James River Branch: For Sale

Layout For Sale

That's right, the James River Branch is for sale—or will be when it's done. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but I saw it as a means to explore new modeling opportunities. If you're interested, please feel free to contact me at any time.

A word of caution to the casually curious: the layout will carry a hefty price tag. Think five digits. I offer this "warning" in advance because some people don't have a good grasp of what things are truly worth; they might expect the layout would sell for maybe a few thousand at most. Unfortunately, this is unrealistic to the extreme; in addition to thousands of dollars in material costs (it has over a thousand dollars in trees alone), it's going on three-plus years in the making.

In addition to scale handlaid track, there are many unique, highly-detailed scratchbuilt details. Plus, all of the materials used are of the highest quality. Many of the buildings were kit-bashed from multiple kits (as an example, the bank was made from five kits worth a total of over $150, excluding the kits purchased for an aborted first version). Truth be told, if I sold it at actual materials cost plus a realistic amount for labor, the selling price would be more like six digits. But I have no illusions of ever being offered such a sum.

Although small (15 by 36 inches), the layout has quite a lot of eye-appeal, and is regarded by modeling peers as possibly one of the finest layouts in Z scale, so you'd be the proud owner of a one-of-a-kind treasure.

I anticipate the layout will be completed by the end of 2010. It will be sold on an as-is basis, since there are no assurances that things will not break or fail at some future point (always a possibility with hand-crafted items); I will not be providing a repair service unless the buyer is ready to pay some steep shipping fees. If I don't hear from a potential buyer by the time it's done, it will be auctioned.