Saturday 23 March 2013

White River Division...Off the Tracks


The area under the window is the point that I think water is coming through and running down behind the drywall and insulation.
Water issues...
A few weeks back we had a very heavy rain that leaked into my basement. I did already have one spot that I need to repair by the furnace when I replace it this year. This has to be dug out from the outside. I also need to remove the central air unit (which also needs replacing) from the same location. This winter a second leak has appeared about 10 ft from the first. I store by sailboat gear under the layout. When I found a puddle under my gear I pulled everything out from under there and realised the water had run down the wall under the drywall. I also have a window in the same area which I am hoping is the problem. I can't really check this out till it warms up a little and the snow is gone. The insulation is wet meaning that section of the wall has to be removed and insulation removed before mold sets in. My staging yard and West Barre are located here and can not be just moved away...means that section of the layout and wiring needs to be cut out and removed to do the work.

Replacing the drywall, mud and sanding is going to make a mess so a lot of the structures, trees need to be removed. My rolling stock gets put away for the summer so that is not an issue. I also have to figure out how I can blend in the sky colour as the whole layout room was painted at one time blending in the white and blue as I went along. Any touch ups will be really noticed.

This leads me to the next question. If I am pulling out a major section of the layout, replacing the furnace and piping should happen at the same time. The furnace piping runs over WRJ and West Barre.  Do I  re-figure the layout into one that does not have a duck under. I am finding I hate the duck under as I am getting older. I could leave half of the layout as is and rebuild the outside wall into a free standing area which does not need the wall for support. The layout would then become a point to point operation instead of the circle it is now.

One learns a lot about layout design and construction from issues like this. In the future I am planning on module design with the mini scenes to be removable such as I currently have at West Barre. I have keep my wiring simplistic which I will do once again. Lots to think about over the next month or two. I think the White River Division can be a much better layout if rebuilt but I do like what I have and will see if it can be fixed...George Dutka

As one can see the drywall and insulation is only applied down to the frost line or four feet from the ceiling. The concrete wall is seen under the layout. I attached the layout to the bottom supports of the drywall. One can see I have removed some of my sailboat gear to get a better look at the area under the layout and clean up the water. I also pulled off the plastic I have applied to the bottom of the layout.

3 comments:

  1. Hi George:
    It's a good question. Will you be happy with Point to Point? I am, on my layout, but it's a personal preference.
    One thing is universal, however: the duck-under is not going to be any more fun as you get older...
    Let us know what you decide.
    (I wouldn't wish a leak on anybody, but problems like this DO give us an opportunity to rethink and redo, to make things better. We can do that at any time of course, but few of us will tear out a portion of a layout without an external factor like this forcing our hand...)

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  2. George,

    Sorry to hear about the ongoing issues and the need to tear out (even if only temporarily) a large chunk of your layout to make the wall repairs.

    I agree completely with the idea of eliminating duckunders whenever possible.

    Not sure if you're asking for design advice, and I'd be the last person I'd ask if I were you - but a sketch of the entire potential "land grant" and some idea of the sizes of the layout sections you might have to move would help offer more concrete advice.

    I know you were planning on an extension to include a new larger staging yard - any chance you could reconfigure the layout - or even the space itself. While you're tearing up walls to do repairs, maybe building/moving/ etc,,, one more wall wouldn't be a big deal and may lead to a better overall arrangement (no duckunder etc....)

    Just a few thoughts - best of luck.

    Marty

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  3. Sorry about the flood. You could change the duck under to a hinged or lift out section. In other news we have started a model railroad club in Woodstock. The walls a some bench work are up. A point to point with return loops design has been selected, it has a branch that is connect with a hinged up table, that is in an aisle we do not use very often.

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