Large Scale Central

LS Trains in the Local Rag

General Discussion
#1

Here is a link to a local news story from yesterday here in Spartanburg SC.

Spartanburg Train

I didn’t know any of this was going on around me…the school is about 10 min away from home. I had tried to contact the Group mentioned in the story a while back to no avail…anyways I gotta get over and see this layout-

from above article, “The garden railroad was funded initially by a $30,000 donation from the Spartanburg Community College Foundation, but donated time, labor and materials amassed by Painter probably saved an additional $90,000, the school said”.

Wow $120K…it must really be something…

cale

#2

Speechless.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

#3
Terry A de C Foley said:
Speechless.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS


about cool new train at local school?..or the fact that the school gave $30K and then a supposed $90K was saved/spent/donated? totaling a “value” of $120K…

I’m all in for sharing the hobby, but I believe 1 of two things…there was money (taxes-donations) wasted here, or the numbers were inflated to make the news story sound better?

now I say all of that without laying one eye on the display…I could see spending $120K on a train, maybe if Verducci or Rick the Railroad guy had a hand in it…I’m gonna try to go over today and check it out…we shall see?

It may be the most magnificent display of LS Trains in the Southeast…or not

I could have a freakin’ empire for $30K guaranteed!

cale

#4

Went over late this AM…and found the Train not in operation…“should start Monday”…it is a Beauty of a Landscape (makes sense; this is where the money was spent), and there is one track making a loop throughout-appeared to be Aristo with USA Style ties… Following are pictures taken this morning (with boys in tow)…It looked to me that the track is installed with the float method, and saw a few mags in place, I assume for sound triggers. There was a CPU/Monitor plug installed along where once again I assume the Track Power controller will be used…If I’d thought about it, I could’a carried the Annie over, Her batteries were topped off last night! (No Plug-in Controller or Track Mags needed thanks to RCS!)

mid/lower right end looking left towards center

just past falls looking up to loop on left side of display

Head waters…starts about 1/3 of way across layout

Falls-this is the highlight…pondless-and nice

Looking back down to right-control center plug there at the chair

Shot from right end…Long house-assume storage being built, may be tunnel mentioned in article? No other structures displayed today.

Bottom End of Far Right side-Loop back to Tunnel/House/Storage…

Closer-up shot of above

Curve on Bottom End of Loop…used some type of landscaping border here for track protection? hope to go back soon and see it run. Maybe make some new friends in the Process! Cale

#5

My bet is you will find a nice, but not necessarily outstanding layout. I would say that it’s going to be a combination of government waste and over inflation of donated time and labor. If you figure that the professor worked on the layout on school time…and his wages are in the 6 digit category it wouldn’t take much time at all to add tremendously to the cost of the layout.

#6
Warren Mumpower said:
My bet is you will find a nice, but not necessarily outstanding layout. I would say that it's going to be a combination of government waste and over inflation of donated time and labor. If you figure that the professor worked on the layout on school time..and his wages are in the 6 digit category it wouldn't take much time at all to add tremendously to the cost of the layout.
Warren, you nailed it......a few thought after reading your post.....

I’d be a proud papa if this was my layout!-Heck, I’m proud of my 120’ mess out in the yard now!

We all know the expense (time and effort, and lest we forget-CASH) needed to complete something like this, I’m not taking it lightly.

…but for folks who have no knowledge of “real” cost of Garden Railroading–those figures ($30K, $90K, $120K…)will continue to scare the doo-doo out of folks and prevent them from ever taking the plunge.

…just like the first time I saw the big trains at a “Hobby” shop in Gatlinburg…all they sold were a certain German manf, and the sets were MSRP++.

…turns out, I’m a little smarter than that and began the Web search along with my Dad…and pretty soon, along came Tiny P(God Rest His Soul), LCS, GR Mag and many others to coach and educate!

Good and Bad here, maybe it will start some in the hobby locally…that’d be nice!

cale

#7

Wow!

#8

Almost anybody would be proud to own that layout. But if it’s $120,000 then Verducci’s layout must be over a million $.

My argument to the small scalers who complain about LS being too expensive is that if you are a real modeler then you are resourceful enough to do it on the cheap and have a nice layout.

#9
Warren Mumpower said:
Almost anybody would be proud to own that layout. But if it's $120,000 then Verducci's layout must be over a million $.

My argument to the small scalers who complain about LS being too expensive is that if you are a real modeler then you are resourceful enough to do it on the cheap and have a nice layout.


AMEN!!!

#10
cale nelson said:
about cool new train at local school?...or the fact that the school gave $30K and then a supposed $90K was saved/spent/donated? totaling a "value" of $120K........
Just seems a lot of money, that's all. I'm not criticising. Honest. Not my place, I'm a furriner here.

And here I am concerned about the difference between buying 28 yards of ready-made track or component track…sigh…

Sorry, I’ll vanish back over the horizon now.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

#11

Terry, I appreciate your input…

That is the thing that pressed me to go visit…I had to See for Myself a $120K layout…

it is nice, beautifully done, and a nice addition to the landscape there at the College…but, seems a far fetched figure to me…Sorry, I know what this stuff cost here in the real world, and Warren is right…it can be done on the Cheap, thats how we roll around here!

As to the smaller scalers…I have paid less for every engine on the NBRR than a nice On30 or HO, or Z engine would cost (comp quality)

cale

Nice discussion guys-that is why I posted it here…and make sure you see our Cornbread convo in the off topic thread!

#12

Nice pics, Cale. I would think a big chunk of the $30K went into the professionally done retaining walls, pondless water fall and plantings. I’m sure those were done by a contractor just trying to make a buck (like me).

-Brian

#13

Brian, this was done by the school’s horticulture department. I would imagine most of the work was done by students trying to earn their horticulture diploma.