Its just a matter of momentum. I like hearing peoples little victories. Eight feet of track!!! awesome stuff. Hmmmm... another foreign train buff. Alan's Andersley really got me fired up. Japanese trains would be easy to model, there are lots of beautiful products by this company, uhm kado, or quato, or summin like that. I guess I can't post again till I get that mainline down. Talk to you soon.
WOOOHOOO I have now got my entire main line roadbed down. I also have about 9-10 feet of track installed. Ran a dc loco over it a bit just to check it out. I really want to get the main done before the boating season kicks in!
Well I went to get things from my basement and managed to bump a really old AC junction box and put the kitchen and basement into blackness. After a while of fooling with my houses AC I figured out the issue and fiddled with some flex and tacks. I lost most of my time playing electrician so modeling was low key, but I did get some track down. This is a really small layout I'm making. Very cute!
Same here! At some level a module is perfect. It is similar to the diorama approach, but you can take it to shows as well and run it with a group of friends or strangers. I kinda gave up on NTRAK. Now, I'm currently treating this as a solo hobby because I'm just not interested in having my home layout be tied to anybody else's choices or schedule, and I want to operate or show it when I want to, not just when there is a critical mass of people. But I'm starting to question whether this solo approach has (for me) a fatal flaw. Example: I want to build a standalone portable layout. I posted pics of my True-Track on a door -- I got from zero to running trains in an hour! But since then I made negative progress, actually removing the track. I'm back to owning a blank door and a box full of track. Booooo. Maybe what I need (I'm not prescribing for anybody else) is to work with ANOTHER HUMAN. I can join a club, or help out with a large home layout for a while. Am I deluded? Have you other procrastinators tried this approach? And does it work, or do you just end up neglecting your home layout even more? (Not that I can get much worse) Give me your thoughts on this. Has anybody here had success with inviting somebody to help out? Does it get you going, or just get you irritated?
I've been a modeler for close to 20 years, I've started 5 layouts, and still looking to fully complete 1. Three of the others were dismantled due to career moves, and I'm on my second version in my present home. It started out as a lower profile project, but construction began right around the internet boom. The wealth of information I found on the web inspired me to build a layout around a prototype going overboard with the planning. And ebay gave me instant access to equipment that I could never find in the LHS. So I kind of went off the deep end. The prototype idea became kind of paralyzing, so I backed off and allowed myself enough creative license to build things that captured the flavor of the prototype. But still I reach a point where there's so many things to do, I often bounce from task to task without finishing anything. Frustrating. I've thought about your suggestion and recruiting some human help, but I'm not really willing to open my home to strangers. So for now the slow pace will continue. The other problem is too many other interests. I'm also normally a winter modeler, but this past summer I finally qualified for the Boston marathon, another life long goal, so a lot of the time that would have been spent in the layout room was spend logging miles on the roads. There were a lot of days that I would have been happier to have been working on the layout.
As long as it seems to take me to get anything major accomplished on my layout, I really suprised myself with this little Inglenook Sidings layout. I designed and built it in about 5 weeks. Of course it is only 1'x4', but you can do a whole lot of railroading on it with one locomotive and eight cars if you like yard switching.
Nice little inglenook you have there Tad. My layout went into a stall this week. I have been building a new bedroom in my house. The bedroom is almost done. It's all recycled scrap material so it cost me only about 2-3 bucks in nails and screws. Hopefully, I can lay some c55 and roll some trains soon.
I am also in a perma-stall mode My excuse....I need to finish remodeling the attic (future train home). 1. Repair / Replace Kitchen roof - not model railroad room related but it has first dibs in the budget 2. Replace attic Windows - for the front of the house we are puting in a 40" octagon window in the train room and a "normal" size window in the rear. 3. Install electrical sub panel - for new attic circuits and an electric stove for the kitchen. 4. Build knee wall on east side of attic. 5. Install electrical outlets and boxes for new lighting a. Planning on two 20 amp circuits for the layout b. One dedicated 20 amp circuit for heating / cooling of the attic c. One 20 amp circuit for room lighting d. One 20 amp circuit for general use (computer and other stuff) 6. Install new sub-floor 7. Install room lighting 8. Drywall 9. Paint 10. Install handrails for attic access 11. Install carpet squares I hope to have all of the above done by mid December 2010 but may very easily be pushed into 2011. Untill all of the above is done, no actual layout progess will occur. In the meantime, I have been building up my locomotive roster (almost done with purchases) and will move onto decoder installs for locos that need them, repairing and detailing rolling stock, and assembling buildings for the layout.
I'll admit I'm stuck as well. I managed to get a bedroom at my other house to myself for trains. My problem comes from either doing one of three things: A. An around the walls layout around the entire room. The problem with this is I really have no wood working experience and trying to figure out how to set up some sort of duckunder for the doorways might be tricky B. Also an around the walls layout,but with loops at each end before reaching the door which keeps me from worrying about duckunders. I just wonder if the 16'' mounting braces I'd use would hold up a 2'x2' piece of plywood I'd need for a turnaround. C. My third option is either a door layout or piece of plywood in the middle of the room. Easier in some aspects,but limits me on other stuff. I mostly like watching trains run,but having a yard for inbound-outbound trains with maybe some room for occasional classification(if you can call it that,more along the lines of rearranging the cars) would be nice. I'm obviously doing L&N,seeing as I have about 15 L&N engines in my roster What to do,what to do?
The problem with dream layouts is that for many of us they remain just that. I realized I needed something to make between now and when the dream layout is happening. For now it's going to be a small practice layout. There is definite progress on it. I'm just waiting for an hour or two when I can glue down track.
Wow... I don't feel so alone now... lol. I've started two layouts: 1- 4x8 which is no longer, I got the track down and then that was it. I've just started a a 2x4 module with the thought to start small and work my way up... will be putting track down some time... I've other hobbies that also take up my time which apparently I don't have enough of...
Stuck myself, I started my layout in my step-sons room, he moved out. NOW, my wife says he split with his girlfriend and he is moving back in,,June 1st.,,, :tb-err:. but, all is well. I have an unfinished room upstairs in the front of the house. I got the OK to turn it into my "train" room. 14' X 16'. Now, I am planning finishing that (work 2 jobs so it will take a month) but, when done, will be back on the layout full steam. Joe ps.. actually when I get the ply floor over the sub-floor and the knee walls in, may move the layout in then and tinker back and forth between the 2. Just have to watch out for the plaster dust when sheet-rocking.
I think that procrastination is an important part of our hobby. The many processes involved n building a model railroad perpetuates procrastination. If it was an easy process a lot of the fun would be lost. I started a new layout in late January after a 30 year layoff from modeling. I retired in 2008 and found after 2 years of hyper focusing on golf and bowling that I needed something else to do with my time. As a young man I had always enjoyed building rolling stock and structures. During a visit from my oldest Son in early January we started talking about how much fun we had with model railroading back in the seventies. I ask him what he had done with all the trains and he said they were in boxes stored in his shop. After he went back to California I started thinking about creating a small switching layout modeled in the fortes though fifties era. I have a limited area to dedicate to a layout so that will dictate smaller power units and rolling stock which will be a better fit for a small area in that era. So far all I have accomplished is getting the bench work ready and layout design identified. But a day has not gone by without me searching the web for information and insight on new techniques and materials used in model making, from DCC to weathering. The learning curve is a never ending process that is as exciting as operating the railroad. I have had a wonderful time doing research on the many facets of the hobby without ever laying a piece of track. That’s what makes this hobby a life long endeavor you can spread the cost over a long period of time and still but still be learning new techniques and processes. I hope to start laying track soon but I will never be in a rush to do anything without a thoroughly understanding of all the options, techniques and processes involved in the task. I guess I’m a procrastinator but having a lot of fun with the hobby,
I feel a lot better now because I have tons of procrastination and more where that came from. I'm trying to get on point soon.
Tommy I agree up to a point. Some of us get stuck in daydream/research mode. With a couple decades of research and day dreaming I personally feel a need to build. I'm doing my small USA proto layo0ut, but these days my day dreams are directed overseas at modern swiss and austrian railroading. Too many pretty locos and cars.
I got my structures and switches out and set them on the layout to see how they would work on this little layout. Maybe it's a thing most model railroaders know, but I found that placing structures and then laying track works much better than fiddling on paper and thinking that everything will fit in real life. Maybe by the end of the week I'll find time to get a loco and some cars rolling.
wow! I thought I was the only one who hasn't started on a layout! hahaha Can anyone top 40 yrs? yup......I had a layout in my teen years and then got married,....kids...and no room in our rental house for any kind of layout. Plus, i never felt secure enough with renting to start and build a layout. I kept dreaming of the day when I could start and it always seemed something stopped me. I have many rolling stock and engines ,just waiting to have weathering and details added. Now,with my second wife , we have a new house with a room for "me" The trouble I now have is designing that layout. Of course, we all want the biggest we can, but I'm trying to be smart with my time and space. I'm wanting a self type layout in HO. I'm still trying to have more track than I should. The other reason I haven't started is , guess I'm looking for that perfect layout. Also scared that what ever I build will not really hold my interest. Soon i'll just get the frame built and go from there.
