New trackplan approach

As Lisa and I are moving into the new house, we discovered as most couples do, that we still have more stuff that space. In general, this is a good thing as it forces us to let go of the things we hold onto way past their usefulness. For example, I donated about 70 books to our church festival flea market because I realized my plan to re-read them when I retire means I hold on to the durn things for another 12-15 years! Forget it!

So we started to organize the garage and I quickly realized that once we put the tools on the wall pegboard and store the ladders, shelves for chemicals and small items, there would be no way we could have the offline staging yard shelves I had envisioned. Since I can't have these outside the train room, I have to consider how I will put them in the room and there is little option except for a multi-level layout.

In the past, I have not been a huge fan of multi-level layouts because of the complexity of a helix (to get from one level to another), the compromise in the layout height (lower level is too low and upper level is too high) and the amount of modeling space lost to the helix (essentially a 4' x 4' square area that is nothing but a corkscrew of track between the levels). However, it does provide additional space by maximizing the vertical space in the layout room, there are many fans and authors creating multi-level layouts including Tony Koester, and I have never actually visited a multi-level layout so ...

...I am going to have to give this some thought!

Finally, we are moved into the new house. In fact, we closed on selling the old house today so all the transactions are complete. We have been moving boxes and small furniture for the past several weeks into the garage because the flooring in the house was not complete. I have the two main sections of the layout standing up - East McKeesport and Irwin Yard - but the rest of the room is whatever I could not fit in the main garage! I did get the modeling desk set up under East McKeesport but not so I could get back to the train ... I needed to replace the desk drawers and stack some stuff on the desk top. Once that was full, I started putting stuff under the desk where the chair goes.

Funny story there. We have been donating things to our church flea market and one of the items was a desk chair on wheels. Lisa said she did not want it anymore and it was not until I was dropping it off that I realized ... it was the chair to my modeling desk! Oh, well, it was too big for the desk and would seriously take up too much space in the new train room. I think I might have to use a folding chair and put it away when I am not working at the desk.

Now to start putting things away where they belong!