Melbourne man discovers extensive model train network underneath house

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...

> ‘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'

Glad that worked out.

IMHO, the £250,000 is more "staggering" than the eight years he spent.

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.

The clip of him using the knock-off Faller Grassmaster is kind of funny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-Mcgp6Dtq8

You don't need a warehouse to scratch that itch. You can run an O-scale GG1 or Big Boy in the living room of a modest Manhattan apartment. They look great on a bookshelf too.

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-...

There's a 15 minute World of Railways interview with him at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrjIgfk5C_s

and more, including moving the entire 200 ft setup: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=heaton+lodge+ju...

That price is astonishing. My modeling knowledge is limited to plastic aircraft kits, so I have no idea what I'm looking at here. I'm not sure what it would take to pay that kind of money for a model aircraft, it would have to be the size of a coffee table and made by PLASMO or an equivalently (freakishly good) builder. I assume that KOHS engine is handmade of brass sheeting (the detail and workmanship do look exquisite)? How much of the cost is from its internal componentry (I assume it has a high-quality electric motor?)? Or is this just what it costs to play at the top of the model train game?

After some further investigation, the unbelievable level of attention to detail (the shape of the individually modeled rivet heads, the overlapping of adjacent sheetmetal) explains the price of these models.

https://www.kohs.com/Technical_Pages/Sheet_Meta_Detail.html https://www.kohs.com/Technical_Pages/Rivet.html