Salvage operation

While nothing is official yet, I'm "considering" demolishing my current layout (15x19) and replacing it with a smaller, more manageable one. I should have built a smaller one in the first place. A layout that size is a pretty large undertaking for one person... at least it is for me. And, when I designed & built it, I thought that "duck-unders" wouldn't be a problem. Well, now I'm older and they are a problem. : (

I know that I can easily save all of the structures and anything like that that isn't nailed or glued down, but what else might I be able to salvage? I was thinking that all of my rail is soldered flex track so that may have limited recycleability. Besides, I glued it onto cork roadbed so that might cause problems as well. I didn't solder turnouts, so those should be reuseable. I'd guess that the lumber and other construction materials would best fill a dumpster somewhere.

Have any of you scrapped a layout and been able to salvage much? Just curious.

--------------------------- Dan Merkel

Reply to
Dan Merkel
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Dan:

Do you have any info on that layout online? Track plans, photos, etc? I think I saw some on your old bright.net site, but none lately.

Cordially yours: Gerard P.

Reply to
pawlowsk002

Dan, unless you're really living right and are lucky, the track doesn't come up very well...short bits can be saved for fillers, but otherwise it's a lot of effort to save the track. And turnouts have an unfortunate habit of being easily damaged when being lifted, especially if you solder them to the adjoining track.

Sorry...

Reply to
Craig Zeni

Moved several times and tried to take some of the old layout with me.

Other then rolling stock , buildings and swithc machines, it was not worth the effort.

Your new layout will never be the same size and most things from the lod layout just will not fit.

Figure on starting over from the track down.

Howard

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Reply to
Howard R Garner

Dan:

Depending on your layout's construction you might be able to resize it by just sawing out some sections, joining them, and doing a bunch of repair work. This would probably work better with a grid than with L-girders.

I have frequently salvaged flextrack just by pulling out leftover track nails and running a putty knife under the ties to break the weak glue-ballast joint, then brushing the crud out of the track. Soldered joints would simply be broken in half during demolition, and the remaining lump cut off.

I never used to throw any track out. One of my layouts a long while ago had horrendous assemblies of sectional curved track, the inter-tie web sawed through, bent to a broader radius, and soldered together. Boy, that brass soldered nice. Boy, that layout didn't run so hot. I don't go quite that far any more.

Cordially yours: Gerard P. President, the still-boxed Sparta Railroad

Reply to
pawlowsk002

If you used white glue to secure the ballast and track, a major soaking with water should loosen it enough to remove it from the layout. Since flextrack is one of the *least* expensive things in this hobby, it might just be time to do the new layout in a finer track profile than the old one, ie: code 83 or 70 rail.

fl@liner

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Reply to
fubar

I helped a friend disassemble a 25 year old around the basement walls railroad with a huge yard across the middle last year. He moved nearly everything but the lumber and scenery to Alaska. The (flex) track wasn't glued down or ballasted nor were the pieces soldered to each other. The RR ran well with big brass engines (2-10-4 and 4-8-8-4's) and 30 car trains, up to the moment we disconnected the control panel. The reason was that the benchwork was as perfect as humanly possible and the track was *absolutely* without kinks or abrupt vertical curves, but that's another topic.

There was easily $3500 in Shinohara switches alone with a large bundle of 3 foot Atlas flextrack sections and a second one of sections 1 foot and up.

Homosote roadbed and sheets that were under the yards were moved. The only things that weren't moved was the lumber (much of which is in my garage waiting for me to begin construction), wiring (except really long runs) and scenery. There was no plywood in the benchwork or subroadbed. Basically we salvaged nearly everything and moved whatever wasn't available to buy in Alaska. Some removable pieces of scenery are in my attic just in case I can use them. I told my friend that my treelawn was as big as his and if I can't use it I'll throw it out.

The benchwork consisted of mainly 1x4,5 and 6 lumber free of knots and 2x2 legs. All was screwed together. The wood was worth the effort.

We even moved the control panels which my friend will salvage himself.

Another friend has been able to salvage track that was glued down but not ballasted, with mixed success. Soaking the really valuable pieces in water and a little work with a dental pic cleaned them enough to re-use. Once the track is ballasted, it's probably a lost cause.

Reply to
Fred Lotte

I used to, but since I changed ISP's, I don't any more. SBC doesn't have web space like bright.net did. I miss that but they (SBC) haven't deemed it necessary I guess.

dlm

Reply to
Dan Merkel

I had read a long time ago that one should not solder turnouts down, so those should be salvageable as they are neither soldered nor glued. I have a couple of scratch-built bridges that should be easily removed too. But after that, I just don't know. Part of me says rip it out; the other part says finish what I have...

dlm

Reply to
Dan Merkel

Dan:

Always be hesitant to throw out your old structures or rolling stock. Improvement and reuse on your new layout is the best way to go. I was thinking about this today and now wish I'd kept more of my projects from my days as a model railroad newbie. Up to my early teenage years, I gradually filled our family's unused and 1922-lighted basement with a sprawling, horrible-operating convoluted dogbone nightmare of salvaged lumber and train-show parts-bin Frankenlocos, and dozens of white glue, cereal box cardboard, and craft-paint buildings inspired by my own town and Raymond F. Yates books. Of that unwholesome empire of mold-growing papier-mache scenery and trains that sputtered and stumbled from town to town I have only a few pieces, and not even the best -- a rumbly Mantua 0-4-0, a little yellow clapboard house, and a war-weary wheel car based on the well-known and once overmodeled Santa Fe prototype from the December 1956 MR, kitbashed from cardboard and an old (AHM?) searchlight car. That, memories, and a few tantalizing Instamatic shots of an early iteration of my plywood empire are all I have left of it all...

Cordially yours: Gerard P. President, the still-boxed Sparta Railroad.

Reply to
pawlowsk002

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