This topic has done one thing for sure.........it has shown the passion and devotion to quality that many have for this hobby. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and while we are subjective in our evaluation of art, we all appreciate the effort and talent that is put into our dioramas and layouts. David's layouts are exemplary in every respect. Our modeling interests vary, and our building techniques differ greatly, but we all feel satisfaction when we look upon the result of our efforts. Not one of us would wish to see something beautiful go by the way side and while we are sad to see the G&D disappear, I know David well enough to say that his brain is so full of future plans that he probably wishes for longer days and shorter nights to see his ideas come to fruition. Waiting and watching for the next chapter.
Oops, I see my name popping up. Thanks all for the compliments. It is nice to be considered something of an artist by others. Frankly, like David, I do consider myself an artist. I too left Z and N scale because of arthritic hand and finger joints. I believe I know what David is going through. Nothing could be worse except one of these painful extremeties being missing. Good luck to David with N. I gave N a wonderful roomsized layout, tore it up, and now have a great HO layout. Fun, and my hands can do the jobs. I completely agree with David's approach to get rid of the layouts for whatever the reason. I did it to all mine and have wonderful photos to browse through to remember other times. It may sound trite, but David and I seem to see eye to eye on one thing, it is truly the journey. Sadly, all journeys must end--but not yet! Jim
Hi David, Yikes! I would have been impressed enough at a $1600 cost for materials for a layout only 15"x36" in size! I sure hope my wife never sees this thread, or my model train hobby is likely to be in serious jeopardy! Honestly, though, I think by the time you decided to dismantle or scrap either layout, you had already devalued them considerably, at least in your mind. The failure of the Rokuhan switches is most interesting. It reminds me of a Kato turnout I have that every now and then doesn't throw manually. I remove it from the module, open it, look at it, find nothing wrong, put it back together and then reinstall it on the layout to find that it now works just fine. It's done this a couple of times now, and I still can't figure out the problem. Fortunately, I haven't tried to ballast anything yet, so removing it for adjustment is a lot easier. I must admit that because of this, I'm not very fond of the idea of built-into-the-roadbed switch machines. At least if they are under the table, they can be serviced without causing a major disturbance to the layout. Bill in FtL
I'm also very sad you had to dismantle your G&D. However, I too am interrested in knowing what issues you had with Rokuhan turnouts, as I still consider them for a hidden yard on my future layout. Dom
