The Flood of My layout

[NorfolkSouthern9708]

Well, lately, our washer has been acting up. But today, it finally caved. The thing overflowed, and it covered the whole laundry room floor, which is right above my ho scale layout. I am not sure if it will need completly rebuilt, but right now, I am kinda mad, but it hasn't sunk in yet. So yeah.  :'(

[ChrisNH]

Ouch! Sorry to hear that.. a part of my future layout area is below the kitchen and bathroom.. its a worry.. I truly sympathize..

Chris

[davefoxx]

Sorry to hear about your bad news.  While I didn't lose a layout, I am also currently suffering from some water problems in my house that I am preparing to list for sale.

You may find that the layout can be dried out, unless the water was "dirty."  Think about it, we often flood our layouts with water and glues to build scenery and they survive with no problem.  The electronics may not fare as well, but I say get a dehumidifier  and some fans and take a shot at drying it out.  Perhaps you'll only have to make repairs rather than start all over.

Good luck,
Dave Foxx

[NorfolkSouthern9708]

Well, it was washer water, with tide. Possible to fix?

[davefoxx]

Well, it was washer water, with tide. Possible to fix?

Without seeing the extent of the damage, I think so.  We add detergent as a wetting agent when gluing the scenery materials, so it seems possible that it will dry and be fine.  I would think that it was diluted enough not to cause major problems, and your layout now has "April freshness."

I remember reading that Allen McClelland developed a leak over the original version of his Virginian & Ohio, soaking the layout, or a portion thereof, to the point that a turntable pit was filled to the rim!  His layout survived the flood.  It just, unfortunately, didn't survive a residential move.

Dave

[NorfolkSouthern9708]

I may actually be doing some modifications to it to begin with, like cleaning it up first. But I want to make it into a 6x8.

[davefoxx]

I may actually be doing some modifications to it to begin with, like cleaning it up first. But I want to make it into a 6x8.

What size is it now?  Depending on what you want to do and what can be salvaged from the current layout, it may be easier to start over.

Dave

[bnsf971]

It's been about a month now, any news about the flood recovery? ???
I had a similar disaster with my N scale layout, but it was because a hurricane removed the roof over the layout. I was able to repair the layout, and reuse over 80% without dismantling and rebuilding.

[Freighttrain]

I feel your pain.But think of it this way,Now you can build a new layout with all the improvements you wished to do to the first one.I had a similar problem but more stupidty induced.My train building was so piled full of junk and worthless stuff I couldn't walk so I decided to pull EVERYTHING out into the yard and sort it.Well,I pulled the layout outside first and covered it with a tarp cause I knew it would take a couple days.Wouldn't you know it,it rained one of those days and the tarp was NOT water tight I found out.The layout was nearly an exact replica of John Allens original Gorre and Dephetid.I used the original non-built version with the engine roundhouse and turn table.And the curved wood bridge was a track running around a cliff.Oh,I used Code 83 on mine too.Fun little layout as long as you didn't have a get away from you on the top branch line.It would make for an intersting runaway on the 8% grade.

[NorfolkSouthern9708]

Well, an update.
I think this really helped me. It's made me rework my one half of the layout, and it now looks a heck of a lot better than before. I also plan on reworking the back end of the layout to make it to run a point to point layout. So, it's been a OK!  ;D Also, after it dried, it smelled like Tide. Wierd.

[davefoxx]

Also, after it dried, it smelled like Tide. Wierd.

At least it doesn't smell like low tide.   ;D

Dave Foxx

[NorfolkSouthern9708]

Hahaha, My mom started using Snuggle, glad it didn't smell like that.

[Mark5]

Well, an update.
I think this really helped me. It's made me rework my one half of the layout, and it now looks a heck of a lot better than before. I also plan on reworking the back end of the layout to make it to run a point to point layout. So, it's been a OK!  ;D

Glad to hear it was a bit of a ... uh ... blessing!

[Philip H]

Pics please!

[Packer]

Well, an update.
I think this really helped me. It's made me rework my one half of the layout, and it now looks a heck of a lot better than before. I also plan on reworking the back end of the layout to make it to run a point to point layout. So, it's been a OK! 

Good to see it worked out for you.

Also, after it dried, it smelled like Tide. Wierd.

Your a poet and didn't even know it. And why are you smelling laundry detergent?