Bob, I know a lot of narrow gauge modelers and as you know, we can be somewhat off the deep end, so carrying dirt around the country is just normal. Of course most of them want Colorado dirt.
There is a modeler with an O scale layout not that far away from here that has a basement larger than the footprint of his house. I blew my chance. The garden railroad behind the house is elevated a little and leveled by using a small retaining wall around its perimeter. Instead of paying for loads of stone, etc. to be delivered to fill it, I could have used the excavated dirt. The problem with a garden railroad or doing any of these other layout space creating projects, is they require real work. From basic physics: Work = Force X Distance and most of the force in DIY projects is generated by the owners muscles. Dave Heine Easton, PA -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bob Werre Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 11:41 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} Re: Basement Excavation Dave, Yes your dirt might be worth selling! I imposed upon my friend Gerry Evans when he lived in Arizona to obtain some reddish rock that I've used on my layout. Gerry sent me several milk cartons of Arizona rock. The downside is that I have way too much now, so I have been trying to sell some. And Bob, back when I was a kid in my Circuit letter AF#6, Leonard Giovannoli contracted with a guy to build him a subterranean type railroad room adjacent to his home. His contractor didn't a very good job and he was plagued with leaks and other problems. His situation was his home was on the smallish side so the basement had a furnace and a water heater taking up much of the prime space. Besides all that is was all open beams and pretty dingy. Despite the fact that we don't have basements or attics that could be cooled down here, I've felt somewhat sorry for those who have to deal with older homes that are railroad-unfriendly! My second story home addition was (at the time) a fairly large expense. However, as luck would have it (or maybe it was un-luck to some) I had some S friends who were out of work, who lent a hand with the hammers. As a matter of fact this week will be the anniversary of the start of that addition. We tore off the roof of my single story attached garage, added a mess of 20' 2 x 12's and started decking around Thanksgiving 1984. Despite a couple of mistakes, the room has held up to a couple of hurricanes and some severe storms. I think the secret to doing these kinds of projects is to be: 1) rich enough to hire a really good contractor or 2) be young enough to do it yourself. I could never take on a project like that again! Bob Werre ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
