What Would You Do??

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Kevin, if wood is all your missing, try going to local manufacturing or wharehousing areas. They always have scrap wood lying around. My entire benchwork is free wood. I have an "M" shaped layout 40" high, 11.5" long and the the three wings are 66", 72" and 78" long. Open L-girder format.

Kevin, Go a head and start building. Financial disaster struck me back in the late 80's and we never recovered. When we moved to an even smaller cheaper house in 2000 I got an out building with it that had some space. Getting the shed finished out to be a suitable place for a layout and work shop was a huge and unaffordable task. Building another layout was out of the question and with a new baby arriving three years ago it was even more impossible. So I started anyway. There is no reason to put off something that can't be done. Bruce

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On Tue, 4 May 2004 18:26:41 -0400, "Kevin" purred:

Ever consider "scrap" wood? Many construction sites have it and have to pay to get rid of it. they would be delighted to have some one take away part of it. Check your local exotic car dealer for plywood. Ferrari and others ship all their engines, transmissions, and body panels in high grade plywood (knot free, sanded both sides, almost cabinet grade) crates. I may not have much but my layout is built from genuine Ferrari parts =^-^= (I even have a discarded F40's wiring harness for my wiring) Auction galleries are also great sources of wood as their art is usually shipped in special crates as are other delicate items. They tend to discard these as buyers usually choose their own transportation and packing. I have built shelves and other cabinets from these discards. See damaged furniture tossed out on big trash day? Tear it apart for lumber and help relieve the load on the landfill. If one is creative they can find many materials for free. so turn that financial disaster into an opportunity to get creative in material sourcing. It is cheap and is good for the environment. Can't beat free AND a positive action, can you?

cat (who is environmentally aware and VERY cheap)

```````` All is not lost. I can't say what part of the layout to build would be best for you, but I was in a similar situation a couple years back. I finally had an entire basement to build a layout in, but not the funds to do much. I forget the reasons now, but I decided to start building one of the long peninsulas on the layout which contained a town in the middle at the blob section. The other end of the peninsula was going to have a tempory track connect the two ends of the mainline together. In other words, the track coming into the pendinsuala, would be temporarily connected to the track leaving the peninsula, in effect creating a long, narrow loop to loop layout. This would allow me to run a train and also do some switching in the town.

If at this point I still didn't have a bunch of cash to continue expanding from there, I could spend more time on scenery and detailing what I had, creating in effect, a long operating diorama. I also figured I could add a tempory track or two feeding the layout as a temporary staging or interchange.

Maybe something similar would work for you. I'd think about the reality of building a yard at this point, though, if I were you. Turnout cost can add up real quick.

Luckily, my financial situation changed and I received a good sized lump sump payment of past benefits, much of which has been budgeted for room prep and buying materials to build the basic layout -- benchwork, plywood, Homasote, track, roadbed, turnouts, electrical. I've been VERY careful to not dip into this fund, even though I'm currently receiving monthly benefit checks.

Hope things pick up for you before long. In the mean time just start building what you can, when you can.

Good luck!

Paul - "The CB&Q Guy" Modeling 1960's in HO

I like your attitude, Bruce! ...Bill

Oh, I will get underway. I was just puzzled over which portion to begin with to give me the most bang for the buck. Im leaning toward the Yard-to-industrial switching area portion. Thanks for the input!

Kevin

On Thu, 6 May 2004 00:35:10 UTC, "Kevin" wrote: 2000

Why not build the area as a module or module set that you can reposition at a later time?

Kevin,

I happen to enjoy working in the yard (classification, etc.), so I would include it with one or more switching areas. The make-up and break-down of trains, classifying outbound blocks, etc. provides lots of activity, so a yard is a great way to get lots of operation in a reasonable space. But I get the impression from the tone of your message that a yard is not your personal first priority for operating enjoyment.

In that case, building a staging area and one or two switching areas might be a good way to begin if money (or space or time) are tight. The staging area can simulate a yard in a little less space. Good luck!

Regards,

Byron

Where are you? I have a ton of wood. Some of it may not look good, however I do have a planer & drum sander that can make it look new again. For the most part, it is 3/4" double faced melamine. I do know of someone else giving away wood that is pretty much weathered, but nothing a planer or sander couldn't take care of.

I'm in Denver, CO.

You can e-mail me. You also didn't say what scale this is. If it is N scale, you might have a bonus here. I am in the process of building several projects for photographs in a book, but I don't have a layout to put them on. The projects include operating block signals, operating traffic lights, neon signs chase lights, moving chase sign, operating crossing lights, operating helicopter with lights, actual smoking building with police and fire trucks there; the fire being put out and the flight-for-life helicopter there, plus a bunch more. I need a layout to install them on for photos.

I know for the most part everyone models HO, but you can get four times as much layout in the same area with N scale than HO.

I'll second that. Just by being at the local "self-help" center (aka dump, albeit with concrete on the ground), I've been able to fall into quite a bit of free lumber. One guy was dumping pine tongue-and-groove paneling (the grooves and tongues made excellent kindling!), another time a woman was dumping 2X4s. It's luck of the draw, but some days you get lucky, most of the time not.

Jay in the running for "King of the Dumpster Divers"

Take the foam out of the cushions, too.

And with a secondhand blender and some green latex paint, grind the foam for your own ground cover. Takes time, but much cheaper.

Chop it up with scissors, the apply paint (dip it, wring it, and place on aluminum foil or disposable pans for drying), chop in blender when dry. The paint makes the foam more brittle so it chops easier.

Jay "The Frugal Railroader"

Ewewewewewe...........gross!

Who knows what bacteria, viruses, vomit, urine and other execrable stuff has been in that foam? Ugh ! Man, that's nasty!

Only if you pick from "the wrong side of the tracks". :) ...Bill

And I suppose there's some way to know? OK, OK, ~YOU~ do it that way, I can afford to buy a bit of foam from Michael's or Joanne's.

..............F>

Yuk, GA.

Well, if you stick to elitism and only sack leather or vinyl furniture, that solves the puke/urine/fecal problem. You could always wash the stuff out first I suppose.

I haven't gone that route myself.

Jay Back in action once again

No need. The stuff is cheap to buy new. There's no need to take a chance on contracting the curse of King Tut. Or worse.

..................F>

Sanitary, GA.

Welcome back, Jay!

Kent in SD

Thanks, Kent, it's been a week, but I never get tired of hearing it!

It's good to be back home again.

One of these days soon I'll have to get my Orphan Trains Locomotives page back up. I killed it when we separated. No workbench, y'know, which makes it hard to create new stuff and finish off old stuff.

Looking for the following items I couldn't locate at the LHS/junk shop: drawings of NW-3 from RMC, 11/66 drawings of NW-4 from RMC, 3/64 drawings of DH643 RMC 12/66 or Mainline Modeler 9/85.

I have had requests for the NW-3 and 4, and the DH643 is just for fun.

Jay Back in action once again