives the place the look of a hobby shop storeroom!
The CTTG guys continued to work on rebuilding the layout and the three of us re-laid all the original track and switches and added the two additional loops of Gargraves Phantom flextrack and interconnecting crossovers. We got it all done and DCS/TMCC debugged in time for the CTTG Christmas party, with three days to spare! So the entire moving evolution, counting the installation of the new built-ins and nearly a thousand feet of crown molding had been accomplished in just under five months! By the way, with the generous help of a couple of the other CTTG wives, the Christmas sit-down buffet dinner party was a roaring success. We had about 60 members and their guests in attendance and the most popular banquet tables were in the basement where people could eat and watch the trains at the same time.
Phew! What a project! From the initial dream of a bigger basement with a nice home attached in which to house the relocated "War Department", the whole project took about eight years from start to finish. It involved buying another house in the same neighborhood as a hedge against rising prices, and keeping the construction a secret from my bride for over six stress-filled months.
The climactic event that intrigued Susan Deats, and other readers of the "saga", and which occurred on April 11th, was the successful renting of the old house to a wonderful couple with two beautiful little girls, 3 and 1. I had been incredibly picky about prospective tenants and had a couple of close calls that in the short term would have eased my financial burden, but in the long run would have been a nightmare, such as a few well-heeled entrepreneurs attracted to the Boulder area by the lure of the recently legalized pot industry in Colorado!
So, you might ask, what did I learn from all this that might be of use to you, my fellow toy train goobers and model railroaders? What follows is in the "for what it's worth" department....
o The desire to build your dream layout can be an incredibally powerful motivating force. Beware....it can threaten the underpinnings of your otherwise normal and stable life in ways you could never imagine!
o A dream converted to a concrete goal, and backed by a well defined plan of action for its achievement, can be accomplished if you are willing to commit yourself to it and follow through with dogged determination. In my case, this has been proven true time and again throughout my life. Big goals can carry equally large risks and exact a heavy price, but they can be achieved if you visualize and believe in them.
o Don't ever move! (kidding of course) But seriously, you may think you've bought your last house, but the truth of the matter is that the average person moves about every 4-6 years throughout his or her life. Building your dream layout is a laudable goal and achievement, but just remember that if you aren't over 60 yet, build it so that it can be disassembled and moved in reasonably small component pieces. I have lots of clients who move here or away from here chasing their grandkids! Dave and Ted Hikel have developed a system for building hard shell geological scenery with a built-in hidden system for taking it apart without destroying it if you ever need to move it. Check the Forum, I'm sure Dave has shared the methodology here before. Their system is ingenious, and practical.
Lastly, and unrelated to the accumulation of trains and the building of movable layouts, is the idea of periodically getting rid of stuff you don't need or want anymore. Those of us who experienced any of the Great Depression, or were raised by parents who did, often have a built-in "pack rat" mentality which causes us to horde things that we think we might need again if times get tough. Fight that urge and avoid the trauma of a move after 20 years of accumulating stuff in one house that Jophie and I just went through this past year!
o Don't build a house without telling your spouse about it in advance and arriving at mutual agreement. In my case, I burned up a lot of candle, sweating it out while the house was being built. If you can't convince her that it's a good idea to build or buy a different home, then maybe you can figure out how to expand the space that you're already in with an addition or an outbuilding, or change to a smaller scale like HO or N to create the amount of railroad real estate you want in an existing space that can't otherwise be expanded practically. The concept of "It's easier to ask forgiveness than to obtain advance permission." was not really meant to apply in a marriage!
o Don't paint yourself into a corner by overestimating your future earning power or income from investments, etc. If you end up in a situation where you are financially overextended, the joy of having the home you want with the railroading space you desire may be overwhelmed by the anxiety you'll experience by taking too big a financial risk. It's hard for me to give that piece of advice, because I believe in taking calculated risks to achieve heartfelt goals, but everyone has a different comfort level with betting on the future. I say "go for it" and you may say, "You're nuts, I'm taking the prudent course and modifying my dreams!" We're probably both right, but you have to do what's comfortable for you.
o My dad was a survivor of the Great Depression. As a result, he was very cautious with his money. I don't mean that he was a miser, just careful to keep a big rainy day fund and put the fun off until retirement. Dad hardly ever gave me a piece of advice. He believed that his kids should have plenty of rope. But on his death bed, he broke his normal reticence about giving advice and told me this, "Son, it's fine to be careful about finances, and I don't advise you against that, but I also say to you, don't put off all of the fun things you've always wanted to do until your retirement years, because you can't predict how many years you may have left." I took that to heart, perhaps too much so. Any of you that know me, know that I'm a "party animal" and love to have a good time with friends and family. They say in retirement planning, it would be easy to do if you knew for sure just how many years you have left. There's always a great deal of uncertainty about that. A lot of us in the toy train hobby are approaching or already in our "golden years". So my unsolicited advice is, don't put off building that dream layout, or taking the actions necessary to make it a reality. That's my advice to you and to myself.
When it comes to building my own dream layout, I realize that I'm in a race with the Grim Reaper. I resolve to get started sooner rather than later so that I'll get it "done" (whatever that is, for it varies for each individual) and so that I will have time to enjoy it with my train pals before I "kick the bucket".
So, there you have it. I had intended to end this saga with the pain of moving to the new house, but I couldn't resist throwing a little philosophy in at the end. You can take it for what it's worth and play your own cards the way you see fit. I wish you all the fulfillment of your fondest dreams, especially as they apply to having your own dream layouts.
PhilosophicalBear
Hoppy,
Thanks for the kind words, and good luck with your new, under-construction home. Even when you don't take the financing gambles and pick the fights with the builder that I did, it's still a stressful process. There will be crises, hopefully all small ones, but just try to keep on an even keel, and don't go nuclear unless there is no other option. Sherman was right, "War is all He**." So avoid it if you can. In my case, other than surrender (which is not in my operational vocabulary) I had no choice. It wasn't fun, but in the end, when I won, it was admittedly satisfying. Now all I have to do is figure out how to pay for it before I spend my remaining retirement savings. Hey, anybody out there want to buy a house in Colorado?
tell us another story, Uncle Bear!!
Bear, it's been a great read! Hope you enjoy your new train room. At least as much as your lucky wife enjoys her new home!
when we meet again in October, I look forward to seeing many pictures of the beginning of your mega layout! With that much room, you can do just about anything!
Mountain views, plenty of train room, good health, good friends and a great lady........ What more could a man want? Ok, Cold beer!
Thanks, Jim! I look forward to spending more time with you in October!
There probably won't be any photos of the beginning of the new layout by then, but I hope to have a track plan in an anatomically and scale correct diagram of my basement to show you.
Right now, the space in that basement is taken up thusly: about 15% mover's packing boxes that neither one of us wants to face unpacking, 25% shelves of purple, orange, and other variously colored boxes of neatly shelved trains, 10% the BBBRR layout, and 20% Colorado Toy Train Group's apple-boxed assemblage of lotted inventory for our forthcoming August and October train auctions:
I invited the CTTG to use the new basement for storage and auction prep work until I start building the layout. It was either that or buy a condominiumized storage unit or another couple of trailers.
It has worked out well. We enjoy our house being an informal meeting place for our good friends from CTTG as we clean, sort, lot, inventory, and catalog the items for our future auctions. We also are storing a few smaller mobile layouts that we use at various train events to hook kids on trains. My great grandson, age 4, loves to run downstairs to "Gappie's basement" to run the big trains on my layout for a bit and then on to his true love, the CTTG's Brio Thomas the Tank Engine layout. Seeing him playing with those trains pretty much covers the club's storage rent for me in perpetuity!!
HappilySittingOnAMotherLodeOfTrainsBear
Bear this has been a great read and timely as I am currently in construction of a new home myself. Hope to see your layout taking shape soon. You've certainly earned it.
Bear- The entire story was a great read. Thanks for sharing with us. Glad it all had a happy ending!
Bear,
Thanks for the update. I enjoyed reading your story and seeing you at York.
i guess your signature will now be buildingalayoutbear.
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