Evening Stw

I was hoping some of you guys could help me with this, as I know from some topics on here, model railways have some fans!

A bit of a back story, my grandfather passed away last year, leaving a great collection of all things! One of which is a building purposes built for a model railway, which was one of his great joys!
Firstly forgive the mess in the photos, this building hasn’t really been opened for around 2 years, which is such a shame. So I am walking into a fairly untouched room, but with very little knowledge!

I will also add, I spent many a happy afternoon sat in here with my grandfather, so this isn’t an easy task.
This is half the reason I want to do this myself, and take time on it all. I would hate to see somebody coming in and ripping it all out, with the intention of making a quick penny!

For the record, I am takin absolutely no money from any sales, so this isn’t a sly classified, and hopefully it’s ok with the mods?

Firstly, the building is a conservatory type unit, around 5×3 meters. This should give an idea of the size.

The for the track itself, I’ll let the photos do the talking to start with!

So the track is basically an oval, that runs round the circumference of the building, including a hinged ‘bridge’ that closes down behind the door completeing a full circuit!
In the second photos you will see a full height white wardrobe, the tracks also go through this, through a tunnel.

In the first picture, in the left hand corner under the desk lamp, the track has 3 levels. And for most of the circumference it is 4 tracks deep. And has 4 serperafe control channels, 2 analogue and 2 digital control systems.

So far we have counted over 120 building, all of which he built, decorated and painted. And over 250 figures of people and animals that have all been hand painted.
I’m presuming there is no value over than sentimental in these.

As for the trains!
Well, so far we have counted over 60 trains, and 220 carriages.
They all have boxes, and we are currently in the process of matching boxes to units!
Most of the trains have had real smoke and noise modules installed, by a place in Lincoln (anybody know who this could be?)
I’m presuming this is where most the value sits. Am I best getting them all on eBay? I don’t mind spending the time at all. Or should I get them out to a specialist toy auction house?

So, can anybody help?
Where should I start? Any tricks or tips for the track itself?

It’s all in a little village outside Grantham, so if anybody is local and could shed some light please let me know!

Thanks for taking the time,
Josh

IF I had to get it valued the first thing I would do is get a high quality Auction house to call round and get there opinion.
The main thing is when it’s sold that’s it, it’s gone with virtually no comeback.
You could put it on Evil bay and have every knob head around mess you about.
I’m going down that route at the mo.

a quick Google threw back these guys: http://www.digitrains.co.uk/

Might be worth a word

This is just going to go round and round and round…….

I hope this conversation doesn’t get derailed nor hit the buffers…

Yes, place in Lincoln most likely = Digitrains. They’re a specialist in digital control (including sound).

This is a common problem, model railways being something often enjoyed by those of a more significant chronological advancement.

The issue you have is that there’s no adaptability. If you wanted to sell as a complete layout you need someone who has that exact space, and that assumes you can physically dismantle it.

If, when you say track, you literally mean the track, and removing it from the baseboard, then eBay is as good a place as any to sell it, it’s probably Peco, it’ll say on the bottom. Buildings/figures, as you say, largely sentimental, although stuff will sell, consider batching it up a bit for ease.

Likewise the stock, there’s a very healthy second hand market, and eBay is the best place, yes. There are shops out there that will buy the entire lot (Hatton’s, Rails of Sheffield are the two biggest), but you’ll get peanuts. I can’t really see from photos but it looks like stock may be fairly old, which will obviously hamper its value significantly. That said, if it’s been DCC (digital command control) fitted, and has sound, then that suggests more modern. Going rate for a new OO gauge sound loco is ~£200, and stuff holds its value well, none of this 50% of new price benchmarking, it’s not impossible you’ll make a profit on some items.

As with anything the amount you’ll sell anything for is going to be proportional to how well you describe things, so if you want to maximise any returns then a bit of leg work will be rewarded. It may be worth reaching out to a local club for help – Grantham Railway Society can be contacted here (don’t know them, just Googled them).

The unfortunate fact is that you’ll never recoup even a tiny percentage of the value in time, effort and care put into the layout.

BR blue era is a bit early for me, and I don’t know much about steam locos, but my email’s in profile if you want advice on any of the stock, or control systems or anything like that, even if it’s just to confirm how recent it is. Like I say, if it’s boxed and DCC Sound fitted then it’ll sell well.

Thanks all for the replies.
Having a day out there today, seen as the sun is vaguely shining!

Njee20 – very useful thank you, and I will take you up on your offer and email some questions across.
One thing I am yet to work out, from the outside of the train, is it easy to work out if the sound and smoke modules have been added?

Thanks again!

For sound, not without putting them on the track and testing, no. Indeed basically impossible unless you happen to be able to see the speaker from the underside, which you may on some diesels. Depending on the control system I can talk you through checking though.

Smoke units should be visible from the outside though, by looking down the chimney. Much more unusual conversion that.

Personally I would pack it all carefully, wrapped up in bubble wrap, all the trains and track electronics and buildings I liked and keep it at my own house until I had space to carry on the tradition myself.

I wish my grandad had had a hobby which I could have taken on like that.

Newrobdob –
Unsurprisingly this has been thought about! But a couple of things stop this –

1 – myself and my partner move around an awful lot with our work (self employed). So we have nowhere for it all to sit and wait for that space.

2 – its not our choice. My grandmother has asked it to all be gone, and she wants to use the money from any sales to build a small potting shed / orangery for reading under during the summer, and cultivating plants all year round. This was there hobby together, and she wants a space to do this in, meaning she needs some money to do it!

Of course there are bit we are keeping, so example some older Hornby kits which are complete and still in the box, like this one eBay link and some trains that we will keep, such as this eBay link 2 , along with a full Great Goodbye set. These along with others will never go anywhere!

You can see there is a fair amount of money sat in the above products alone, so this isn’t a selfish money making scheme, but it’s the wishes of my Grandmother who I would never dream of going against!

Thanks all
J

hi handyman, I looked at what to do with my dad’s layout. Was in same position, I enjoyed it as a lad but it was quite old and like yours was built for the room – no ability to take apart.

I eventually disposed it in parts to dealers, eBay, friends, donated some bits, it all went in the end but it was a very tough job. Still feeling the emotional effect now a year later.

PM me if you want some pointers. I dealt with a couple of decent dealers. My step-father was very helpful too, sounds like the same setup — I think I must have sold 50/55 trains, some boxed some not, remarkably most worked. then the buildings, track and so on. Found the dealer that took a good amount of stuff. Tony Cooper of Cooper Trains. He was good to deal with, didn’t offer rubbish prices, and actually got back to me unlike Hattons and Rails of Sheffield. A local (to here) dealer took quite a bit as well.

My dad’s occupied about half the attic. At a guess, 3m x 5m or even more possibly. a couple of double loops with controls, signals, points and so on.

Hey Kcal,

Thanks for that, I have PM’d you regarding some basic details / dealer name etc.

Thanks again
Josh

no problem, replied and hope that helps.
I had been clearing my folks’ house for ages by then, it was definitely about the hardest part for many reasons.

It’s possible there is some high value rarer stuff in there. It might be worth some research to get best value.

There are some very sought after older items that are few and far between.

Some recent stuff is valuable too. Certain coaches sell for 5 times their retail price. Batch runs are tiny, so stuff often goes up in value quickly.

It’s why eBay is the best place to shift stuff, as long as your photos and descriptions are good.

if you were local I’d send my Dad round to give you a hand to value – but he’s in Devon so that’s not going to help. We had something similar built into a room in our family house loft conversion when growing up – Dad is a mad keen collector and general steam train enthusiast. As many have said ^^, if you want to maximise the money the best thing is to split, photograph and list everything on eBay yourself. Dealers or putting up to auction generally mean that someone’s looking to make their cut on top of what they pay you so you’ll get a lot less for it…

… though with less hassle as well. it’s a judgement call as to what your own time’s worth..