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.
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.
Bump for the Miniatur Wunderland - reason enough for anyone into to trains to visit Germany/Hamburg. You can easily spend two half days there. Their behind the scenes tour will give anyone with or thinking of building a layout enough ideas to keep them busy for years.
Their attention to detail, not only on the front end but also the backend is incredible. My wow moment was their staging. Since the trains run for the duration of the hours they are open - they get hot so they switch between two trains for each line so the motors don't burn out. Underneath each 12-18 inch riser section in the staging area is a separate smoke detector. (~20 smoke detectors in each staging area.)
The article says it wasn't touched since ~ the 1960's. I see an old MRC TECH II powerpack (two button as compared to three - on/off, direction only.)
>> This out dates me but didn't those come to market in the 80's? Too new to be old but too old to be new.
>> Also pretty sure I saw a blue Conrail GP-40-2 in the background of the Youtube clip. (Not too up on diesel. Know more about steam.) but either way Conrail wasn't formed until the late 1970's?
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-...