I've been retired 14 years from my life's career but have had two careers since because I didn't do well in retirement. One of those go go go people. It's just been in the last 8 months that I've gone from full speed ahead to a less hectic pace. Thirty years with CP, cool, my daughter is a RTC in Calgary. Can't remember the name of her division but it's down east in Ontario on one of sections that CP & CN share trackage and I know that her trains pull a lot of car/truck triple decks.
Good to hear from another Canadian.
Choo Choo
CDN Dennis
Modeling the HO scale something or other RR in the shadow of the Canadian Rockies Alberta, Canada
How long have you been retired Cho Cho Willie? The first 8-10 months that I was retired I just kind of moped around, but now1 1/2 years into retirement things are great and I'm happily working on my layout!!
Dean
30 years 1:1 Canadian Pacific.....now switching in HO
Willie,
Your comparison of work and retirement suggests to me that you might want to consider one more step to delay the layout: I recommend that you read the popular book Transitions, which addresses just such issues as those you raise. (It's good for anyone who's retiring, layout or not.)
I have some time left before retirement, but over the years I've noticed an inverse relationship between layout progress and satisfaction at my "day job." The layout requires no meetings, votes, or even showing up; there are no performance reviews, no office gossips, no meddlers--though you may find some at the club meetings if you're really interested, I'm sure. My layout advances as I find the need for an alternative to my professional life, and I'm curious to see how things will change after that motivation is removed.
But I'm not worried, because I have a brilliant plan for a second career that's model railroad-related. I'm forming the Layout Police, an elite squad that will go around to the countless homes where the spare room is filled with issues of MR but no layout, where the basement has a pile of plywood and a desk covered with kit boxes but no layout, where there's benchwork but no track down, track down but no wiring, everything wired but no scenery, all fully scenicked but no operations, and so on.
We arrive unannounced, wearing the distinctive uniform of narrow blue-and-gray striped coveralls and red bandanas. We come in and start nagging: Why isn't this done? Would you like for your spouse to see the receipts for all that stuff still in boxes? Or maybe, in the case of modelers with slightly less trouble, our crack phone team will spring into action, calling at all hours and pretending to be friendly telemarketers--whom you listen to because you have so much time--and then suddenly asking embarrassing questions about that DCC manual gathering dust on your bedside table.
Beware the Layout Police. We know who you are.
chochowillie selector: Yesterday is now gone. How is today looking? Are you preferentialy here, reading, and not actively solving your problem? What does that tell you? Crandell Crandell, you mentioned Victoria.... Would that be Victoria BC Canada? One more question.... is there a Private Mail function on this forum? If there is I can't seem to locate it. Dennis
selector: Yesterday is now gone. How is today looking? Are you preferentialy here, reading, and not actively solving your problem? What does that tell you? Crandell
Yesterday is now gone. How is today looking? Are you preferentialy here, reading, and not actively solving your problem? What does that tell you?
Crandell
Crandell, you mentioned Victoria.... Would that be Victoria BC Canada? One more question.... is there a Private Mail function on this forum? If there is I can't seem to locate it.
Dennis
Dennis, yes, Victoria, BC. I live a couple of hours north.
The PM function is now called 'start a conversation'. Whenever you see the member's username at the periphery of the text box of a post, you can click on it and a new page will appear with one of the options higher up on the page, toward the right, being 'Start a Conversation." Note that there is no edit function for that function. Once you press send, it stays just as you sent it.
Since you love photography, why not incorporate two of your loves into one project... take one of those modules and set out to complete it so you can take pictures of some of your favorite locos and rolling stock on it...
Place the track (or two) straight through it a nice distance from the front, and focus on finishing this one scene... then, later, you can take on building another one that will be added on to the first... next thing you know, you will be building corner modules so you can connect them...
When I can afford it (new baby and stay-at-home Mom), I plan to do that - build my sectional layout starting with one area and going from there...
Well, first off, you have to be motivated and want to do something. If you really don't want to, no one can make you. False starts may be normal in some cases. To me, the problem looks like you may not be able to make up your mind about a set track plan. Well, there are no set track plans. I have yet to build a layout to the track plan I started with. Things change and you have to adapt to them. I have a recipe that I use when designing a new track plan, and here it is: (But as I build, the track plan is subject to change in the areas where I am working.)The first thing to do is define the space that you have. How much of the room can you use? Do you need to have a workbench in the same room? You will get more running track if your layout is along the walls with a peninsula or two sticking out toward the center. The longest that you can reach things is about 24 inches. Thus quite a few folks make their benchwork 24 inches wide. The peninsulas can be wider because you will have access from both sides and the end.What I do for layout design (have done so far) is define my area and benchwork first. Next I decide on a theme. (Mainline running, with a branch line(?) or other special interests.) Then I put in a mainline. I am fond of twice around the room types divided by scenery and grades. Since I have gotten into operations, I also have a staging area of some sort, whether it is a lay-over for entire trains, or a yard that simulates an interchange yard. One track in staging is a through track for continuous running. If I put cars on it, the layout becomes point to point for operations.Next I try and determine how many small towns I can have, and possibility one city with a yard and loco facilities, without them crowding one another. Usually small yards and facilities unless I have the room for larger ones. I will try to fit in a way-side industry or two just for variation as long as it won't crowd things.Then I go looking at plans for modular railroads. I look for ones that would make good towns or cities because their track plans are usually fairly compact, and most of the way they will be switched is already determined with a good track plan themselves.Because I freelance, I don't worry about town and city names etc., but if you want to model a specific prototype, you can name the towns as the railroad you are modeling would, and build or plan you scenery to suite the area you want to model. Also, some of the industries that may be recognizable in a town you choose to name from a real one may have to be built or otherwise implied to achieve the "feeling" of the real town.When building starts, I try and get all of the benchwork built first. Then plan where the towns will go and install the mainline to get some trains running. Then I work on one of the yards so I can store stuff when not running. Then I plug along on the other track work and scenery design and continue from there. If I can't build all the bench work first, I try and build the section that will be the main yard and loco facilities, then expand from there.I started my present model railroad after I retired. (I'm 67 now.) I am also building modular in case I have to move. My modules are mostly 2x7 with a layer of one inch blue builders foam on top of a sheet luan surface.Hope this helps.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
I have to agree with those who said just get something going - it doesn't have to be final.
I retired last year in March. I thought I'd finish the basement and build a big layout. I'm not sure why, but I don't seem to have a lot of free time in retirement. So the basement finishing project is stalled. In the meantime I am setting up the bench work from my last two layouts in the smaller basement room where I'll build a "temporary" layout until I get the big room finished. Who knows, the temporary may be the permanent one. This is a hobby have fun.
Enjoy
Paul
selector Yesterday is now gone. How is today looking? Are you preferentialy here, reading, and not actively solving your problem? What does that tell you? Crandell
Graduate school at 66 to start a career??? So what the heck have you been doing for the last 40 years of so? Must mean "another career" or a "new career". What the heck, they do say that 60 is the new 40 or something...
chochowillie Thanks Bob, I appreciate your comments. Since I posted this earlier today other members such as yourself have kick started me to actually get something done on the rr. Finished the benchwork this afternoon. It's raining out and cold to boot so at least I feel like I actually accomplished something positive for a change. Dennis
Thanks Bob, I appreciate your comments. Since I posted this earlier today other members such as yourself have kick started me to actually get something done on the rr. Finished the benchwork this afternoon. It's raining out and cold to boot so at least I feel like I actually accomplished something positive for a change.
Willie, just a suggestion? When you click on reply in the lower corner of each post, what appears at te top of the next page that opens is a lightly-grey-highlighted text of the post you just clicked reply to. In the lower corner, in blue font, is "Quote". Click on that, and wait for the text of the person you are responding to to appear in your new reply text box, and then commence typing after the [/quote]. That way, your comments will contain the context so that all readers will understand to whom you have addressed yourself.
By way of a response from me for your circumstances, you have been in transition for a long time, and have been in a constat phase of adaptation to changing circumstances. When that happens, it is easy to become dejected, a bit fearful, and more than a little angry, perhaps feeling that it isn't exactly fair that your dreams and plans are slipping by a beautiful ful day at a time. And you are not getting any better looking, so at least you should be having some 'me' time....right?
It is natural to despair a bit, and to feel PO'd that you can't be allowed to find your rhythm. I have those days myself. I am trying desperately to get back into some semblance of physical condition so that a bunch of us can run the Victoria Half Marathon on the 9th of October. Trouble is, my last year was horrible with injuries and other impositions on my routine. I now have 10 pounds to shed, and am having a heck of a time trying to get a routine so that I can plan bicycle rides and runs to build endurance and strength. It is a busy time with bathroom reno, gardening, two new grandkids, etc.
I think most of us eventually find that life in retirement becomes routine once you enter the hospice or the home about the last time. IOW, you have to go with the flow. It won't happen...you will have to make do, and sieze the opportunities.
Finally, so I don't take up a whole page, I think you need to seriously consider setting yourself some goals: First, figure out what it is about model trains that appeals to you, and what you will want on your layout, and then devise your own track plan system and break down the construction into defined stages. Set them in stone on a calendar, but with realistic deadlines. If you move more quickly than the plan, that is a bad thing? But no sense in setting yourself up for failure by setting unrealistic goals with unrealistic timelines. Try for one module a month. Track bed and rails set, including feeder wires. Anything else you do to that module, such as scenery, is a bonus and something that will both make you proud and bring you pleasure. In just two months you'll have two modules to lag-bolt together. And it should continue apace...
chochowillie For most of my life I was your typical Type A personalty go go go. Now that I've finally learned to slow down, it seems like my go switch is broken. Choo Choo
For most of my life I was your typical Type A personalty go go go. Now that I've finally learned to slow down, it seems like my go switch is broken.
Choo Choo, what's wrong with you, man? What do you mean, "I've finally learned to slow down" ?
Therein lies your problem.
I retired three years ago and swapped a desk chair and an office for the things that I want to do. Golf, landscape management, model railroading, building a deck with my son, etc., etc., etc.
If you sit around waiting to become disabled, incapacitated, and ultimately die, your wishes will all come true.
Start the new layout ASAP.
I've finally learned to speed things up.
Rich
Alton Junction
Get some trains running. Then you will want them to run through scenery, so you'll start to add some, even a small area will make it look better. The ball is rolling.
I am semi retired and now have had a little time to work on a layout. While I was still working I started my alternative layout, (Dream layout room has been occupied by a variety ot things, since it was selected by spouse.) Had I done a little thinking, I would have reversed the door and done some around the room moveable modules to get me going, instead of a 4'x6'.
My suggestion is to take several of the modules you have make a loop and lay track. If you set some standards, like a modular group does, (track so far from the front edge at the joints) you can add more modules later and rearrange them if needed later. Get them set up and a train running. Scenic one module, while you think about your expansion. If you have a blank area on one side, while you are working on the other side, so be it. As long as you don't attach your track too firmly, you should be able to make modifications and add turnouts when you decide what you are going to do in that area.
As you can see, age has little to do with starting/starting over. If you worry about getting old, you probably will do it faster than necessary.
Good luck,
Richard
I am 66 and I have been starting my new railroad for about three years and don't have trains running yet. I expect this to be my last "big" layout and it is really spare bedroom sized rather than 30 x 40 foot train-palace dream layout sized.
But work keeps getting stalled, because I am trying to finish graduate school to start a career.
I just turned 70 last week and just started my dream layout 1 year ago. I retired 3 years ago and it took 2 years to come up with a track plan that I thought I would like. Well, I have changed it 2 or 3 times since I started bulding it. My layout is in a 24 x 26 addition that I build for the layout, before I had a track plan. I got frustrated too many times and realized that I am still getting older and must stop changing things and build them. I won't/may not be able to get around and under the layout in a few years so I better go with what I have. Along the way, I decided to switch to code 83 track and had to replace all my track (not laid yet??) and then decided to go to DCC and had to start converting my locos with decoders. Now DCC has become a whole other hobby, but I love it. Now I feel that the layout I have built (still building) is nice but doesn't allow for some of the things I had wanted in a layout. I am still forging ahead and will live with whatever shortcomings it has. I figure I only have so many years left and I want to have the scenery done and still have time to build all those building and rolling stock kits I have stockpiled over the past 5-6 years.
My advice: take the best layout design you now have and go with it. You can always change things later but get something on the benchwork so you can start to enjoy running some trains. Once I had some track down and ran some trains, I got excited and encouraged to do more. Now I can't wait to get into the trainroom and do some little task to get me closer to my goal. I build structures that I don't have a spot assigned to but I enjoy building, so I build. I add decoders to engines that are sitting on the shelf; I now have 18 DCC locos running. BUT, I AM HAVING FUN AND DOING WHAT I ALWAYS DREAMED OF. DON'T KEEP PUTTING IT OFF. ENJOY YOUR HOBBY.
-BOB
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
No kidding, been doing that half my life when it comes to multiple RR.
ChooChoo
"What are you going to do? You have to live or die. And if you're not dying, then you might as well get busy living." Great suggestion.... and you are so right! Thanks for reminder. I watched my father sit in his chair and die and swore I'd never do that to myself. Time to get on with living, even if it has rained here for the last 20 days straight.
Prescription, Use SAD light daily & quit feeling sorry for self!
Thanks for the help!
Costa Rica... my wife and I considered moving there when I retired for the 3rd time I think I've still not used to being "Retired". Anyway, a couple of things caused us to reject moving down your way. 1) Family, 2 aging mothers and our one and only Grandson, (20 mts.)
The other problem is related to health care, given that I have some health issues. Isn't maturity great!
For most of my life I was your typical Type A personalty go go go. No that I've finally learned to slow down, it seems like my go switch is broken. No happy mediums in life for me. I like your wife's suggestion for a name for your rr.O&C. I think I could use LT&C (Long time Coming)
As for the planning issue, I really think your suggestion is a good one. Since I have the benchwork in, get started laying out the end loops and go from there. Maybe seeing a train actually run would keep me going.
Thanks for some great suggestions.
Just jump in. Anything worth doing is worth doing over.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
l have been way down in the dumps for the last while due to a bunch of things. Sort of feeling like all the good stuff in my lifetime allocation is used up and there isn't any reason to go on. Time to get back to on my horse so to speak and get going with life again! Thanks for pep talk, I needed it.
That is certainly part of the issue for me. Living in the "Great White North" one would think that the long cold winter would be motivation but it sure wasn't for me this last winter and believe me it was really long and really cold/snowy. Took forever for spring to arrive and it's been raining /cold all through June so I sort of makes me a real procrastinator. Thanks for the reply
Dear Willie
I appreciate your post and your phrase "analysis to paralysis." I, too, have a tendency to over-analyze something before dipping my toe into it.
My son will be three years old on August 20. He's been infatuated with Thomas and other trains since he was about a year old. We've bought him lots of Thomas stuff that fill our living room, dining room, and sitting room.
We also bought him an O-gauge Thomas set. That's been the least entertaining for him because it goes in a simple oval and he's not permitted to handle the engine in the same way he handles his battery-powered and wooden engines.
I want to build him a nice layout--nice for a three-year-old, which is not what a fifty-year model railroader would consider nice--and have created nearly three hundred files in RailModeller in developing a track plan. I've spent the majority of my free time in the past three months trying to develop a good plan for him.
I've just about finished paralyzing myself, though. Fortunately, this paralysis is reversible. I'm going to move forward knowing that every single facet of what I create is going to be flawed in some way, especially considering my gross ignorance of almost every skill involved in creating a model railroad.
My point is that nothing is perfect. My father-in-law often says about himself, "I make a lot of mistakes, but I get a lot done." He's the most productive man I've ever known, and I'm forty-one years old and have known him for twenty-one years.
So, you might try making a decision as to whether you want to build another railroad. Give yourself a time limit to make your decision, be it ten days or ten weeks. If you decide you want to build one, consider creating a flexible timetable for getting the project done. On the days when you don't really want to work on your railroad but your timetable calls for action, go ahead and get busy on it. If after thirty minutes of working, you still don't want to work on it, call it quits for a day or two and readjust your timetable.
Like you, I love photography. I don't earn a living as a photographer, but I do accept an occasional wedding or family assignment. Photography is much more important to me personally than model railroading, but in pursuing photography, I realize that about forty percent of it is grunt and drudgery. But it's that forty percent that gets me through the next forty percent that's tolerable. Then I have the last twenty percent that sets my heart afire.
What are you going to do? You have to live or die. And if you're not dying, then you might as well get busy living.
I enjoyed your post, Willie. Good luck in whatever you decide to do.
--Jaddie
I'm 64, took early retirement and still work part time. I am just starting a new layout. I haven't had one since High School. The space available to me is in my home office. My layout will be approximately 2 1/2' x 11 1/2'. I tried planning it on paper but couldn't get anywhere. Finally I decided to build the bechwork and plan it full scale usung photocopies of turnouts. It is probably one of the most frustrating things I have done- I just couldn't fit everything I wanted into it - I worked on it for weeks. Finally I think I have a workable plan but I'm sure it will morph as I build it - that seems to be the way I do things, plan it as I go along.
I live in Costa Rica. The limited Hobby supplies are double the cost of those in the States. I end up mail ordering a lot, but after shipping and customs charges it still ends up double. An expensive hobby times 2 here in Costa Rica. Currently, because of lack of funds, new purchases are on hold. The current status of my layout is: Benchwork, some loose unlaid track and turnouts, A Bachman Specrum 4-4-0, a couple of stock cars and three scratch built structures. Currently I am working on scratch building the structures because the cost is minimal and I really enjoy it. I can make progress on my layout without spending too much. Hopefully, soon, I will be able to purchase more track and begin laying track and building scenery.
I some ways, I have the opposite problem as you. Once I start into something, I become completely immersed and don't want to stop until I have finished. Taking on a large project like a layout becomes frustrating because it is so endless - it takes a long time to see any fruition! It is also frustrating when I lay awake at night planning my next phase and can't sleep. I am having to learn to discipline myself and stop mid-project and go do something else like pay my taxes or spend time with my wife. My wife (who, fortunately, is supportive of me undertaking this project) thinks I should name my railroad the O&C - for Obsseive and Compulsive!
Recently there was an editorial in MR. "What does it take to build a model railroad" Perseverence was their answer - Oh so true!! We may have different obstacles but perseverence seems to be what is neccessary.
I would suggest you don't wait for the perfect track plan and just dive in at some point and start working on it - anywhere will do and the rest will grow from there. i know a lot of people preach planning, planning and planning. That works for some people - others of us have to just dive in and let it evolve!
Good luck!
Jim in Costa Rica
Modeling freelance Northern California late 1930s
I can identify with some of what you say. Especially the cost of living and fixed income.
You might try making a 3-D model of your "dream" layout. I used the free Atlas RTS software to make a track plan and then cut it up and glued it to thin cardboard "risers" and used some Sculptamold and ended up with a model that really helped me visualize the layout and work out some bugs.
Then I built the actual layout on some wood "modules" with blue foam for a base.
We did have to move and I was able to crate up the layout.
Now we have a new home and a spare room (not large) that I can use for a train room.
I hope to start reassembling the layout in the near future.
I also liked to "hack" at oil painting and I think that helped me with the layout scenery too.
But it is kind of hard to stay motivated with all the stuff that retirement age brings along.
I hope this might encourage you (or both of us) to make some progress.
Hang in there,
Jim Murray The San Juan Southern RR
Choo Choo Willie
I do not think there is an age limit to starting a layout. Now, age, ability, money, and available layout space are factors to consider. I would also add health as another consideration. But, no matter the answer to each of the above questions, one can still be active in the model railroading hobby!!
Build something relatively small with the ability to add more sections to it. As you get one section up and running, you can begin to plan the next one. Or go into the structure building and scenery route. HAVE FUN with the rest of your life. Remember, we only get one chance at life, so live it to its fullest.
Craig North Carolina
Sounds like you just need a good old dose of motivation. When I am in the procrastination phase I wait for a day when I feel real rested and good and spend a great part of the day doing whatever it is I have been putting off. With a good deal of progress made that first day it usually gives me the motivation to keep on going in the future.
Thanks for all the suggestions, pushes, nudges and all round support to those who read and replied to the above noted post.
It got me off my tail and got me moving right along. In the last 2 days, I finished assembling the last of the benchwork, got the bottom loop of the stacked loop installed and am pondering on using the inside of the loop as a off scene storage yard. Clearance to the upper loop is 4 inches not that that is a lot of space but with a little of my Son in Laws electronics expertise, it shouldn't be too hard to accomplish. Have to consider what access will exist from above.... The actual lower loop is 4 ft X 8 ft so there are lots of options.
Pictures to follow
Cho Cho Willie