A sad day for my Central Midland Layout


Good thing is I am only moving 3 miles away from my current home and I will take it directly to the basement. It will be a lot easier to get into the new basement because of the high ceilings.
 
Well I am moved in the new home. With winter coming I decided to really think about doing some work in the basement. It needs to be framed before I start on any layout. I know the Central Midland as I built it in the old house will not be the same in this house. I have a very large basement in the new house and have decided where the train room is going to go. I have just over 650 Sq. feet to work with ( Way more that I had before) . So We planned out that the train room must be finished first if I want to start working on a Layout. I have some good Ideas on a layout that will include pieces from the old layout. My idea is to have longer runs for my passion of Passenger car sets and old steam. Broader curves and very little grades. Yes the Drive- In theater will be there too. Unfortunately I think probably 70 % of the old layout will not be used.:( Good thing is I learned a lot from the old layout and I plan to make this one so much better. PECO code 83 track maybe? We'll see. I will try to get pictures from beginning and during construction. Sorry no ending pictures since this hobby never finishes. :rolleyes: Let the building begin!
 
Ericsauto said:
Good thing is I learned a lot from the old layout and I plan to make this one so much better. PECO code 83 track maybe? We'll see. I will try to get pictures from beginning and during construction. Sorry no ending pictures since this hobby never finishes. :rolleyes: Let the building begin!
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Great to hear about the upcoming construction project and the refined sense of direction you gained from the previous efforts!!!
 
Sounds like good news to me. It is unfortunate that you can't use much of the old layout, but then there will be the fun of coming up with a new track plan. Looking forward to seeing updates.
 
Ericsauto said:
Good thing is I learned a lot from the old layout and I plan to make this one so much better.
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That is one thing people who are too concerned about "doing it the right way first". The mistakes and progress of technology always make the 2nd or 3rd etc. better.
 
Very good point you have there. Look at all of the experience you had building the old layout. I'm sure that you learned quite a lot building the old layout. You can now apply all of that knowledge to the new layout.
 
A new Beginning.

Okay we moved in at the end of August. We have been very busy unpacking, installing a new pool area and building a new garage. We were going to wait on finishing the basement but I got to thinking I am not getting any younger and we need to get the train room going. Although the old Central Midland is not going to be rebuilt it is time for something new. So I have designed a new layout that will have less grades and broad curves to handle my passenger sets.

Here are the pictures of the beginning of the train room. It will be 30X17 with the layout filling 24 X 15 of it. Plenty of room for work benches and all I need to do. You will notice that the one wall is half open. We decided to make it open to the rest of the basement. We made it bar height so that you can sit at it and watch the trains or TV . Everyone hangs out together. On the other side of the wall will be 12" deep cabinets for storage.

I wanted more room but I think this will be good enough at 510 square feet. So here is the start. I will keep you all posted if you want me too to show the progress. I am excited to get going on it by January.
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EXELLENT! I have just been here you are and it is a lot of work but well worth it to take your time and do it 'RIGHT'! LOL! I wound up with just under 500 sq feet of table space, enough to keep me busy for the foreseeable future! Keep the pics coming!
 
Good luck on your new layout. Enjoyed you numerous modifications on that original Central Midland plan.

I sold my old Central Midland layout when I was thinking of moving to Thailand full time. But I ended up moving to St Augustine FL for part time, and Thailand part time. Now I need to construct a layout in a 'shed' I will build in the aft part of my long carport.

But age says it will be 'around-the-wall' style with an bulging island for easy access. I'm even thinking double layer.
 
Holy Kadoly, and you got a house above that, to live in as well!!!!!
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LOL - Yes I do . The basement is 2300 square feet. We will be using about 1500 square feet as living space and the rest for storage. So yes we have some room. Don't know if I would ever finish a layout any bigger than I am going to have.
 
dinwitty said:
why I went modular.
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I had one of the original Central Midland layouts that I maintained in a breakdown possibility of 3 sections
railandsail said:
I bought this layout as just a bench work frame with sectional brass track. My ‘interim plan’ was to just clean up the brass track, smooth out its form, solder all the joints of the sectional track together to obtain some good electrical contact, and then run some trains. I would then sell it off to another rr-fan and build my dream layout. Alas, I drew more fond of its big versatility in a relatively small space, and developed a whole theme to pursue. Concurrently I realized that I would likely not have the time to start a new dream layout from scratch that would offer the enjoyment I was getting from tweaking this one, and running new trains I was still buying.

Fortunately the gentleman who built the ‘open grid’ base structure made the decision to provide for the layout to be broken down into 3 sections for removal or installation into a new home location. I’ve maintained that same capability with my additions, both mechanically and electrically.

Moving it, and resetting-up.
This problem presents itself as one of the biggest obstacles to reselling a train layout. My solutions to those problems:

[Problem #1 ] solved. My layout, as built, breaks down into 3 separate sections to fit thru doorways, down stairs, and into a van
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There were lots of photos on that subject thread that seem to have gotten scrubbed off ?
 
Y' gon'na hafta rename this thread, or start a new one "Great day for my Midland Central Layout".
 
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