Work began slowly. All the rolling stock had to be removed, and
then packaged according to its various owners. Several mem-
bers had put shelving in their garages or basements to store
equipment as it was removed. Next came the removal of detail
pieces; figures, road vehicles, telephone poles, switch stands,
fire hydrants, and a variety of other items. Again, these had to
be packaged up for safe-keeping, and removed to members’
homes. The structures came next. Here things became more
complicated, as they were wired for our night sequence, so the
wires had to be cut, as long as possible, under the layout, and
again, packaging and removed.
Now work on the layout began. The first task was to remove all
the wiring, which meant pulling it out of conduits that ran from
the central control tower to terminal blocks under the bench-
work. There were thousands of feet, which were then sorted
according to size and length for reuse in the new location. The
control panels were dismantled and all the various compo-
nents boxed for reuse. These items were stored in closets and
the balcony of the building, as space was running out in the
members’ homes.
Deciding how to break the layout apart was next. The layout
was built with L-girder benchwork, with scenery hung between
the pieces of roadbed. Scenery which could not be saved was
torn out, so there were open areas between the various layout
sections making it easier to decide where to make the cuts.
Our cityscape, and the town of Westport had been built on ply-
wood, so these pieces could be salvaged, making the rebuilding
of these townsites go faster.
One of our members had access to a 16’ box van. We decided
to cut the layout sections into pieces as close to this length
as possible, though there were many smaller pieces as well.
All the legs were numbered, so we’d know where to replace
them. Most of the cuts were made with a Sawzall. Prior to any
8. Early September, 2012, and the train room is almost
complete. At this point, HVAC ductwork, lighting
fixtures, and cameras are being installed above the
T-bar ceiling.
8
Aberfoyle Junction - 7
“Details and rolling stock
were packaged up for
safe-keeping.”
MRH-Dec 2014
