So what happens to the layout?

That is a fantastic layout.  I love the track plan.

Super O Bob posted:

That is a fantastic layout.  I love the track plan.

Thanks, it's my third layout, and works well with the vintage equipment I like to run. 

We have done that three times. There is no other way to do it but dump it. My last layout had lots of plaster mountains, some going to the floor. There is no way I know of to save that kind of layout. Take lots of pictures and video. Good luck on your move. Don

are you saving any of it to take with you? Beautiful layout.

Salvage the switches, signals, track etc, dump all the rest. You can build a new one. Nothing is permanent, nothing stays the same.

Same thing happened to us, i.e. the house sold quickly.  I rented a climate controlled storage locker, bought a bunch of boxes, and loaded all my trains and reusable things such as Ross Switches, and all my buildings into storage.  Then I trashed the layout and ended up with a bare basement.

We moved into an apartment too small for trains so I sold all my stuff.  I may be able to wiggle  a smaller scale into a corner somewhere but I really prefer "O".

Dennis

   I might cut the stream out and save it, or anything like it you may miss. The items; pack um or list um.     The rest is just wood and carpet.

  I'd likely pull some (now costly) long lengths of wire once packed and fill the boxes to the brim.  

I always put up a Craig's List "curb allert" in the "for free" section if I toss something I think may be useful ...and what others consider useful may amaze you.   If nobody comes for it, the garbage man does his job.  It's a no-contact way of using CL.  Only leave it on your easement! (No invitation) And add "do not disturb" if you'd like. But usually if folks knock, it's only to double-check taking it is really ok (mostly knock only if it is not garbage night, honoring easement law)  or to ask another "silly" question; from who did the roof, to what kind of bush is that?  90% of knockers are polite women

As an attorney at the same location for over three decades, I saw marriages, then families that grew and finally, an empty nest. What does a married couple do with 5,500 square feet of unused rooms? Get rid of it. I learned from this. I was divorced ten years ago and trains were not an issue .  I always had a layout in the basement.  The in-laws owned ten acres and a house in the woods. I kept the marital residence with the layout in the basement. Never pushed the ten acres.  She has it and will end up alone, like Citizen Kane. My layout is thirty years old and continues. I started a program to video all my trains, so that if I have to go into a nursing home, I can watch them from a tablet or a lap top and still enjoy them. I expanded some years ago into Maerklin Gauge 1, so my Lionel is complimented with European style trains (I had sent a request to MTH when asked, that they should include European styles in their Gauge 1 line; instead they made them in O Gauge, which does not interest me as a Lionel fan).  Anyway, I had seen the future many years ago, through the eyes of my clients and acted on it and am happy with the results.

She must have been “a peach” to be compared to that guy !!!

Timothy,

I recall your layout from a few times that you shared the track plan for one that was being developed. In those layouts and the plan that I kept, your layout will live on.

Keep your train stuff. if it finds a way back into life, so be it. If not, sell it.

Best wishes with your life change!

Nice, compact layout that displays tinplate trains very nicely.  

Trying to plan my next layout so that it can be disassembled and reconfigured if desired.  Easier said than done.

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

I never looked back or regretted my decision. 

Donald

I already know my layout's going into the dumpster when I eventually downsize.  I'll save the structures and trees, but everything else goes.

I've been considering the options I might take (including armchair railroading,) but how or if I rebuild will depend on the future location and ambition.

Rusty

taycotrains posted:

Never pushed the ten acres.  She has it and will end up alone, like Citizen Kane. 

She must have been “a peach” to be compared to that guy !!

All are children stayed with me. "Motherhood" was reduced to the following statement in a court paper: "XXX has no contractual obligation to help the children because they are emancipated." That was ten years ago and I am still parenting and I outlay money due to various issues.  I often wonder where the children would be if I had the same attitude. Mark

barrister.2u posted:

As an attorney at the same location for over three decades, I saw marriages, then families that grew and finally, an empty nest. What does a married couple do with 5,500 square feet of unused rooms? Get rid of it. I learned from this. I was divorced ten years ago and trains were not an issue .  I always had a layout in the basement.  The in-laws owned ten acres and a house in the woods. I kept the marital residence with the layout in the basement. Never pushed the ten acres.  She has it and will end up alone, like Citizen Kane. My layout is thirty years old and continues. I started a program to video all my trains, so that if I have to go into a nursing home, I can watch them from a tablet or a lap top and still enjoy them. I expanded some years ago into Maerklin Gauge 1, so my Lionel is complimented with European style trains (I had sent a request to MTH when asked, that they should include European styles in their Gauge 1 line; instead they made them in O Gauge, which does not interest me as a Lionel fan).  Anyway, I had seen the future many years ago, through the eyes of my clients and acted on it and am happy with the results.

Video?  Simplistically brilliant!

The rest? I've seen it.  You're likely much better off. Disappointed, angry, but better off.

AMAZING advice given here.Old stories end and new ones begin. Nothing is permanent. Nick

The question has popped up in my mine since I have retired. Only because I do not wish to burden my wife with that task if she had to deal with it herself. My thinking follows the Tibetan Buddhist sand mandala; nothing is permanent in this life. But MAN! This will be hard to trash! This bench work could be salvaged. Any interest out there?

Mine is small (5 x 13').  It fits into one side/stall of the garage.  In its previous 5 x9' incarnation, it has been moved twice.

I am hoping never to move.  If I do, I think it will fit upright, on its shelves and legs, into the back of a moving van.

If not, I know it will fit on one edge (as that is how it was moved before).

The last time I moved, I had to demolish my Standard Gauge garden railroad, and that really hurt!

jackiejr posted:

The question has popped up in my mine since I have retired. Only because I do not wish to burden my wife with that task if she had to deal with it herself. My thinking follows the Tibetan Buddhist sand mandala; nothing is permanent in this life. But MAN! This will be hard to trash! This bench work could be salvaged. Any interest out there?

Wow.... that is truly a great layout jackiejr.  It would be a crime for that to go to a landfill.  When that time comes hopefully someone can save it.   I like your use of highly detailed scenery along with tubular track and pre/postwar trains....eclectic.  Mine will head to the dumpster at the appropriate time.     Fendermain

Thanks jackiejr...I did an edit a couple minutes after posting.     Fendermain

I moved and tore down my big super o layout.  I disassembled it but it was a folded dogbone, and impossible to find a new house that would fit the layout.

I still moved it, all benchwork etc to my new place and it sits in pieces in a haybarn.  At least i can reuse some of the benchwork and reassemble for new layout.  But like the others say, easier to take your track and dumpster the rest.

You could ask if the new owners want to keep it but I assume that once they learn you will be taking most of the "goodies" they will change their mind.  

I intentionally built mine in roughly 3x5 sections that sit on a stand alone frame and are bolted together.  The wiring from the platform goes to a bus bar per section, with separate leads going to the transformers.  If I ever have to move it, I will still have a lot of work to do but it won't be a waste.  I can also add on to it or shrink it down a section at any time.  

You shouldn't have much trouble selling your tinplate - most of it looks to be in great shape.  Personally, if you have a hobby room at your new place I would build a small door-sized layout with storage underneath and the rest up on shelves.  Or you can go the Christmas Carpet Central route and store it the rest of the year.  

Quite frankly I find this thread pretty sad. Yes as the saying goes "you can't take it with you" but retirement offers the opportunity to build and run a layout; time you may not have had before. While my wife Paula and myself live in a four bedroom 2700 sq ft home on three acres, we intend to stay put. The layout is 28' x 15'  built on 4' x 4' and 4' x 5' tables.  With careful work it could be cut ,disassembled and moved, but I don't believe that my sons have much interest just yet. If it ends up trashed so be it, but I intend to enjoy it until they lock me in the box.

i built my layout modular. Its all on wheels and two parts have folding legs. they were originally built  to be part of a portable layout that my club took to our train show.  Its 8x21 feet. each section has a 9 wire plug to connect the wires to its adjoining section. The whole thing can be taken apart in about an hour and transported in a mini van. 

I hurt me when I found out tony lash.Had taken down his layout.He had a lot of details that I would have never thought of having.But I heard he has moved on now and is happy.

Al Smeraldo posted:

i built my layout modular. Its all on wheels and two parts have folding legs. they were originally built  to be part of a portable layout that my club took to our train show.  Its 8x21 feet. each section has a 9 wire plug to connect the wires to its adjoining section. The whole thing can be taken apart in about an hour and transported in a mini van. 

That's a great way to do it.  And if you build all of the modules to the Lionel specs, the odds that it can be donated to a club down the road are much greater.  

While I have no plans of ever moving, my first (and hopefully last) permanent layout is supported by Mianne benchwork which, should I have to move, could be reconfigured to a new space. As a fully paid up member in good standing of the brotherhood of the happily divorced with no kids, I am not particularly concerned about what happens when I pass... just have to decide who I REALLY don’t like and make them my executor   

I find this thread to be the saddest one ever.  Very sad to think that any train lover has to ever give up or demolish his/her beloved layout, especially those that are beautiful works of art like many seen on this Forum. 

Maybe someday the human race will evolve and such train layouts will be preserved like a Renoir, a Rembrandt, a Van Gogh or as Picasso!

LOL, Arnold

Dennis LaGrua posted:

Quite frankly I find this thread pretty sad. Yes as the saying goes "you can't take it with you" but retirement offers the opportunity to build and run a layout; time you may not have had before. While my wife Paula and myself live in a four bedroom 2700 sq ft home on three acres, we intend to stay put. The layout is 28' x 15'  built on 4' x 4' and 4' x 5' tables.  With careful work it could be cut ,disassembled and moved, but I don't believe that my sons have much interest just yet. If it ends up trashed so be it, but I intend to enjoy it until they lock me in the box.

Wow, now I see how similar my reaction was like that of Dennis. I had not read Dennis's reply before I posted mine.

My wife and I have discussed this in entirety.  We never plan to move, this is our final place to live, and the layout will remain as is, and bigger in time.  I plan on sitting back and running trains for as long as I can, and no place is better than home.  Even though the house is bigger than we need, the room is being used and there is always room for more trains.

Jesse

I have moved a couple of times and my biggest home I just trashed the bench work from a std gauge layout and a hirail layout both about 25x13 each. 

Now I live in a apt but I decided to go with Mianne bench work. Even though I have moved two other times having the Mianne BW have made it easy.

Even though my layout is much smaller now I will have a layout and run my trains till the day I die. I am even thinking about expanding it.

Dave