Reminds me of an estate sale I went to one time. Unassuming place, one of those tiny postwar homes about the same size as the one in this article - but with at least double or triple the density of this train layout in the basement. The owner must have been a very thin person, as the narrow winding paths around the basement in places measured no more than 8 inches, and the widest parts were only about 2 foot wide. In a 900 sq. foot basement, there was probably only about 50 sq foot of floor you could actually rest your feet on. The rest was all layout and boxes of trains and train accessories of all sorts - hundreds of tiny pots of specialty paint, miniature trees, "grass powder", special linkages and wheels, and more. Probably most of it got thrown away at the end of the sale.
People have hobbies, but I can't think of any circumstance in which I'd convert my basement into a deathtrap. There was less room than those hoarder houses you see on TV (but much more organized). It was genuinely concerning that they even decided to hold a sale there open to the public.
Truly one of the more bizarre things I've seen. Also, the upstairs? Mostly normal - you wouldn't even know the guy liked trains.
Tangentially related, re hoarders and death traps, have you come across the story of the Collyer brothers?
Homer Lusk Collyer (November 6, 1881 – March 21, 1947) and Langley Wakeman Collyer (October 3, 1885 – c. March 9, 1947), known as the Collyer brothers,[1] were two American brothers who became infamous for their bizarre natures and compulsive hoarding. The two lived in seclusion in their Harlem brownstone at 2078 Fifth Avenue (at the corner of 128th Street) in New York City where they obsessively collected books, furniture, musical instruments, and myriad other items, with booby traps set up in corridors and doorways to crush intruders. Both died in their home in March 1947 and were found (Homer on March 21, Langley on April 8) surrounded by more than 140 tons (127,000 kg) of collected items that they had amassed over several decades.
…
The responding officer initially had a difficult time getting into the house. There was no doorbell or telephone and the doors were locked; and though the basement windows were broken, they were protected by iron grillwork.[20] An emergency squad of seven men eventually had no choice but to begin pulling out all of the junk that was blocking their way and throw it out onto the street below. The brownstone's foyer was packed solid by a wall of old newspapers, folding beds and chairs, half a sewing machine, boxes, parts of a wine press, and numerous other pieces of junk. A patrolman finally broke in through a window into a second-story bedroom. Behind this window lay, among other things, more packages and newspaper bundles, empty cardboard boxes lashed together with rope, the frame of a baby carriage, a rake, and old umbrellas tied together. After five hours of digging, Homer Collyer's body was found in an alcove surrounded by filled boxes and newspapers that were piled to the ceiling.
> ‘I told her the truth and she was like “ok”. ‘But she has an art degree so she appreciated the level of detail and work that went into it. We’re now engaged'
The vast majority is probably rent/property taxes. With a distant second benchwork (lumber).
Half a mile of 2-rail O-scale track (3-4 mainlines in a 200 foot loop) at today's pricing is under $8 a foot retail. In bulk and pre-pandemic well under $10k total. Considering the budget his roster of engines and rolling stock seems questionable.
Outside of collectable Lionel. Even the high end, magnificent museum quality KOHS brass compounded steam engine will run you ~$8,500. While he is running diesel.
I can understand the appeal of mainline/realistic operations. O-scale has its limitations (normally space) but an NTRAK meet up shows more creativity.
This is in Melbourne, where most homes are sold via auction (because of the limited supply)... lots of people are forgoing building inspections because of it. Wouldnt be surprised if he didnt do one.
Inspector wound't have had any reason to mention it. They care about structural issues.
The foundation is still clearly visible, they could do their job despite the railway. And they wouldn't have known that others didn't know it was there.
Home inspectors (at least in Australia) are next to useless and expensive. The one I bought a report from never looked under the house or in the attic.
I'm not really into trains, but it would be great if one day I found a 1970's computer room in my basement, complete with cold water lines, 3278 and 3279 terminals, and some tape drives...
I'd be happy to discover a basement, even if the first thing I'd do would be to call the police to check if nobody went missing near my neighborhood in the past few decades.
having a basement - that's ok. Having a hidden basement - hard no on the property. And if the basement door was nailed shut or hidden - I'm leaving the house right now, seen too many movies, there's a victorian doll/music box/portrait with staring eyes waiting for the next person to go in there
I would not be too hasty with modernisation of the controllers as it seems that most enthusiasts are happy with DC (analog) rather than DCC (digital). Too much determination to modernise could result in a broken train set since the project would be large. Restoration with no modernisation would still provide the fun, and be part of the owner's original vision.
What he was lucky with was the state of it. My own father was into model engineering, however, he never put his tools away and never completed a project, so it just took months to tidy up his hoarded junk, to find there was absolutely nothing of value at the bottom of it. If only my dad had completed his projects and left it in the condition shown here.
When my daughter was 2, one day I saw a sign for a model train exhibit in a strip mall. We walked into a tiny-ish hobby shop, and were directed to a staircase in a corner.
At the top was a huge warehouse filled with model trains, tracks, and landscapes. She was obsessed with the largest Thomas the Tank Engine set I've ever seen, and all I wanted to do was to look at all the different landscapes.
Imagine buying a house and gaining not just a home, but someone else’s whole dream world beneath your feet. That’s more than real estate. That’s a time capsule.
a few years ago i spent a few months in the house of an old friend of the family who spent his last days in a retirement home. the house was a treasure of interesting things to find. he was running a business out of it, and there were shelves of left over products, books and old style clothes. the most interesting was a model train set that was at least half a century old. similar the home of my own grandparents.
The article says it wasn't touched since ~ the 1960's. I see an old MRC TECH II powerpack (two button as compared to three - on/off, direction only.)
>> This out dates me but didn't those come to market in the 80's? Too new to be old but too old to be new.
>> Also pretty sure I saw a blue Conrail GP-40-2 in the background of the Youtube clip. (Not too up on diesel. Know more about steam.) but either way Conrail wasn't formed until the late 1970's?
Bump for the Miniatur Wunderland - reason enough for anyone into to trains to visit Germany/Hamburg. You can easily spend two half days there. Their behind the scenes tour will give anyone with or thinking of building a layout enough ideas to keep them busy for years.
Their attention to detail, not only on the front end but also the backend is incredible. My wow moment was their staging. Since the trains run for the duration of the hours they are open - they get hot so they switch between two trains for each line so the motors don't burn out. Underneath each 12-18 inch riser section in the staging area is a separate smoke detector. (~20 smoke detectors in each staging area.)
How would a buildings and pest inspection have missed it?
Or, maybe he found it during inspections, knew he would never convince his wife to buy the house on the strength of the train set alone, but did managed to convince on the strength of the house... now he has to sell the lie?
Now I’ve an idea for a Netflix comedy. Older gentleman with an extensive model train network and experience with Large Lionel Models gets hired as a CEO for a Silly Valley AI startup; hijinx ensue.
The model train setup Daniel Xu found beneath the home he just purchased is impressive, but it has proven an even greater delight, given he is a train engineer and train enthusiast. Source: SBS News
Uh huh... fortunate indeed.
My immediate thought was, his wife discovered his hobby, and the money spent, and "No, it was here when we moved in!"
Then the news shows up, and of course, he can't tell them different, or busted!
How? It was accessible through a door. Nobody - not the seller, agent, himself or any other prospective buyers, or the building inspector he presumably engaged to check the place over before signing contracts - thought to look behind the door?
How can you buy a house without checking out the foundations/basement yourself or by a pro?
All the home inspectors I looked at (Victoria, where this house is, plus Tasmania) were all quite clear that they would only access areas they could find a way in. Closed up areas, wouldn't be inspected by default.
The Melbourne real-estate market is _mad_. Prices (relative to wages) are exceptionally high and continue to rise, spending half your take-home income on housing isn't super uncommon.
Widespread sentiment that if you don't buy something ASAP, you'll never be able to - meaning lots of buyers skimping on due diligence to close a sale.
Not uncommon for Australia. The housing market is very competitive so being a nuisance as a buyer, such as hiring someone for a thorough inspection, could hurt your chances.
What inspectors actually do also depends on who is engaging them and how much they get paid. For example, in the ACT it's mandatory for sellers to have an inspection done. This will generally go to the lowest bidder and they will put in minimum effort, e.g. the report will have things like "Roof inspected as far as can see from ladder placed against the house" and "furniture present, unable to inspect area". If you were the buyer and engaging an inspector, and the seller cooperated, you could have them inspect as much as you were willing to pay them for.
Many "inspectors" don't even go inside anymore. In some areas, where it is know that the buyers has every intention of replacing/rebuilding most houses, I've even heard of "inspections" done without a visit. They check on google that the house plan matches city records, that services are provided to the lot, and that there are no buried oil tanks and such, but don't bother going to view the house in person.
Whatever the inspector finds, whether it be $50k or $100k or $200k worth of repairs that you request as a price deduction, there’ll be someone else who won’t care about the inspection issues. It’s in your best interest to make the sellers life easier and execute the fastest sale.
Most old houses in Aus are just assumed to be complete shit so why waste money on an inspection to tell you what you already know. All the value is in the land.
If the house collapses that's a good thing because then the heritage protections are gone and you can build something better. The property value probably goes up if the old workers hut falls over.
I guess the seller didn't want complications and the agent just lists what they're told about, wouldn't check for anything unexpected. Surveyors are commonly disappointingly trusting of handwaving and the buyer didn't have the experience to think to check.
A whimsical tale of dishonesty, laziness and incompetence. Merry fucking Christmas
The article says much of the house is raised, sitting above a carport. It sounds like this may be the space between the house and carport, so someone checking out the foundations would be looking for the foundation under the carport.
You can't comment like this on Hacker News, no matter what it's about, but especially something as benign as model trains. This kind of commenting is not what HN is for and destroys what it is for.
Please read the guidelines and make an effort to observe them in future.
alnwlsn|8 months ago
People have hobbies, but I can't think of any circumstance in which I'd convert my basement into a deathtrap. There was less room than those hoarder houses you see on TV (but much more organized). It was genuinely concerning that they even decided to hold a sale there open to the public.
Truly one of the more bizarre things I've seen. Also, the upstairs? Mostly normal - you wouldn't even know the guy liked trains.
nandomrumber|8 months ago
Homer Lusk Collyer (November 6, 1881 – March 21, 1947) and Langley Wakeman Collyer (October 3, 1885 – c. March 9, 1947), known as the Collyer brothers,[1] were two American brothers who became infamous for their bizarre natures and compulsive hoarding. The two lived in seclusion in their Harlem brownstone at 2078 Fifth Avenue (at the corner of 128th Street) in New York City where they obsessively collected books, furniture, musical instruments, and myriad other items, with booby traps set up in corridors and doorways to crush intruders. Both died in their home in March 1947 and were found (Homer on March 21, Langley on April 8) surrounded by more than 140 tons (127,000 kg) of collected items that they had amassed over several decades.
…
The responding officer initially had a difficult time getting into the house. There was no doorbell or telephone and the doors were locked; and though the basement windows were broken, they were protected by iron grillwork.[20] An emergency squad of seven men eventually had no choice but to begin pulling out all of the junk that was blocking their way and throw it out onto the street below. The brownstone's foyer was packed solid by a wall of old newspapers, folding beds and chairs, half a sewing machine, boxes, parts of a wine press, and numerous other pieces of junk. A patrolman finally broke in through a window into a second-story bedroom. Behind this window lay, among other things, more packages and newspaper bundles, empty cardboard boxes lashed together with rope, the frame of a baby carriage, a rake, and old umbrellas tied together. After five hours of digging, Homer Collyer's body was found in an alcove surrounded by filled boxes and newspapers that were piled to the ceiling.
fnordpiglet|8 months ago
Probably not intended but pretty funny implication that train lovers are pathologically eccentric. Probably mostly true.
fatihpense|8 months ago
zeristor|8 months ago
Obsessed, passionate, fascinated…
Is this the sort of thing that leads people to work remotely so they can have the space for their hobby.
Like one’s Lego collection, albeit just in the boxes because they’ve not had the time to put them together.
whywhywhywhy|8 months ago
tenuousemphasis|8 months ago
gadders|8 months ago
"A businessman who secretly built the UK’s biggest model railway feared his girlfriend would dump him if she learnt about his ‘dull’ hobby."
Train-mad Simon George, 53, spent £250,000 and a staggering eight years on his 200ft-long project.
https://metro.co.uk/2021/12/07/man-spent-250000-secretly-bui...
lupusreal|8 months ago
Glad that worked out.
chrisweekly|8 months ago
mykehunt|8 months ago
Half a mile of 2-rail O-scale track (3-4 mainlines in a 200 foot loop) at today's pricing is under $8 a foot retail. In bulk and pre-pandemic well under $10k total. Considering the budget his roster of engines and rolling stock seems questionable.
Outside of collectable Lionel. Even the high end, magnificent museum quality KOHS brass compounded steam engine will run you ~$8,500. While he is running diesel.
I can understand the appeal of mainline/realistic operations. O-scale has its limitations (normally space) but an NTRAK meet up shows more creativity.
The clip of him using the knock-off Faller Grassmaster is kind of funny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-Mcgp6Dtq8
zeristor|8 months ago
wrs|8 months ago
greenknight|8 months ago
phire|8 months ago
The foundation is still clearly visible, they could do their job despite the railway. And they wouldn't have known that others didn't know it was there.
Untit1ed|8 months ago
justusthane|8 months ago
emmelaich|8 months ago
unknown|8 months ago
[deleted]
rbanffy|8 months ago
I'd be happy to discover a basement, even if the first thing I'd do would be to call the police to check if nobody went missing near my neighborhood in the past few decades.
f4c39012|8 months ago
Theodores|8 months ago
I would not be too hasty with modernisation of the controllers as it seems that most enthusiasts are happy with DC (analog) rather than DCC (digital). Too much determination to modernise could result in a broken train set since the project would be large. Restoration with no modernisation would still provide the fun, and be part of the owner's original vision.
What he was lucky with was the state of it. My own father was into model engineering, however, he never put his tools away and never completed a project, so it just took months to tidy up his hoarded junk, to find there was absolutely nothing of value at the bottom of it. If only my dad had completed his projects and left it in the condition shown here.
superultra|8 months ago
gwbas1c|8 months ago
At the top was a huge warehouse filled with model trains, tracks, and landscapes. She was obsessed with the largest Thomas the Tank Engine set I've ever seen, and all I wanted to do was to look at all the different landscapes.
qtwhat|8 months ago
m463|8 months ago
"bringing it up to code" might also be as ambiguous as "engineer"
liampulles|8 months ago
wait
ByteDrifter|8 months ago
em-bee|8 months ago
freeopinion|8 months ago
mykehunt|8 months ago
>> This out dates me but didn't those come to market in the 80's? Too new to be old but too old to be new.
>> Also pretty sure I saw a blue Conrail GP-40-2 in the background of the Youtube clip. (Not too up on diesel. Know more about steam.) but either way Conrail wasn't formed until the late 1970's?
mykehunt|8 months ago
Their attention to detail, not only on the front end but also the backend is incredible. My wow moment was their staging. Since the trains run for the duration of the hours they are open - they get hot so they switch between two trains for each line so the motors don't burn out. Underneath each 12-18 inch riser section in the staging area is a separate smoke detector. (~20 smoke detectors in each staging area.)
https://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@MiniaturWunderlandOfficial
deadbabe|8 months ago
goopypoop|8 months ago
6forward|8 months ago
holografix|8 months ago
Kirr|8 months ago
astrange|8 months ago
I think this is Brave Express Might Gaine…?
Swannie|8 months ago
How would a buildings and pest inspection have missed it?
Or, maybe he found it during inspections, knew he would never convince his wife to buy the house on the strength of the train set alone, but did managed to convince on the strength of the house... now he has to sell the lie?
LeonB|8 months ago
ljsprague|8 months ago
darkoob12|8 months ago
model train network
bombcar|8 months ago
adxl|8 months ago
gonzo41|8 months ago
b112|8 months ago
Uh huh... fortunate indeed.
My immediate thought was, his wife discovered his hobby, and the money spent, and "No, it was here when we moved in!"
Then the news shows up, and of course, he can't tell them different, or busted!
nicman23|8 months ago
brunker2|8 months ago
How can you buy a house without checking out the foundations/basement yourself or by a pro?
paranoidrobot|8 months ago
danielheath|8 months ago
Widespread sentiment that if you don't buy something ASAP, you'll never be able to - meaning lots of buyers skimping on due diligence to close a sale.
brenainn|8 months ago
What inspectors actually do also depends on who is engaging them and how much they get paid. For example, in the ACT it's mandatory for sellers to have an inspection done. This will generally go to the lowest bidder and they will put in minimum effort, e.g. the report will have things like "Roof inspected as far as can see from ladder placed against the house" and "furniture present, unable to inspect area". If you were the buyer and engaging an inspector, and the seller cooperated, you could have them inspect as much as you were willing to pay them for.
sandworm101|8 months ago
mcdeltat|8 months ago
(A joke but also not really because housing prices here in Australia are absolutely insane)
sunnybeetroot|8 months ago
Gigachad|8 months ago
If the house collapses that's a good thing because then the heritage protections are gone and you can build something better. The property value probably goes up if the old workers hut falls over.
goopypoop|8 months ago
A whimsical tale of dishonesty, laziness and incompetence. Merry fucking Christmas
tzs|8 months ago
iosovi|8 months ago
[deleted]
Saul1998zx|8 months ago
[deleted]
climatenufties|8 months ago
[deleted]
SoftTalker|8 months ago
[deleted]
SudoSuccubus|8 months ago
[deleted]
tomhow|8 months ago
Please read the guidelines and make an effort to observe them in future.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html