Ouch!

What a horrible situation!  Good luck!

Yuck

Never the reason you want to rip out a layout, but hopefully everything works out for you.

Sad to hear...

I am sorry to hear that. Sounds like your problem is beyond its ability to repair, but if the pipe isn't totally collapsed sewer lining could be an option that wouldn't require any digging. 

Randy

Makes me think of my dismantling project

Always one of my concerns...

Man, that sucks...

We met briefly at one of the shows modutrak was at and talked about scenery a long time ago. I have followed your layout throughout the whole process and thoroughly enjoyed watching it come to fruition. 

I have part of the kitchen above the layout room and live in an old house which is far from perfect so I'm always plotting how to avoid disasters which are likely to happen. Always a fear.

I'm assuming you are only dismantling what's necessary to get the repairs done? I'm also assuming they will be hand jacking the floor to get to the line? Have they video scoped and surveyed it yet to know exactly how far under the slab it is? We had a partial collapse at an old house and they did the liner which saved things, but not before a big stinky mess.

Best of luck!

- jamie

Fitting

A grimy end to the Grimes line.

The IAIS is a reincarnation of the CRIP, so I bet the Grimes line will resurface.

Modular

Wow, that's tough having to tear down the layout, it's one of the better that I've seen photos of.  I was thinking the same as Joe, if it was modular (TOMA) it could have been saved.  Maybe for the next layout?

Next Steps

Right now the focus is on getting the room ready for the work. This all has happened within the past two days, so saving portions of the railroad is not a priority.

As for the future, I don't like to make blanket statements. However my first thought is that I've done the Grimes Line to the best of my ability. Maybe it's time to try something else.

James

Man...

James,

I'm so deeply sorry to hear this.

Nobody deserves to have this happen. It's such a great layout.

So much inspiration

I'm so sorry to hear that!  I've taken so much inspiration from your layout. Can't wait to see what comes next!

Sad...

Always sad to see the demise of a great looking layout....

I feel ya!

Back in 2009 we had historic flooding in Georgia. It rained continuously for two days. The ground was so saturated with run off, one of my basement walls completely collapsed. Thankfully, it was on the far end of the house so the whole house didn't come crashing down. My main waterline broke though and by the next day I had about 8 inches of standing water in the whole basement. My trains were safe but I did trash quite a few years of old Model Railroader and Trains magazines.

I started boxing up all my equipment and electronics and took them to my parents while my house was being rebuilt. Once everything was cleaned and back in order I started a new version of my layout. It gave me a chance to improve on what I had before and try some new methods.

James, you are an excellent modeler and I am sure whatever you choose to take on next will be top notch. Best of luck to you and I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Tim Garland

Wow

Sure hate to hear this! What a great layout and so inspirational! I've suffered for years in our home with water leaking into the basement and nothing we've gone has completely stopped it. Fortunately, nothing as serious as what has happened to you, but have had a lot of things get ruined when we got as much as 6 inches of water in the basement, before I had time to move things. This past week, we had 5 inches of ran and once again I wound up with about an inch of water all over the floor, but nothing of importance damaged.

Hoping to see a reincarnation of the Grimes Lines in the future and good luck with getting the problem solved.

Take care!

Nice!

yeah it sucks but look at the positive side  (unfortunately I can’t think of what you could’ve done better your layout was pimp) there has to be something you wanted to do over had you had the chance.  Well now that awesome sewer pipe just made it happen.  So can’t wait to see what you come up with next James. 

James

Sorry for the loss of the layout. I have been following here and on the Proto layouts group and you are definitely handling it well. Family and home first and then your modeling. Based on the skills you have whatever rises again will be even better then the excellent adventure you were previously on and shared with us.

TomO

The only good thing that will

The only good thing that will come from this is the chance to build another fantastic layout. You might choose a different part of the Iowa interstate for the next version. You will have a clean slate and maybe a less odorous one! Good luck with your next layout I will be looking forward to your posts covering the build.

When life gives you lemons......

This was a great layout, and I really enjoyed it. 

This is one of the HO layouts that I came across that convinced me to start back into HO. 

Sad to see it go, but looking forward to what comes next.     

Moving On

Thank you everyone for you kind comments.

With the amount of work needed to be done enough of the railroad is being to removed to eliminate the possibility of simply rebuilding. Time to try something else...

James

No Stranger

Living in a 3/4 century old house, I'm no stranger to the vagaries of basement plumbing. Sorry to hear of your misfortune, Your modeling has always been an inspiration to me.

Good luck in the future.

-George

Sticking with trains?

Sticking with trains? Different prototype? Different hobby? Bad time to ask?

I'm sure the 7 stages of emotions are flowing and I'd be flip flopping between anger, annoyance and trying to find a silver lining.

Iowa City and the Hills branch!

Photography

Hopefully you had time to photograph everything heavily before taking the chain saws to it.

Something different - I guess at the point the question becomes, "How different?"

Different branch, different prototype, different scale, different gauge...?

Hills Line

Hmmm...

Hills Line

I never really thought about the Hills Line as a prototype before, but I think Stutzmans does a fair amount of business there, and I believe there are 1-2 other active industries.  Kind of Grimes-like in traffic levels, but with different traffic types and a completely new setting.  Throw back to the early 2000s and prior with the IAIS/CIC interchange taking place there too, and you'd definitely have something completely different.  CIC power working the industries, with IAIS power coming down the hill with interchange.

The downside is that every trip to your basement would take you into Hawkeye country, but that's probably nothing a little hand sanitizer on your way out wouldn't address.