Layout in a Container

No room left in the house or the garage for a layout?  How about a shipping container?  This is a Japanese language web page about a layout inside a shipping container.  It's probably a 8' x 20' container.

http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~momo-tetsu/omise/omise1.html

Maybe you shouldn't show this to your wife!   

Or the neighbors!

These look exactly like "Pods" that people have in their driveways in my area when they are renovating their houses. They put all their furniture in them and other valuables until the work is done, biggest problem is the neighbors, if it was to be uses as a permanent structure, there would be complains.

But he does have a very nice layout just hope his neighbors think so.

Funny you should post this today as this afernoon my wife and I where driving past a site in Sydney that advertising selling used shipping containers and I joking told my wife that I should buy one to build a  layout in.

Alpine - What was her reaction??

No room left in the house or the garage for a layout?  How about a shipping container?    This is a Japanese language web page about a layout inside a shipping container.  It's probably a 8' x 20' container.

That's actually a model railroading shop in Toyohashi, and not just a container in someone's driveway; I was there a few weeks ago when I was taking photos fo the Toyohashi tramway. The store/trailer sits in a permanent location attached to another building. Half the interior is the store (surprisingly well stocked), and the other half has their demonstration layout (still under construction to some extent).

Being Japan, I think this is more than a layout it is also a train store!

OMG, I was at Toyohashi and I totally missed this store!

Thats pretty cool, hes even got a door in the container so he doesn't have to shut the container door.

Being Japan, I think this is more than a layout it is also a train store!

 

OMG, I was at Toyohashi and I totally missed this store!

Being in a container, he could have moved it.  :grin

Alpine - What was her reaction??

She said that we should instead build a granny in the back yard for me, my trains and my Gym equipment but then said with a wry smile, "That would be a lot of money to spend on your hobby wouldnt it?"

I allways wonder how much costed a container. Did you look at the price Alpine? If I were more adventurous I would buy some land and one or two of these and build a Tetsu Cafe inside. :D

AUD $900 - $2500 to buy or lease for $19.80 per week.

See ebay listings:

http://popular.ebay.com.au/ns/Business-and-Industrial/Shipping-Container.html

Zoning laws are pretty haphazard in japan, but you think the neighbors might get ticked!

containers are being used to create modular housing, so you could go into the business of making a layout in a container and just shipping it off to a customer to attach to their house! have some nice side panels that would pop over it to pretty it up and some roofing! sure it would be havoc with local building codes though...

great monsoon protection, close the external doors and you are safe!

cheers,

jeff

Office trailers and shipping containers are not always covered by zoning by-laws because these things are considered temporary.  I was very surprised about 10 years ago when my employer at that time rented a 20' x 60' office trailer and plucked it down behind the building all within about 48 hours.  No permit, no approval needed, just plug it in and hook it up. That was in a big city too.

Municipalities over here are only now beginning to realize the land use issues that storage and shipping container use creates.

Japan apparently really does not have zoning laws in sense we know them in North America.  

Being Japan, I think this is more than a layout it is also a train store!

 

OMG, I was at Toyohashi and I totally missed this store!

 

Being in a container, he could have moved it.  :grin

Thanks Bernard, you gave me the last laugh of the day! 

Zoning laws are pretty haphazard in japan, but you think the neighbors might get ticked!

 

containers are being used to create modular housing, so you could go into the business of making a layout in a container and just shipping it off to a customer to attach to their house! have some nice side panels that would pop over it to pretty it up and some roofing! sure it would be havoc with local building codes though...

 

great monsoon protection, close the external doors and you are safe!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

I need a damn building permit in FDK for a shed or dog house if either are greater than 12/SQFT 

Thats quite neat actually , I wouldn't mind having one of those in the back yard of my house as my garden is 30 foot by 18 foot, also it would free up the spare room for when relations stay over so they won't have to sleep on the sofa . Though in reality I would not tell anyone in my area if I did have layout in a container because of the crime rate here and I would not want any of my model trains getting pinched or the layout getting trashed .

They would have to knock it off by bringing in a crane and a semi-trailer though.