WOOHOO! Good weather = time to build

[Gary S]

The interest in trains has been with me at least back to when I was three years old. The real ones, steam at first, were right across the street from our front door.

So did you have trains when you were a kid? And have you had layouts for most of your life? Or did you return to the hobby in your adult years?

In reality, a separate structure for the layout (even if we go ahead and build another house) is impractical, cost-wise, as it would require both heating and cooling, neither of which are needed in the basement.

Yes, but one man's "impractical" is another man's "let's do it!" After all, isn't the entire hobby rather "impractical"?

I talked about the heating-cooling issue with my AC guy, and he said it would be most cost effective to get a wall unit and build it in. I've been doing some research, and one that will heat/cool 800 sq ft costs around $600. Of course, the electricity to run it is what adds up.

if I ever build a totally new layout, it will be an example of "less is more", with less track (figuratively speaking) but longer runs between towns, and fewer towns.

I've been thinking that way for my extra shelving that my building will allow. I'm not really modeling towns, I'm more or less doing something like the Empire and Modesto or the LAJ, with a heavy dose of the flavor of the industrial parks south of Houston. I may not add many more industries than what I have on the existing shelves... I'll just put some distance between the interchanges and more open country similar to what is down here.