I don't know if it will inspire anyone, but I have broken through my mental roadblocks and actually accomplished some work on my small N-scale layout! First, I did some serious wiring. The bus wires and feeders around the perimeter were done months ago, but the three barrier strips and associated wiring in the center are all new in the past two weeks. This new wiring is for the dense trackage in and around the yard and siding. The dangling wires with the small black connectors will plug into Tam Valley Depot DCC decoders to control turnouts and power their frogs. I also finally added the elevated branch line to the layout. Months ago, I constructed the branch line as a separate unit on the workbench. Here is one end of the branch line leaning against a wall before being mounted on the layout. And here it is FINALLY attached to the layout. The base for the branch line is 3/4" foam glued to 1/4" plywood. Risers made from 2-inch foam support the branch line above the main layout. So I am on a roll now. Next job is to lay the flextrack that makes the transition from the main layout to the branch line. - Jeff
thats me, but not retired. When I get the bug I plan like crazy and spend every hour possible until I can run trains. After that its hit or miss. Recently I became a member of a freemoN club and had to build a new module. So I planned and gathered supplies carefully and when it all came together I paced for hours on end on how to get started and wht next step I was to take. In the end I did good and am satisfied, but of course this was only one of many sections to the overall module I am putting together. Now that my family has seen some scenery that they like very much they fully expect me to apply the techniques to my home layout and get on it. I reply with a sigh that I must expand further into the garage before I can proceed to the scenery stage. HUH!!!! What now? Club module? Home layout? More trains? Will it ever end? Hope not!
One more big step forward before I risk slipping into procrastination mode. Last night I added the final piece of track to the layout. It is the connection from the mainline to the elevated branch. The yellow pushpins hold the flextrack in place until the glue (cheap latex caulk) cures. I'm now unsure about what tasks should be done next. I'm at the point now where I can temporarily connect either a DC power pack or my DCC controller (NCE PowerCab) and run trains. But the wiring for turnout control and frog polarity has not been completed, and there is no control panel yet. Operations are therefore a bit difficult as yet. So what should I do next? The choices include: finish wiring and build the control panel start on landforms and scenery ballast the track other tasks I haven't even though of yet What do you think? - Jeff
I would clean the track. Hook up dc or DCC power. Run a train till eye's glaze over and sloppy drunk smile appears. I actually don't bother to wire my turnout frogs on C55. My locos all ran fine that way. Great progress. It's funny how everyone does things differently. I do have a bit of the binge modelling too. I go at it hammer and tonges for a bit then slack off. I think the trick is to get in an hour a day though.
I've put off reading this thread as I knew I would feel like a major loser once I got around to it. I too suffer from perfectionation. I have a KILLER space in our finished, walkout basement with complete commitment from my wife. Currently there are some old boxes of books, LPs (showing my age here), boardgames and old children's toys that need to be uncrated, sorted and appropriately stored or gotten rid of before I can begin building. But that's not the major stumbling block for me. I have a dream layout: a section of the old IC "Hi-Dry" line from Effingham, IL to just south of Indy. Single track, two major river crossings (the Wabash and the White) and a 2200' steel trestle (the Tulip Trestle - more here: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM82T7_Greene_County_Trestle) along with three major interchanges and two yards (Palestine, IL and Bloomington, IN). All in N scale. I had over the course of a couple of months completed a fairly decent track plan with prototypical design of the yards and some selective compression. It was multi-deck (three, actually, counting the staging deck) and then came to two realizations: 1. I would probably never actually be able to complete this sucker at this stage of my life and 2. Having a helix at one end of the design meant that I would be getting some unrealistic operations by having trains doubling back through scenes and bypassing the epic trestle section in one direction (it was in the middle of a long reversing loop). I was faced with a redesign of that plan. I was QUITE satisfied with it until that moment of realization. *SIGH* OK, so now I started thinking perhaps I should start smaller. Hollow core door, perhaps? So I whipped up a few designs but they were always too crowded. It's hard to go from a 15' x 18' multideck plan to a 3' x 7' door. I kept wanting MORE. So now I'm on what's like my twentieth plan, this time an N-scale adaptation of the HO snap-track layout "Central Midland," a layout that I dreamed about building as a teenager. Again, I'm finding myself succumbing to perfectionitis (an inflammation of the perfectionist gene) and wanting to add more track here and there. I think I have found a happy medium, though. We'll see if I ever get around to building the sucker.
end of stage one This is my little piece of heaven on a pink slab. It should be a blast! http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/uploads/3137/layout_1_small.jpg I feel almost embarrassed to show this, since so many people on train board have beautiful massive layouts. But this is what I have and it's what I'm going to be working on for now.
Make a small test layout. Something that doesn't get you off track. Ouch bad pun. Something you can use to actually run trains while the new layout is getting designed. Most of all, just build a layout.
Everyday one more little step is taken. The Engine roster is 98% complete, the track and accesories are being purchased bit by bit, box by box, all the collectables in the garage are being sold on e-bay, getting ready to build the storage shed for the lawnmower and yard equipment so as to empty out the garage. The 20' x 20' shelf layout will be in the works by summer once the walls are insulated and drywalled in the garage. This is an enormous project that is going to be as Epic as others we have seen here. fatalxsunrider43
I've been paralyzed rather than procrastinating. I have a huge, mostly finished layout back in Albuquerque in a house I'm trying to sell. I'd like to move it to Ohio into an even bigger space, which would allow me to cut the grades in half. But planning the move is a bigger task than I can take on right now. I know where to slice up the layout, as it was built in modules, not N-Trak type of modules, but modules still. My philosophy about rolling stock was: once on the layout, always on the layout unless repairs were needed. This tended to keep down my purchase of rolling stock, but now I have to match up all the locos and cars to their boxes, if I can even find the boxes. And then there are the structures--how to pack them, how to disassemble the skyscrapers that are actually supports for the next deck up, what can stay on the modules, etc. And how to pack modules not designed for travel into a truck for a 1400 mile trip over some rough Interstates. In old days, I'd just scrap the track and salvage the switches, buildings, etc. But I'm getting older, and poorer via divorce, so I really want to move the layout. I think the original planning for the layout was geometric genius for its time; I think I can't mount that kind of effort any longer. So I procrastinate, hoping a solution will spring up.
Pete, Sorry to hear about the reason for the move first of all. Ouch! I don't know what to say in regard to the layout. It's a huge layout. Epic even. 1. Don't match cars to boxes. Just fit em in whatever box works. 2. OMG the bridges!!! 3. Holy moly batman. I didn't expect to see you in this thread. You seem to be one of the most motivated on train board. Good luck and keep posting.
Pete Nolan wrote: "And then there are the structures--how to pack them, how to disassemble the skyscrapers that are actually supports for the next deck up, what can stay on the modules, etc. And how to pack modules not designed for travel into a truck for a 1400 mile trip over some rough Interstates." As a custom layout builder, moving logistics are a big part of my job (and one of the toughest). As far as the layout modules themselves go, your best bet is to build plywood decks in the truck, lay the modules flat on the decks and then screw them down. Protect the ends of the modules with styrofoam corner protects (available from U-Line). I've made numerous coast to coast trips with zero damage using this method. Obviously, you want to make sure the modules will be small enough that to fit through the passageways at the new residence and light enough to be carried. As far as the structures go the only way to really do it is lots of boxes and lots of packing peanuts. Another option is to hire a commercial mover that specializes in high value loads such as art work. That's what I do now. While not cheap, it is much less than you would think (probably in the $1800 to $3,000) range. You get expert packing, they do the unloading, and the insurance coverage limits are much higher than if you moved it yourself in a Budget or Hertz box truck. Lance Mindheim Visit Miami's Downtown Spur at www.lancemindheim.com
Lance, Thanks so much for your advice. I figured that I couldn't just throw the modules into a long box truck and drive them over the rough Interstates between Albuquerque and Ohio without catastrophic damage. But building the jigs might take more time than I have right now, with a new job and no time to travel to ABQ, build the jigs, load them in a truck, and travel back to Ohio. But--now I have a new job--the premium shipper idea might be golden. I know what it will cost to move all my household goods, so the added cost isn't prohibitive. Now, will it fit in the same trailer? Maybe . . . Thanks for stirring up my sometimes muddy thoughts.
PigInZen, I live in New Palestine and am working on a small 12'x14' N-scale version of the current INRD. I am modeling the west end from Palestine over to about Oblong. My brother works at the Robinson Marathon refinery so I will be allocating some space to it. I am using modelers license to move Willow Hill and it's grain elevator to be between Robinson and Oblong instead of west of Oblong. I am also moving the ethanol plant in Palestine to Oblong so that I can have a longer run from the Palestine yard to the plant. Stoy will not be included except for a bunch of trees as a scene divider. Good to know someone else out there is modeling the INRD. I have 32'x60' basement with a 14'x33' area that the layout may grow into. I think the massive layouts scare a lot of us due to cost, time, etc. I have benchwork up, mainline down (62' Mainline run), Digitrax installed and most feeders in, installing backdrops right now. Still deciding if I want to put in the Palestine yard or rely on a movable 14x2 staging yard with return loop that will feed both East and West ends of the layout. It could be the yard in Jasonville if I fill the 14'x33' space. Doodling shows a possible 156' run on first pass or 5 scale miles. I was an armchair modeler for 25 years so I know about procrastination.
Ah holy cow, a fellow resident of Central Indiana! I'm right up the road from you in Fishers. Interesting that you're essentially going the other direction from that plan. While I come back into Indiana you're going deeper into Illinois. Sounds like you've got a great layout spacing and scenery-wise. I've found that my choices led to stuff being a little more crowded than I would like. By the way, some members over at another forum have convinced me to finalize up my plans for the larger, multi-deck layout and build it. I can do it in pieces and segments - getting a nice section of track down that can keep my sons interested will be the challenge. Stay in touch, I'd love to see a thread on your progress!
After several years of flat out giving up on having a layout at all (due to several bouts of life interrupting layouts), I decided to switch to N from HO, and build a door based layout. What followed was 2 1/2 years of procrastination and uncounted abandoned plans. Every time I would get to the point of fastening down track, doubt would raise it's ugly head...doubt that I'd be happy with a small tail chaser. A year and a half ago, life interrupted again...a planned move that may have left me with no train space or more space...so I dismantled and packed everything up. Wellll, the move never happened....instead we added on here...and built a combination train and storage building. I spent last summer planning the new layout. For the first time doubt did not rear it's head. That brings me to this year. By late January the first 1/2 of the bench work was built and most of the insulation and drywall was up. The 5th of February I fell. The 27th of May I made it back home. Along the way I had heart issues, a pinched spinal cord, lost the ability to stand, walk, and use my left hand. The month before coming home, rehab regained my ability to stand and walk a few steps with a walker, and limited use of my left hand with very little sense of feeling. There is little to no hope of recovery to the point of using my train/storage building. My point of procrastination now....what do I do layout wise, if anything. For the foreseeable future, a small bedroom and the kitchen is the extent of my accessible living and potential train space. Even a door sized layout would probably be impractical use of space in the small bedroom I live in. I've never been able to wrap my brain around the idea of a dead end switching layout. My main interest in model railroading is running passenger trains. :tb-confused:
Zandoz - I can at least partially empathize with your situation. I have been disabled since 1955 due to polio. I am now finally constructing my model railroad layout after decades of putting it off. Due to my physical limitations, mine is a small layout -- 48 x 32 inches, in N-scale. This certainly isn't the railroad empire of my grandest dreams, but it is one I can handle even with my limitations. I've built it to be operated while sitting down, because I tire pretty quickly when standing. You might consider a small N-scale layout made with Kato Unitrack laid on top of 2-inch foam. From everything I have read, the Unitrack track sections are easy to assemble and the resulting trackwork is very reliable. You would be able to get something simple up and running with relative ease and quickly have some fun running trains. Expand it and detail it as you are able. For inspiration, see Micro/Small Layouts for Model Railroads. That web site has no end of ideas for model railroads that are interesting despite their small size. Good luck -- Jeff
I too am disabled. That's why I'm resorting to "Unitrack". I've built about six layouts in the past, and had big plans for a C55 "Peco" layout.........I'm just not physically able to do it anymore, due to age & disability. I figure "Unitrack" is going to eliminate about 90% of the pain of track laying. Are you able to lay down even a loop of "Unitrack" for your passenger trains?? Seems that would be better than nothing. The wiring is all "plug & play" if you want it that way.....so with Kato power pack, wires/plugs, etc. it should be fairly simple. I hope that you are able to do @ least something toward having your trains. Recover & be well my friend.
