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Melbourne man discovers extensive model train network underneath house

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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.

7 months agoby alnwlsn

Maybe he had to keep it a secret?

"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...

7 months agoby gadders

This is fantastic. But wow, the home inspector was really phoning it in that day!

7 months agoby wrs

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.

7 months agoby rbanffy

This story deserves a follow up in a few years.

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.

7 months agoby Theodores

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.

7 months agoby gwbas1c

model train network?! a network to train your large language model?

7 months agoby qtwhat

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.

7 months agoby ByteDrifter

Were there any Klein bottles?

7 months agoby freeopinion

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?

7 months agoby mykehunt

“Honey, look at this massive model train network that just happened to be in our basement!”

7 months agoby deadbabe

Philip K. Dick's "Small Town" is found!

7 months agoby Kirr

> His love of rail started when he was young, through a Japanese cartoon about a crime-fighting train.

I think this is Brave Express Might Gaine…?

7 months agoby astrange

Oh yeah... he "found it"...

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?

7 months agoby Swannie

There’s never a train when you want one, but when you don’t they’re everywhere!

7 months agoby LeonB

I love the metaphor of migrants accidentally discovering awesome remnants of the peoples they replaced.

7 months agoby ljsprague

Funny some AI words are in the title and these days you expect every post on HN be related to AI.

model train network

7 months agoby darkoob12

Serendipity.

7 months agoby adxl

This guy is so lucky. We all have to build our own. What a head start.

7 months agoby gonzo41