A late model railroading acquaintance of mine - I just recently found out that he passed away a few years back - had a mobile home shell built and installed on property which he purchased when he relocated back to the Dallas/Fort Worth area following his retirement from the Air Force in the early-'80s. If I recall right this was a 16' × 40' unit and was subdivided on the inside to provide a 'layout' room and a 'work' room. I never had the opportunity to visit his layout but I did see several photos of it. Somewhere in the mid-90s he sustained a fire of suspicious origin and that wiped out - at least for the moment - his modeling. The last I corresponded with him he was still undecided on what he was going to do and I have no idea whether he ever resumed model railroading. He was very happy with what he had done and felt that, if building code allowed it, a mobile home shell was an excellent choice for a model railroading structure.
I reside in a 16' × 72' - that's 68' interior dimension - mobile home located in a park on the west side of Phoenix, Arizona. At the time I located to this particular location a little over seven years ago I was a bachelor and I moved and set up my 4.5' × 10' N Scale layout into the front/second bedroom; I never really got the layout running and that room - what I came to refer to as my 'layout' room - very quickly degenerated into my 'storage' room. I married the widow lady next door three years ago and we opted to use my home for our residence because, being older, her's was easier to sell, which it has been. Her presence required me to move what I called my 'train' room - my 'model railroad' office space - out of the living room -I was a bachelor, remember? and bachelors can get away with things like that - into my 'layout' room, the layout was suspended/turned against one wall, and was recently disposed of because there was no way I was ever going to get it operational at this location.
On the adjacent lot is an abandoned 14' × 64' - 60' interior - mobile home which is uninhabitable without some extensive interior maintenance - which no one is likely to do on a unit approximately 30 years of age. This unit would, however, make a jimdandy utility building and the land owners here - who also own the home, by the way - are not averse to it being used thusly. The unit is on the owner's 'pull' list - which means that they do not consider it sellable and therefore it is their ultimate intention to get rid of it and put a new one in its stead.
This 'pull' list is not written in letters of blood and I have sounded out the property owners about purchasing this unit with the provision that I will maintain the grounds in residential condition and on their warranty that they will not require the unit to be either moved or demolished. I cannot make a formal offer until I get back to work - which is imminent, I hope. In view of the fix up expense involved I intend to offer no more than one dollar as consideration for sale and make an offer on the monthly rent on the property. If I do acquire title to this mobile home I will probably have to expend a thousand or more dollars in order to bring it up to an occupancy condition - this is the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west, remember - where the temperature is headed towards 115º today; a functioning A/C is an absolute necessity in this situation.
It is my intention to gut the kitchen area which will leave me approximately a 13' × 40' area in the front of the house for a 'layout' room while the single bedroom located in the far back will become my 'train' room and my model railroading workshop. There is a 'storage' room to the rear of the carport which I would use for my woodworking workshop; on the opposite side of the structure is a partially enclosed patio which I will enclose to provide both security and a space for my metal working workshop. This will free up the second bedroom in my residence for use as a spare bedroom which will bring much joy to my wife's heart!
I will, perhaps, agree that there are substantial assets to a basement but they are simply too expensive to excavate here in Arizona and. besides, I am of an age where stairs are getting rapidly beyond my physical condition of negotiation. I feel - and I have really always felt that if the property size allowed it, an external building is the ideal model railroad location. Mobile homes almost always come with insulation as opposed to a shed/storage building which you would almost certainly have to to furbish on the inside to render it habitable, particularly in your winters.
