Home layout at risk and a solution


OCMRRC Jeff

OCMRRC President/webmastr
The wife came to me the other day saying she wants my side of the basement where I have a 10x16 O shaped layout, a shelf layout with 75 switches.
After a week of grumping around Mike, my neighbor, stopped by and suggested that I offer to take down 2 sides of the layout as that would leave me with a L shaped switching layout.
I was against it but remembered the golden rule "She with the gold makes the rules" also what I was losing was one side of the layout that was originally my portable module with 3 industries, sort of a John Allen timesaver switching layout and the other end which was just track to complete the circle. I am keeping the steam engine yard with 4 stall roundhouse and the diesel facility and 50 car yard as well as 15 industries and about 60 switches (don't know how many) I can always run trains in a circle at the Old Colony club and I do like switching the best and even better now I don't have to worry about a duck under.
Pictures will follow once I get it cleaned up. The top picture is from before taking out the duck under and shows the side of the layout staying, the bottom picture is where I took out the town and added 3 industries and implied the town with a row of buildings.

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Not a good scene here. Did you suggest to her that as soon as you get another building up that you could move the layout to, she could have the entire basement ?? :cool:

I would say that while moving away from her at a high rate of speed also. Hope you have good health care. :D

All kidding aside, what a bummer.
 
You didn't explain to her that she gets the entire house while the garage and basement are yours?


Nope, she has the garage also for her antique firetruck, a 1981 Chevy 1 ton brush truck. I do get a shelf there at the back for my coleman lantern collection! She has most of the house for her craft stuff, I get my den for my computers and camera collection and the gun room for my gun collection and part of the basement. Of course she doesn't give me a hard time about buying camera's or guns or train stuff.



this is her truck, but I am the only one who can drive it because she can't drive a standard.

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Coleman lantern collection

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camera collection

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I am at the stage where I am wanting to let stuff go. We have sooooooo much 'stuff' that sits in darkness that it's almost ridiculous. Trains in boxes = trains in darkness. Mugs, books, photos, jars, beer bottles, magazines, pots, glasses, small appliances, throw rugs, serving dishes,.....many items that sit for months and months in total darkness. Untouched, forgotten about until you stumble across it, and rarely when it's what you're looking for.

I have only one collection, and that's the trains. It's getting bigger by the year. I have just paid for a five-year old pre-order that finally came in, and have only one other locomotive on order, also five years into the offer and 12 times delayed. It will be my very last.

The reason I say this is because time is finite. Eventually, the time comes when getting rid of stuff is more urgent an exercise, and one is liable to make hasty decisions under duress. It's best to use the time now to down-size. My wife is slowly coming to grips with that need, and we'll be doing that over the next 5 months or so. When we move next, it will be much less a headache, and much less a heartache.
 
I have 3 boys and they are already lining up for everything except the trains. So if I were to downsize and get rid of stuff that no one wanted it would have to be the trains...
 
Fool them. Write a will that requires everything to be sold at auction and all the money given to a charity. Only will to them things that still will have an outstanding mortgage or unpaid loan balance.
 
Fool them. Write a will that requires everything to be sold at auction and all the money given to a charity. Only will to them things that still will have an outstanding mortgage or unpaid loan balance.

I know how to get them, I will leave them the ammunition but not the guns!
 
Nice truck!
I'm a switching guy too, sounds like it might be all you need.
An option would be a mysterious tunnel against the wall into another room?

I'm like Crandell and am getting rid of most everything else other than trains.
It's not about having what you want, it's about wanting what you have. :p
 
Well now, OCMRR Jeff, she sounds like a keeper in my book! Trains, cameras AND fire trucks!!!!

All kidding aside, I wish my wife was that enthusiastic-mine knew before we got married that I was interested in all three, and didn't start objecting to them until long after we were married. I've been reducing the camera collection because of space reasons, and don't own a 12"=1' fire truck-although I did (try to) sell them in a lifetime far, far away. I do wish I had my own rig instead of a Hot Wheels collection of them. I have an HO layout in the basement-we made a deal about basements before we married and she has stuck to that agreement and hasn't complained about the layout-too much.

The idea of your own small building for your own interests does have merit-and it's what I'm going to suggest to my wife if she ever wants the rest of the basement.

Good luck with your decision.
 
Obviously, I can't really solve your problem, but I'll tell you what we did... About five years ago, when my Mom was in her late 90's, my wife and I figured that the basement area where I had my intended to re-construct my layout (moved in sections from our previous house about 20 years ago, but never put back together) would probably need to be used for items I would eventually inherit. Our solution, mutually agreed upon, was to add two 14' x 14' rooms to our house...one for my wife for a study and additional guest room, and the other for a layout. The new room for my layout isn't quite as big as the area in the basement, but it will have to do. The idea proved out as Mom passed three years ago, and we needed the basement area, indeed, especially for books my Dad had left when he passed eleven years ago. While I would have liked to have kept the basement area for the layout, this is quite satisfactory. Probably won't work for you, but it might be an option... Good luck!
 
OK here are a couple pictures of what is left of the layout. I lost the extension so I can't do continuous running, but switching is my favorite unless I want to sit with a cup of coffee. Also I lost the time saver area, although I still have it as it is portable and could be set up and taken down.
The big thing and good for my arthritic knees is no more duck/crawl under!
There is still plenty there, 16 industries and a big yard. Now that I have lived with it I am happy.

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No bell but we put 2 Federal Q (Pre OSHA) sirens on it, with them both going it is the loudest thing in the parade! Pump works in fact everything does.

I or any passengers control the siren, the wife rides on the back in the parades. In fact if she fell off I would never know it.
 



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