To rebuild or not to rebuild?

[deckroid]

As someone who tore his old layout apart with a claw hammer, I can feel your pain and frustration. I quickly built a layout I thought I wanted, or I should say I quickly built my benchwork with no forethought on the layout I wanted to put on it. It was wobbly, I had issues with connectivity, I used bead foam, oh it was a mess. Thing is, it took me a while of reading and learning and seeing what others did that made me take a hammer to it about a year ago.

A club member gave me his old and battered copy of How To Build Benchwork by the master, Linn Westcott. I must admit, I have not looked back. Yeah, it was rough going 3 - 4 months without a running layout at home, but now I am very happy with what I have. Unfortunately, (depending upon your view) I put all further work on hold for about a month now, and I won't start again until after the move. We are building a new house, and I dont want to spend hours on scenery only to rip it up before moving.

I didn't scrap as much of my old layout as I thought I would. I reused to lumber, well, most of it anyway. I reused 90% of my flextrack, all of my turnouts and all buildings and trees. The mountains didn't survive me trying to save them. Which was a shame, because I got some really good advice on mountains with cardboard strips and plaster cloth and now I will need to rebuild entire ranges.

Overall, I am very happy with what I have done. I guess I could have shorn up my other layout, but then again, I would have spent this past year really working up my scenics and to only have to rip it all down. So, for me, it was worth it.

Just my .02 worth.

George