Although I was fairly happy with the layout I was building, I really wanted a longer mainline run as well as better access for operators to reach cars in both yards (some staging would be nice too!) In 2012 my wife and I decided to have a new home constructed, which required me to dismantle the layout before we could put our current house up for sale. It amazes me how many model railroaders decided to list their house with a realtor, but figure they can leave the layout in place until the house sells! I got news for you, its really hard to get someone to buy your house when you have a bunch of wood and a large “model train set” in a house!

Anyway, the plan we selected gave me a large basement to finish and build my “dream layout” I knew we had selected the right home builder when our sales agent said to me “Oh you are into model trains? Well, here’s a plan of the basement, just tell me which teleposts you want removed and we can do a 9 foot ceiling if you want.” So now I had (on paper at least) a basement with 9 foot ceilings, 2 large overhead beams instead of posts, and no bathroom plumbing at all. On to the drawing board!

November 2012: The train room is in! (sort of)