Salvage versus scrap

Good tips on how to salvage and reuse expensive track components such as turnouts. Even flextrack these days is much more expensive than in the past, so I plan on doing exactly that with my Atlas code 83 flex and #6 turnouts - diluted white glue as a bonding agent. Even if you're not scrapping the layout water soluble scenery and ballast allows for easy trackwork changes should a better approach become apparent.

Now if I just would have trusted my better instincts and gone with a Chainsaw versus the master plan out of the gate I'd be running by now - rather than still stuck in the benchwork stage.

If only

I had know this 30 years ago, I would be ahead by a lot of parts. Traded a whole layout including engines, cars and details for a pair of leather riding chaps. O well good to get reminded that I should not fall in total love with my layout.

Thanks

RJ

Soldering turnouts

You can actually even save a soldered in turnout if you're willing to work a bit. Cut the rails adjoining the turnout just beyond the points end and the two routes at the frog end.  Heat the joiners with a soldering iron and  and the scrap rail should slide right out. If you're quick, you can do it without melting ties.  At the worst you might have to replace one or two. You can then clean up the ends of the turnout with a vaccuum desoldering tool or braid. When reusing the turnout, you might have to heat the rail to get a new joiner to slide on but it's no biggie. I personally just don't like to leave turnouts " floating".

Michael

Some of us have no choice...

...with kids in college and a daughter's wedding to pay for, it's the only way I've been able to accumulate the materials for what I currently have! I've not only been reusing turnouts - some of the ones on my layout are in their fourth 'life' - I've even recycled wood from previous layouts' benchwork.  

A very timely editorial, glad I'm not the only one!

Recycle everthing

Why put stuff in the dump? I had room in the moving truck for plywood and dimensional lumber from a previous layout and home...I have used leftover lumber from building this house and said yes when my neighbor asked if I wanted the lumber from his just begun layout before he moved. My wife just rolls her eyes, but she hasn't priced lumber...well ever. Save track? Of course...even my old brass 18" radius which I later donated to a co worker for his kid's layout....and please don't forget the trees you so painstakingly built....they may not be perfect, but they do nicely as background landscape. Those old cheepie not up to par freight cars, good for background and weathering practice and the scrap yard and parts....of course you can always donate them to some beginner to play with until they get the model railroad bug and then recycle them once more...Joe

Trees and mills!

I switched scales but I've got a box full of N scale sized furnace filter trees I built. Probably about a hundred or so. They still make good background trees for a distant hillside in HO. I have a "Wiemers Grist Mill" I built in N, I'm very seriously considering putting it on a background hillside. You can even salvage some items across scales!

Michael

Sage advice Mr. Fugate

Joe,

I sorta figured this out on my second of three layouts.  My solution was to move away from L Girder and cantilevered 'on the wall' bench work to more of a modular box like construction that could ultimately be moved or scraped and reused.  Many of the mountains on my layout are modular and with a little utility knife work, can be completely removed from the layout and moved/reused.  Much of my two cities are on masonite bases as well. 

I reused the track, turnouts and built a DCC drawer to contain my electronics that has survive and grown with all three layouts.  I even reused a lot of the key wiring as well.

I thought your 'article' was the pick of the liter for the month.  I sure wish I would have read it in 2005 before I started into the hobby.

Just another Joe

Why not build it in sections?

After constantly building and tearing down layouts, I decided to go a different route when planning construction for the current interim P&A.  There is a debate whether to call it a module or section, but I have planned the benchwork, electrical, scenary, and trackwork around having it able to be moved in 4' wide sections.  This way, if it has to be moved, I can keep most of the work I have done with minimal damage. 

Ken L

Autumn Cleaning, facing change head-on...

Expect to throw away the first one

As a software engineer, I've read Brook's Mythical Man Month several times. His point about planning to throw away the first try applies to many building endeavors, and a model layout is certainly no exception. We hesitate doing it because it represents a perceived loss of time and money. However, if it's the first attempt, the enlightened view is to consider the plan to include the throw away, with the final result being the layout as originally envisioned, but now done better.

Usually with a layout, as with a software product, we don't just through the whole thing out and start over. We complete the project, then throw out the poor sections, redesign and rebuilt them. It gives at least the feeling of being more economical.

More discussion on another thread ...

You can find another thread related to this topic here ...

http://mrhmag.com/node/14025