So, I've got to bite the bullet and make some decisions on the various layouts I have. The , as yet, unstarted 'Tapton Junction' layout is booked for a show in Cheshire, March next year and I'm need the room. i have to make a big decision on what to do with all the current layouts sitting in the layout shed. Republic Steel, my steelworks layout is highly popular and gets bookings for shows all the time Hakuho, my Showa era japanese layout has only done its premier show before Covid struck and there is a waitinglist of show organisers who want it now we are opening uo again Arkaengel, will be scrapped, No way can I do a Russian layout with all the misery in Ukraine at this time but to make room one of the other layouts will sadly have to go. Both quite famous in their own way. Either recycled or sold Cuyahoga,my magnum opus. 1950s/60s era Nickel Plate Road set in Cleveland Or Shasta. The layout that stopped most U.K show visitors in their tracks when they saw Z scale freight trains with three locos on the front and a couple of mid train helpers on 11 foot long trains decisions, decisions Eh? If I could I would go and get a bigger house but. Kev
Why not rework the last two together? Use a divider and use best parts of cuyahoga and Shasta? Could use many of f same structures reorganized and maybe Shasta is Appalachian mountains? Just a thought.
Get rid of the oldest. Surely each new layout was built to better standards then the previous, and the oldest has taken the most abuse by being bounced around the most?
I FEEL your pain!!! I have lugged a collection modules to 2-3 shows a year starting 2004 using my SUV. Then ii became time for a National Show and I added a Big module and some 45's to angle it up a bit, now all in a rented van for towage. With now not even 1 show a year (it will come back to 2-3 over the next years, I will be retiring half of them. I will rebuild for lighter, 'smaller' format frames but usable in the home as similar trackage used in the older modules so people will still long trans, So the 3 that will be going are actually a 3-piece combo of my 1st module and it then extended ones. I like the recycle 2 into 1 and you (generally) need an End (turnaround) module. Jeff
So. Having an existential crisis as the 'head doctors' would say it is Shasta that bites the bullet. I can run the U.P/S.P stock on Cuyahoga without feeling too guilty but it would not work the other way round. Stripping off the track, the Sacramento river can become the Chesterfield Canal and a new end board can replace Shasta Springs with its superelevated two tracks into the four track end of scene 'Horns bridge' viaduct. Arkaengel will be scrapped and donate its turnouts to Tapton More soon. But in another new thread In the interim. If somebody of sufficient means wants to buy a killer 1960/60s Nickel Plate Road layout set in Cleveland OH. and save it for future generations I'm open to a sensible converation Kev
