The Layout Comes Down

Last Monday I was doing some mental planning for the expansion of my O scale layout and couldn't get a good sense of how it would all come together in my basement because my HO layout was still in place. I don't plan to actually build the new benchwork until September but I decided to get a head start and try to remove the scratchbuilt structures and salvageable details from my "Menands" section, with the hopes that I could reuse them in the future. But, I had glued them down too well and the buildings just wanted to crack and split instead of come up nicely. 

Now, had I really cared I could have soaked everything in rubbing alcohol and tried to loosen the glue that way but I wanted some closure. In a moment's notice I just started taking everything apart.

It wasn't without some tears, and blood was definitely shed (stupid drywall screws with their pointy ends) but in about an hour all the benchwork for the Menands and Cut Corner sections were cut with a jigsaw into small parts and hauled out of the basement. From the underside of the layout I saved some long lengths of wire, the hex frog juicers, and the Tortoise switch machine. 

With only the North Albany section remaining, I spun it around and remounted the backdrop to the opposite side of where it had originally been. Now I could look at it from the "front side" which is how it really should have been viewed all along. Finally, I slide it all into the corner.

The process was very cathartic but also sad. But, I saved my favorite section of the layout and will keep it for awhile. It isn't currently wired up to a transformer but that's okay. Sometimes, I just like to stare at it. Aside from a delicate crane that will require a little repair, everything else survived. And someday it might be converted into a Freemo module.

Now I can walk around the open space in the basement and see where my O scale layout could go. That is exciting.