# Mopac's repair shop closed for the day



## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Why? Flooding. Man, we got some rain this morning. Many of you
know my layout is a floor layout. Also the repair shop. I knew heavy rain was coming so all locomotives and their parts were moved out last night. I am manning the pumps. I have a 16 gallon
wet dry vac and it has been running since 4:30 this morning. We had rain Saturday so ground still wet. Note to self - Do not buy a house on side of large hill. Water runs down hill. I have emptied the wet dry 8 times so far so lots of water.


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## BrokeCurmudgeon (Feb 8, 2016)

Hang in there Al! It too will pass. Now this gives you more motivation to build a new layout on legs.:laugh::laugh::laugh:


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## teledoc (Oct 22, 2014)

Mopac, Hang in there like Broke said, and this should give you the impetus to actually get things up on legs.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

You are correct guys. My basement is divided in half with a wall. I have a floor drain, but
it is in the other half. If I had a drain on the train side I would just let any water run to drain.
Almost everything is up on pallets.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Hope you can stay with it and get it all dried out.


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## BrokeCurmudgeon (Feb 8, 2016)

Years ago, I built a two level home on a hillside. The bottom level's back wall was block and buried up to the top floor where my main entrance was. Anyway, I water proofed the back wall the best I could with hot tar. Then I placed a "French Drain" at the bottom of the wall that drained to the most lower elevation. On top of the "French Drain" I placed about 10 yards of pea gravel and soil on top. One would never know that the drain was there. I never had any seepage or water in the house. Al, maybe it would not be too costly to place a "French Drain" at your house? I believe that it would save you much grief.:laugh::laugh::laugh: What ever I wish you nothing but the best!:thumbsup:


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Boy, that really sucks. Harry Henning's basement has flooded a few times, and since our club keeps the club modules down there, it's typically a mess to clean up!


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## cramden (Oct 13, 2015)

Sorry to hear of your water problems mopac. Sounds like a pain in the ***. No basement in my house. The water table is too high where I live and my street is on a downgrade.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Thanks cramden. On the down side now. Barely coming in. That hill seeps hours after the rain quits. Flash flood warnings this morning. 2 hiways shut down due to water on the road. Oh, great news, another round of sever rain in the morning. Wettest august I remember. Seems like it has rained every 3 days. We normally don't get any rain in august. It usually takes 3 straight days of rain to come in. Guess we had 3 days worth this morning.

Thanks guys. In almost 50 years in this house this was the second worst. It has gotten worse since wife
had 2 additions added to back of house. They dug out the dirt for the foundations and then back filled
with gravel. Wish we had used dirt. I need to dig a ditch behind my famous wall to divert water around house.

John, I say any basement will leak with enough water around it. Trick is to keep water away from basement.


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## AFGP9 (Apr 8, 2015)

Sorry to hear of your bad luck mopac. Believe me, I can sympathize and relate to your problem. Sounds like your August was like our spring around hear. 8" of snow in late March then rain for what seemed like daily like you described, into early June. That made for the wettest 90 day period on record the weather guys said. It was a mess. No farming got done and lots of river flooding. The Illinois river was 18-20 feet above flood stage well into July since all the other flooded rivers around here eventually empty into the Illinois which then goes into the Mississippi down to you Missouri people. 

Your description of your basement sounds exactly like mine. A wall dividing the basement with the drain on the other side of the wall of my layout. Unlike you, I have my layout on legs. I used to get water all the time too. Even with a sump pump I couldn't keep the water out when we had heavy rain as you described. After trying to cure the problem buy raising the grade on that end of the house and running construction grade sealer all around where the walls and floor joined, I extended my gutter down spouts out into the yard 10 feet also. Holy train layout!!! That cured my problem!! I guess even with the higher grade the other down spouts were too close to the house foundation and the water ran backwards. It shouldn't have but water can do strange things. Needless to say I no longer have any sort of carpet down there either. Just painted concrete.

In addition to a 3/4 hp. pump, I also have a battery back up wired into the system in case the power goes out which it does in thunderstorms and in winter snow storms around here. 
I hope you get things back to normal soon. Like I said, I can surely relate. 
With all the rain we had, I never got a drop in my basement. That pump ran steady though. All it took was 10 foot down spouts. Amazing. I wish I had thought of that simple fix long before I did.


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

Sorry to hear about your woes buddy.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

All dry right now. We did not get the heavy rain that was forecasted this morning. A little
rain but no water came in. I need to get a layout built. Its always something though. The
power windows in my car have all quit. I think it is my master switch so I will order one today. Every time I think I will start the layout something else needs attention first.

Loren, the new cat back exhaust is in the garage. The rain guards are finally on their way. All for
my pickup. Still need to get spray in bed liner and some kind of bed topper. I am thinking of a folding
bed cover.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

A friend of mine has a pretty nice bed cover for his truck, it has Velcro on the sides and just rolls up to the cab and then gets strapped in with a couple of straps. It's quite waterproof when down, and pretty much out of the way when rolled up.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

John, I do want something that keeps the bed dry. I will look into the roll up.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I believe this is what he has: LEER SR250.


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## shaker281 (Jun 22, 2019)

Been There! Wore out a few wet vacs in my time. House I used to live in. Glad the worst is over for you.


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## shaker281 (Jun 22, 2019)

AFGP9 said:


> ... Even with a sump pump I couldn't keep the water out when we had heavy rain as you described. After trying to cure the problem buy raising the grade on that end of the house and running construction grade sealer all around where the walls and floor joined, I extended my gutter down spouts out into the yard 10 feet also. Holy train layout!!! That cured my problem!! ...


Funny you should should mention that. My sump pump ran continuously whenever it rained. I discovered that water from one downspout (1/3 of the roof) was running back into a window well, then into the drain tile and right to the sump pump. Added 6' of downspout and I haven't heard the sump pump run in twenty years! I was as surprised as you!


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

mopac said:


> All dry right now. We did not get the heavy rain that was forecasted this morning. A little
> rain but no water came in. I need to get a layout built. Its always something though. The
> power windows in my car have all quit. I think it is my master switch so I will order one today. Every time I think I will start the layout something else needs attention first.
> 
> ...


My son has a roll-top, that is each section folds upon itself Al. He loves it.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I think the folding one is the one I want. At first I thought I wanted a fiberglass top.
They only open up so far so I nixed that. I talked to a guy with one and he said his
bed stays dry (the folding top). I guess you can lock them.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

The one I posted that rolls up stays dry as well. I would prefer that to the folding one as it's totally out of the way rolled up when you have it open. It's also half the price of the folding ones.

Here's the folding model, LEER HF350M.


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

I have one of those old fashioned fiberglass Leer cap that weighs around 300lbs, yuk!!. I used to be able to install and re-install my aluminum cap by myself but no longer!!! This heavy monster came with my Silverado, my aluminum one I bought myself..


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

mopac said:


> I think the folding one is the one I want. At first I thought I wanted a fiberglass top.
> They only open up so far so I nixed that. I talked to a guy with one and he said his
> bed stays dry (the folding top). I guess you can lock them.


Well, locking one of these will only keep the casual thief out, none of them will withstand even a simple brute force attack. A pocket knife is all you need for any of these.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

John, you are right. If someone wants in they can. We lock out house doors but its kinda false security. Also the vinyl roll top might be a problem with the sun. Truck is outside all the time. I can't see that vinyl top lasting.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I depend on a decent alarm for the house security, but I do lock the doors.


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

The F150 I used to have had a vinyl top on its bed for much of its life. Did very well until the maple tree it parked under dropped a branch through it. We patched it and it did pretty well until we got rid of the truck when it was about 16 years old. Prior to the branch incident it never leaked and was parked outside 365 days out of the year (much of that in the sunny parking lot at work). The folding tops are quite nice, but they're still heavy if you want to remove them for anything. If you go for the vinyl top, make sure it's one that you don't have to line up the snaps with. Ours had snaps built into the cover that snapped in anywhere on the rails which made closing it much easier. Velcro is nice too, but I don't have as much experience with that system. I believe my grandfathers truck has a velcro one and I haven't heard any complaints.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Maybe the vinyl will last. I have a big truck top shop maybe 10 miles from me. 
I used to work with the owner. I need to go see him. I am sure he carries all
types of bed toppers. When I was sales manager at a dealership we bought
many tops from him. I will remind him of all the bed tops we bought from him. LOL.
I used to tell my salesmen that new truck buyers spend an average of 2,500.00 on
their new truck in aftermarket products and they should get a piece of the action.
We sold bug shields, rain guards, trailer hitches, trailer brakes, cool wheels, camper shells,
custom exhaust, whatever. We even had a guy that custom painted the peoples name or
initials on the doors, painted pin stripping. And of coarse spray in bed liners, and rust proofing. Drop in bed liners. Mud flaps, exhaust tips. Guys like to spend money on their pickups. I will end up
spending about 2 grand on my new pickup. Maybe more if I get the seats covered with leather.
Katskin leather. The stitching matches my floor console stitching. I still need to get my
Line-X spray n bed liner. We sold almost every truck buyer some kind of bedliner. We sold so
many the Line-X shop owner sprayed the inside of my aluminum fishing boat for nothing.
His memory is not so good,LOL. He still wants to charge me 480.00 to do my new truck.
He is giving me a 30.00 discount. He better not open his shirt, his heart will fall out.


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