Melbourne man discovers extensive model train network underneath house
sbs.com.au
sbs.com.au
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.
Anyways, I doubt his wife's making him do anything. Totally normal domestic arrangement to have a space for one's thing(s), whatever it may be. Well-conducive to a happy marriage, IMHO.
I'm not fortunate enough to have a whole basement to play with, but my study's piled high with my books, electronics, painting gear, art and models. I'm thankful to have a space that's mine. My SO didn't tell me to keep my shit here, I was like "dibs" on moving in.
Hyperfocus can make one take hobbies to fairly extreme levels.
No, but how obsessive the pursuit of that hobby is, that's the question.
There are some model train enthusiasts that, over their life time, spend several millions of EUR on their hobby, so they basically work to finance their hobby.
If this article was about $OTHER_HOBBY, there would be a citation of someone who spent a ton of money on $OTHER_HOBBY.
Could be working to barely scrape by, going to bed early to save on heating costs, unable to afford to save a deposit to buy a house, worry how you’ll afford the next dentist or mechanics bill.
Being able to afford a hobby is a luxury.
Welcome to Australia.
The reason why I'm asking is that my impression seems to be that there is a lot more acceptance for obsession when the obsession is considered extroverted and conforming to society's expectation.
Could be, depending on how much they give up for traveling.
> The reason why I'm asking is that my impression seems to be that there is a lot more acceptance for obsession when the obsession is considered extroverted and conforming to society's expectation.
Maybe it's also related to the accumulation of things related to the hobby.
If you see somebody's collection of model trains and their tracks, it's pretty visceral that they must have spent lots of time and money on this. Same for basically any other hobby that involves collecting this (that aren't tiny, like postage stamps).
If, on the other hand, you hear that somebody has traveled a lot, that doesn't hit home to the same degree..
Maybe another factor is that we tend to associate at least some forms of neurodivergence (autism and AD(H)D at least) with hyperfocus on a few topics, whereas travel exposes one basically automatically to many new experiences. Haven't really thought that through yet...
Tons of people just travel to "destinations" that have resorts and beaches and are very sanitized to be completely not-new at all
Once you've been to one of these resorts you've been to all of them, it really doesn't matter which country they are in
and what is wrong with that?
Men do noting but chill: "They're losers, incels, etc".
Men have cool hobbies that don't bother anyone: "They're neurodivergent".
Men just can't catch a break these days.
"Nobody needs.." and all that.
i know that feeling. i have been there. more than a year out of work, i could not focus on anything, whatever i did felt wrong because i thought i should use that time to apply to jobs. it was exhausting, and i was procrastinating a lot. i had to remind myself that i could not be writing job applications all day, and i used my hobbies to relax and get energy. so no, chilling or having cool hobbies are not a sign of someone catching a break. not without knowing more about their actual circumstances.
the problem is the generalization. sure, when you catch a break then you can afford to slack off or do your hobbies. but the reverse conclusion is not true. not everyone who is slacking off is catching a break.
it's this judgement of people that when they do that it must be because they are well off that bothers me.
i faced this multiple times. when i grew up we lived on welfare but we could afford things that other people could not because we were thrifty and we saved money on other things we didn't need but were common otherwise, like a car and a TV. but because we were able to afford certain things people thought we were better off. i had time for my hobbies because i didn't spend time watching tv.
they were measuring my life through their perspective.
the same goes for hobbies and hence, your statement.
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.
Langley Collyer (born October 3, 1885 - died c. March 9, 1947): Langley died first. He was crushed by one of his own booby traps - a makeshift tunnel of newspapers and debris - while attempting to bring food to his paralyzed brother Homer. Langley was buried under a massive pile of junk and his body was not discovered until April 8, 1947, weeks after his death, due to the concealment caused by the debris.
Homer Collyer (born November 6, 1881 - died March 21, 1947): Homer, who was blind and crippled, died alone of starvation and dehydration sometime after Langley’s death. Without his brother to care for him, he perished in the same house. His body was found seated in a decaying chair amidst the filth and clutter.
Great example why you always need to strive for independence as a disabled person. If your family tries to directly or indirectly slow that process down, they are a danger to your well being.
-- signed, a blind man
>> Langley died first. He was crushed by one of his own booby traps - a makeshift tunnel of newspapers and debris - while attempting to bring food to his paralyzed brother Homer.
An independent paralytic is a dead paralytic. You can't be independent and paralyzed.
Being able to contact other people in case of an emergency by definition would make him more independent than he was, obviously.
Maybe not independent, but less critically dependant, that would be the goal.
Probably because it is predominantly comprised of Jews and Muslims, who seem to value family much more than us heathens.
Man’s gotta man. At least I get to scratch the systems itch and get fit at the same time.
Probably not intended but pretty funny implication that train lovers are pathologically eccentric. Probably mostly true.
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.
"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...
Glad that worked out.
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
Kohs GG1 https://www.kohs.com/PRR_gg-1_pages/gg-1_home.htm
Key Imports Big Boy https://www.brasstrains.com/classic/Product/Detail/054489/O-...
and more, including moving the entire 200 ft setup: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=heaton+lodge+ju...
https://www.kohs.com/Technical_Pages/Sheet_Meta_Detail.html https://www.kohs.com/Technical_Pages/Rivet.html
https://www.ishn.com/articles/114790-trump-administration-to...
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.
When you pay an expert and rely on their opinion, you have recourse
They avoid any liability by saying, "we couldn't survey under the floor", we recommend getting in a specialist. "we can't assess the roof structure", we recommend getting a specialist.
By the time all was said and done, we were looking at tens of thousands of pounds in further "specialist" surveys, which nobody realistically is going to do only to decide after that you won't buy the house.
I can imagine once you're looking at houses priced in the millions it might make sense, but blowing the equivalent of your deposit just isn't tenable.
They specifically disclaim being experts in damn near everything.
If you want a real inspection you hire two or three building contractors to do it. I’d go with a general, a roofer, and an electrician. If I cared.
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.
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.
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.
"bringing it up to code" might also be as ambiguous as "engineer"
For example, HO scale has for example both code 83 and code 55 track, corresponding to 83/1000" high and 55/1000" high rails. You can make choices depending on looks/proportional accuracy or possibly size for more robust operation.
wait
>> 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?
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
Long Rollers
Barely Legal Signals
Locomania!
Chuggers
Driver's Wives
Hot Steamy Machines
Whistleblowing Enthusiast
SMUTS
Country Tooter
Shudders & Squeals
Stiff Points Quarterly
The Linkage Lover
This Oiled Life
Footplate Fanciers
Tiny Tunnels
Dirty Platform Digest
Wide Gauge Wonders
Derailed Darlings
Market is hot(ish) now though, or was a few years ago. A friends dad died and he had trains. We helped ebay all of it. Owned a toy store or something, lots of rare stuff (like window displays). We even had a guy buy one of the rare posters, return it for questionable reasons, and then start selling counterfeits. Even so, the grand total wasn't a ton of money, more within the "worth doing" category.
Why?
To me it seems there are more hobbyists than ever. It's finally "cool" to play DnD, Covid gave hobbies a big boost and people yearn to do something away from screens.
So a collection of model steam trains might lose value, as fewer people have remember them in use, but the hobby can continue with high-speed electric trains etc.
But I think it’s a combination of “toy trains” being pushed out of the “hobby” so fewer new kids are introduced to it (the Lego Train clubs get some heat and hate and generally are disregarded by the “real model trains” for example) and that the “train obsession” has other ways to discharge these days.
Many people who would have built elaborate basement models instead spend their time perfecting Factorio or Minecraft worlds (any sufficiently advanced sandbox game becomes a train simulator).
I think this is Brave Express Might Gaine…?
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?
model train network
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 can you buy a house without checking out the foundations/basement yourself or by a pro?
Attic access has to be weatherstripped - cheap ass builders just seal it.
I ain’t buying’ no pig in a poke. If it’s new construction I can inspect before completion (and you should); if it’s used, I am breaking the seal and crossing the streams. Attics got way too much “fun” to discover.
True.
> If it’s new construction I can inspect before completion (and you should); if it’s used, I am breaking the seal and crossing the streams. Attics got way too much “fun” to discover.
Don't do this! you can't see much anyway. At least not without walking up there and that disturbs your insulation. Everything you care about is about the roof working, so look at the roof from the outside. Keep the roof in good shape and you don't need to go in the attic.
Also until the house is yours you are not allowed to break that seal. Once it is your house you can do whatever you want, but it is too late.
I guess it depends who you hire (and whether or not you want to know about any issues, which is the most compelling reason I've seen in the replies so far for why this was "missed").
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.
Things have been crazy for a long time, but I am actually optimistic for Melbourne specifically - the construction rate is up and the state government has been decreasing the power local governments have to block or delay development. If this continues, housing affordability should improve. My main concern is that a change of government may put an end to it, but I hope not.
Some details about what VIC is doing differently in this AFR article if you're interested (archive link because original is paywalled):
The Victorian government has also failed significantly on public housing. The wait time is about 20 months (10 months is VicGov's target, it was 14 months 3 years ago) and they're currently looking to demolish many existing options without many short term optionsnfor residents.
It seems very unlikely to me that Victoria's house prices will drop in any sigificant way this decade.
I think there is a good chance it will, as long as a change of government doesn't deliberately dismantle the current approach. Yes there's population growth and yet prices have been stagnant or declining the past few years and construction has picked up. That's a good trend!
I'm not familiar with the situation with public housing but am happy to accept if the government has failed there. But this seems like a separate failure rather than an indictment of their approach to increasing supply generally which I think is working.
A whimsical tale of dishonesty, laziness and incompetence. Merry fucking Christmas
(A joke but also not really because housing prices here in Australia are absolutely insane)
Maybe we need an international standard for house overpricedness - median hourly per square meter or something.
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.
Anything that is so bad as to call off the sale was probably visible during a basic walkthrough or from the street, anyway.
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.