Dismantling of the layout

After dismantling the layout of a friend in 2014, I used to wonder who would remove the screws from mine every time I screwed another screw in. I told this to my good friend, Hein, and it polluted his brain with the same thought. So it was, that Hein visited from The Netherlands for two weeks in March 2026 to help me dismantle my layout. Here he is removing one of my screws.

We crated up the upper level of the storage yard into a custom shaped box 12' long.

Later we decided that it was just too big, so we opened up the crate and dismantled all the tracks!

The operation was powered by coffee, Dutch cheese, and at the end of the day, some cocktails and a meal made by Debbie.

Experiments with power tools confirmed my suspicions that the vibrations were too intense for buildings to survive.

The bridge survived some heart breaking cutting up of the valley with a reciprocating saw.

Photo by Debbie Broderick

so the bridge was boxed up to be a diorama in our new home.

Waterfall chunks were also cut out:

but the cliff walls just folded and crumpled and were trashed.

Photo by Debbie Broderick

The terraced vineyard was cut out and crated up.

Debbie helped pull up hundreds of grapevines.

Photo by Debbie Broderick

Soon we could walk through the area that was once part of the valley

Mountains were subjected to tectonic forces

The Bw was not spared the destruction either...

The room started getting bigger

And the mound of wood to be burnt grew to an enormous size:

This is how Gleis 1 of the S-Bahn came to an end:

We moved packed totes and crates to the carport too...

Numerous small cuts and bruises were repaired with alcohol.

The German train signal replica was also taken down, see the update at the end of https://cabin-layout.mixmox.com/2016/10/German-Light-signal.html

Too late!

The train layout has now been dismantled an no parts are available anymore.

Last running day on my layout - 2025-11-15

I had some train friends visit my layout for the last official running day:

(Photo credit: Erich Scherer)

Friday evening:

Ed, Boyd, me, Hing, Hein, Erich

Saturday afternoon:

Paul, Ed, Richard, Hein, me, Erich

Richard, John, Raman,George, Bruno, Boyd

On Monday Hein and I started packing trains away.

Bridge diorama

I recently dismantled a Märklin train layout which included some metal Märklin 7163 and 7161 bridges. The quality of these products from the 1960s is amazing, each bridge section is stamped from metal parts and has the Märklin M-track integrated into each section. I decided to make a diorama for my son to provide a way for him to display some of his trains, as well as show off the beautiful metal bridges.

I had some very warped 7064 bridge piers that were designed to support the bridges, so I decided to use those which still had a usable faces.

There were also some old analog signals and I decided to update one of the signals with LEDs, and drive it with a RemoteSign ESP. See here for how I convert signals to use LEDs

I had some pine planks which had been part of a bed for 40 years and decided to use them as a base, layering them so as to create a small valley.

I screwed the planks together and fastened the bridge piers in place.

The piers seem to have shrunk over the decades and needed to have the space between their lugs made wider to get the tracks to fit.

I smoothed out the slopes with drywall joint compound and added some dried chunks to look like rocks.

I added additional planks at the ends and raised the roadbed so that it was at the same level as the bridge.

I decided to add a small Blockstelle at one end which would house the small RemoteSign ESP controller, the classic Faller B-121. I made a hole in the top plank at the Blockstelle end and fastened it down with two screws that can be removed if wires need to be accessed later.

Installed the electronics...

Gave the valley a base coat of green and brown acrylic paint.

Added some vegetation

Added some EnviroTex Lite resin left over from my lake.

In order to get the epoxy water off the edges and clean up the sides of the diorama, I ran both edges through my table saw!

Added vegetation

Just in case he wants to sit an illuminated train on the bridge one day I wired up one track and threaded the wires into place.

Underside of one of the bridges:

I had some actual Märklin 7299 M-track screws!

There seems to be two versions of 7299, flat and Phillips, I used the newer Phillips ones.

I added some details such as a distance marker and added some ballast:

I then added my son's set Märklin 42751 and his BR 86 from Märklin set 29536

The signal and light in the Blockstelle are powered by a single USB cable. The signal goes green (Hp1) for 2 minutes and then goes back to red (Hp0) for 5 minutes continuously. They can be controlled over wi-fi too.

Converting an old Märklin signal to LEDs

Märklin produced a broad selection of color light signals and provided spare light bulbs for them for many years. I like to run signal LED lights instead of incandescent for a few reasons (power consumption, heat, longevity, ability to control brightness using pulse width modulation, and 3V).

Here is how I converted some old Märklin signals to use LEDs.

First, I remove the base, and unscrew the safety cage.

and and separate the channel that holds the wires from the rest of the pole by levering it away using the holes in the mast...

... resulting is these parts.

Then I separate these parts, discarding the small contact strips.

The holes in the housing are just the right size for 3mm LEDs. The appropriate color LEDs can be pushed in from behind.

Since I control my signals using a RemoteSign ESP, and they typically switch the positive side, I connect one wire to be the common negative for the LEDs in the signal head. The negative side of each LED is the side with the small flat edge on the rim of the LED. I insert the LEDs so that these negative sides can all connect together. All the positive sides must get their own wire, each uninsulated from all others. I use Kapton insulation to keep them electrically isolated from each other.

I make sure to leave room for the screw that hold the signal head together. I solder an appropriate color wire to each light (here a two aspect signal):

I solder a brown onto all the negative sides.

I push the wires back into the mast and thread them out the side of the mast above the lower screw hole.

I then solder a 220 Ohm resistor to each of the positive wires. (200 Ohms is appropriate when supplying the signal with 3.3V and produces a brightness that is not too bright.)

Once soldered I slide the heat shrink tubing down over the exposed connection and heat it with the hilt of the soldering iron.

I then test the signal by connecting +3.3V to the color wires and the negative to the brown wire.

 

Once I know all the aspects work, it can be installed on the layout!