What do you do with old layouts

[TomJ]

I’m definitely more of a builder than an operator! So as my current project is about as finished as it ever will be my thoughts are turning to the next one. I’m wondering what people do with their old layouts. I can’t imagine anyone would want to buy it. There isn’t space in the spare room to store it. So I could either dump it in the garage or strip what I can and scrap it.

I’ve got a bit of a sentimental connection to it - but equally keen to start the next project!

[fulton]

I am very much like you, enjoy mainly the building and also exhibiting, then what? I had a very successful exhibition layout that when it was retired I stored for twenty years! always thinking to rebuild it to current standards and techniques, then what, take it back to all the exhibitions it attended twenty years ago? I then considered building a new shed for it, but I very rarely operate a layout at home, if I had that extra space I would want to build something new, in the end I gave it away and sold the stock. I did sell another smaller layout, unprompted I had two offers, I was about to move house so that fitted in, got back basically the cost of materials.

[Pete the Elaner]

2 minutes ago, fulton said:

I am very much like you, enjoy mainly the building and also exhibiting, then what? I had a very successful exhibition layout that when it was retired I stored for twenty years! always thinking to rebuild it to current standards and techniques, then what, take it back to all the exhibitions it attended twenty years ago? I then considered building a new shed for it, but I very rarely operate a layout at home, if I had that extra space I would want to build something new, in the end I gave it away and sold the stock. I did sell another smaller layout, unprompted I had two offers, I was about to move house so that fitted in, got back basically the cost of materials.

 

If it still looks good & runs well then why not? 20 years is quite a while. There will be many modellers who will not have seen it before. There may be some others who liked it & would welcome another chance to see it. It is not like taking it to the same show year in, year out.

[The Johnster]

I got a huge amount of enjoyment out of building Cwmdimbath, but it’s raison d’etre is to provide a credible backdrop to the operation of my trains, to a working timetable in ‘real’ time at realistic speeds to the 1955 BR Rulebook.  It’s not a model railway, it’s a real imaginary railway serving the needs of a real imaginary South Wales mining village in a real place, only small and in the 1950s…

 

I have always viewed my layouts in this way; nothing wrong with being a serial builder but it wouldn’t do for me.  Assuming you keep the buildings for use on the new layout, don’t they all end up being versions of each other?   Doesn’t it require time for a layout to develop it’s imagined little life, the interactions of it’s little people as they deal with the problems thrown up in the day-to-day running of a branch line and a colliery, an aspect of modelling that is important to me? 
 

It is my intention that this will be my last layout; I’m 70 and might realistically last another 20 years, tops.  It’s got plenty of modelling in it to keep me busy until my eventual withdrawal from service, and in the 5 years that it has been substantially complete and fully operational, has entertained and occupied me fully, and AFAICS will continue to do so for the required period. 
 

Unless I come up on the lotto, of course!

[Dungrange]

4 hours ago, TomJ said:

I can’t imagine anyone would want to buy it.

 

Why not?  We are not all the same and whilst you enjoy building a layout there are plenty who prefer operation to construction, or their passion is building locomotive kits and they would like somewhere to run them (without the hassles of building something that they find less enjoyable).  The issue is usually transportation.  I've seen 'okay' layouts for sale on E-bay, but they are usually collection only from the opposite end of the country.  The other issue is of course size.  Most of us probably have space for a small layout, but not for a large one.

 

4 hours ago, TomJ said:

So I could either dump it in the garage or strip what I can and scrap it.

 

Most of our club layouts are stripped of whatever we think we could reuse on a future layout and the rest is dumped.

 

2 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

If it still looks good & runs well then why not? 20 years is quite a while. There will be many modellers who will not have seen it before. There may be some others who liked it & would welcome another chance to see it. It is not like taking it to the same show year in, year out.

 

One of our club layouts is at least 35 years old and we still take it to exhibitions - it has survived when other layouts built since have been scrapped.  Last weekend a gentleman asked if it had been in one of the magazines a few year ago, to which I said yes, it has been in more than one, but I couldn't tell him which magazines or when.  He said he thought it was familiar from a magazine article but that he'd never actually seen the layout before.  I've also had comments from people who have seen it before saying that it's a layout they like.  I think many of our club members feel the same way, which is why it has avoided being scrapped each time we're looking for space for the next project.

 

I also know that one of the Scottish clubs has recently exhibited a layout that was built by a member of a club that I was previously a member of back in the 1990s and who passed away several years ago.  I don't think the club that he was a member of when he passed had the space for it, so it was obviously sold on.  It has a new identity now, but it's most definitely the same layout as I operated it several times and some of the building were quite unique.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Dungrange

[john new]

Scrap. strip and recycle.

[TomJ]

I’m not sure it’s of a standard that anyone would pay for!!!

[Chris M]

I also retrieve everything that is retrievable then bin the rest. Many people are too sentimental about old layouts.

[ColinK]

I’ve sold all my layouts, simply by exhibiting them and mentioning in the programme that I am going to scrap or sell it after the show.

 

I never ask much for them though as I prefer them to go to a good home where someone will get enjoyment from them.

[t-b-g]

Sometimes I pass them on to others, sometimes I strip them down and re-use as much as possible and sometimes they get dumped in the garage or shed for years!

 

There was even one where I kept one baseboard out of three but stripped it back to just track, built a new station throat on a new board and totally rebuilt the scenery.

 

I still don't know which is best!

[Gilbert]

I've sold a couple - well below value - and given one away...I like to see them re-used..

One did sell for what I consider to be a fair price.

[Chris M]

If I've built a layout by myself I see it as a personal item and I wouldn't really want anyone else messing with it. Or even worse finding all the bodges I have made under the skin. I reckon the replacement costs of items I retrieve from an old layout is more than I would get from selling it anyway.

 

Club layouts are different. I know of one that has been exhibited in four very different guises by four different owners. My club was the second owner. I made a couple of changes to the track plan but then the track remained as I left it with owners 3 & 4. The scenery was completely changed under every owner.

[Geep7]

Both of my US outline exhibition layouts were scrapped, with anything useful being removed first for further use, then the baseboards taken down the local tip. The second US layout used a lot of the building parts from the first one, and most of the buildings still exist in a few large really useful boxes in the garage. Things like point motors, DCC boards, controllers, etc. should last a lifetime, and moving from layout to layout does save on a lot of the initial outlay. That is of course unless you're like me and have multiple layouts on the go at once.......

 

One thing I should say though is, if you are attached to a particular layout, take plenty of photos, easy in this day and age of digital photography. I'm quite fortunate that one of my layouts, Bad Aston, featured in the Continental Modeller, so I have a permanent record of that layout. But there are some club layouts I was involved with quite some time back, that I wish I had more photographs of.

[AyJay]

I could see a possibility where mine eventually gets stripped back to bare boards. However, the two parts that I am proudest of are two corner pieces that comprise the card buildings that I made. Also, I made them as complete lift-out sections. So, if the layout goes, these two pieces will stay and could even form a novel table. Fast forward many years to after I’m long gone and perhaps a relative will be wheeling them into ‘The Repair Shed’.

[tomparryharry]

The little shunting puzzle was passed on to other, younger, operators. The absolute plus side is that they all started volunteering at a local heritage railway. The disposal was on the understanding that when other operators wanted to take it on, then that's just fine.

 

Some of these 'operators' have gone further, getting work for Network, and the TOCs.  In these difficult times, puts a big smile on my face.