Time to get to work on my inoperable HO layout

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That's another reason I don't have cars, they fit on one side and I work on them on the other, the blue one is my wifes.
 


The layout looks great. Can't wait to see your progress on it.

Those city scenes really nailed it. :)
 
flh80 said:
I'm into 1:25 kits (many to be built yet), the diorama is sweet but huge I bet.
Nice on the 1:1's, my fav Mopars were the 68 Cuda, Charger, Dart and Road Runner. At the time I was a GM fan though (67 GTO 400), later on Chev's. The Cuda convert wasn't many of, eh? Had a friend who had a 66 GTX, hemi factory staggered dual quads, back in the day, another had a 68 Dodge RT 440.
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I too have a bunch of 1/25 scale kits waiting to be built, and a lifetime collection of built kits and even a few promotional models are on shelves in the garage. As for the 1/18 scale dioramas, they are each 4'x8'. I would like to build another, but have no place to put it. That is my same issue with wanting to build a separate HO layout and why I would make it so that it could be easilly taken apart and put back together.
I have too many hobies (and not enough time or money).
Right now its time to pull the 1:1 scale cars out of winter hibernation, but my mind is still on either getting to work of fixing this layout so it can operate, or do some more on creating an HO layout that can be easily put up and taken apart into manageable pieces for storage (my "retro" layout plans).
 
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It looks great. I can only imagine what it'll look like when the communities pitch in and help rebuild a new rail and redo the streets and landscaping. One question though, who made that Gulf gas station model kit? I want to put a Gulf station in my layout to reflect an old Gulf station in the area that I am planning my layout after.
 
flh80 said:
House on the hill looks like a take out from "North by Northwest" movie :)
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Jim - Had that same house on my layout as a kid. In fact it was 'my house!' Saw it at the DuPage Show recently and should have picked it up (I'm out of real estate) BTW - North by Northwest is one of my all time favorite movies.

The layout looks great - nice job!
 
Went to a Greenberg Train show this weekend, and I guess it finally got me motivated. I finally decided I can't just have a layout sitting there and not be able to run the trains.
I started this thread over a year ago, but haven't done anything on the layout since. Till now. This weekend I removed all the trains, pedestrians (hundreds of them), vehicles, structures, trees, fences, street lights, and I even cut a couple sections of scenery out to gain easier access to the track. All thats left are a few bridges, the roadways and sidewalks, and ground cover. Tomorrow evening, I'll vacume twenty years of dust off the layout (and probably a fair amount of ground cover too). Next step is to see if I can separate the trackwork from the ballast and the base without completely destroying it. I have doubts that much of the track will be reusable.
 


Jim 68cuda said:
... Next step is to see if I can separate the trackwork from the ballast and the base without completely destroying it. I have doubts that much of the track will be reusable.
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Try soaking the ballast with some "wet" water. If you used white glue or even matte medium to secure the ballast, the water should loosen the ballast enough to get the track up with little damage.
 
Cjcrescent said:
Try soaking the ballast with some "wet" water. If you used white glue or even matte medium to secure the ballast, the water should loosen the ballast enough to get the track up with little damage.
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Thanks. I tried water tonight and pulled up some track but it didn't work near as well as I had hoped.
I'll try "wet" water later this week. I realized tonight that not only is there the concern with damaging the track, I also want to avoid damaging the foam underneath that new (or used) track will be re-glued to when the rebuilding phase kicks in.
 
So, I'm a little depressed. The wet-water worked pretty well. But now, my train layout is now pretty much completely dismantled. Major repairs were needed on the trackwork so I haven't been able to run trains on it for years. But today, when I removed all the track along with glued down ballast, I damaged alot of the surrounding scenery as well. My biggest issue was that when I built the layout may years ago, I had held the track in place with double sided carpet tape then glued the ballast in place. All the track had to come up to remove all the tape. But, the tape extended under some of the scenery in places as well. Removing the track and the tape, also removed some surrounding scenery. Now its decision time. Re-lay track and restore the scenery, or start from scratch, or maybe try to save sections of scenery and incorporate pieces into a new and different layout. The good news is that all the area where the track was, is now completely bare down to the base, which should make re-laying track fairly easy.
 
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While starting from scratch may sound daunting I think you would find it more enjoyable in the long run.
 
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