Sailormatlac IRONROOSTER: TA462: pastorbob: I am also declaring a truce on buying any more equipment. Tired of placing advance orders, waiting on containers from the Orient, opening packages and finding parts were not glued on expensive cars and engines, finding that I generally had to rebuild many of my expensive purchases. My wife asked the other day "why do you keep adding more if you are so unhappy with the quality. You have enough to last a lifetime now." You know? SHE IS RIGHT!! Bob Funny, my wife asked me about buying more stuff yesterday. I've been waiting for some more U2g's I just bought and she said, don't you have enough stuff? LOL, first time she ever said that. I went into the train room later that day and just looked around. She is right, I've got more then I'll ever use in my lifetime. I didn't realize just how much I had until I started looking around, lol. I'm there too. Even if I fill the basement with layout I have more cars and engines than I can use. I slowed down last year and haven't bought any this year. I doubt that I'll totally stop, but future buys will have to be special in some way. Enjoy Paul A French model railroader used to say that avery model railroader has an hamster syndrom. Always getting new stuff and forgetting about what he already has. Few weeks ago, we decided to run some 70's CN trains on the layout. My first reflex was to check what was available on the market. Then, I stumbled on a cardbox full of nice cars fitting this era I completely forgot... There was enough to fill the yard! Over the last 20 years, I had a multitude of small layouts and dioramas. Most of them built over and over on the same 4' x 4' plywood sheet my dad bought when I was 7 year-old. The actual layout celebrated its first anniversary this month. It's a rebuilt version of the previous incarnation. Same scale, same locale, same industries... We tore down the first one progressively and one day, we found out nothing remained from the original. This is an evolving hobby. When you complete a layout, you get bored and rip thing off. Then, you complain about what you loss. I think that most of us have the strange habit to live their hobby in expectative mode. It's a double-edged sword... Matt
IRONROOSTER: TA462: pastorbob: I am also declaring a truce on buying any more equipment. Tired of placing advance orders, waiting on containers from the Orient, opening packages and finding parts were not glued on expensive cars and engines, finding that I generally had to rebuild many of my expensive purchases. My wife asked the other day "why do you keep adding more if you are so unhappy with the quality. You have enough to last a lifetime now." You know? SHE IS RIGHT!! Bob Funny, my wife asked me about buying more stuff yesterday. I've been waiting for some more U2g's I just bought and she said, don't you have enough stuff? LOL, first time she ever said that. I went into the train room later that day and just looked around. She is right, I've got more then I'll ever use in my lifetime. I didn't realize just how much I had until I started looking around, lol. I'm there too. Even if I fill the basement with layout I have more cars and engines than I can use. I slowed down last year and haven't bought any this year. I doubt that I'll totally stop, but future buys will have to be special in some way. Enjoy Paul
TA462: pastorbob: I am also declaring a truce on buying any more equipment. Tired of placing advance orders, waiting on containers from the Orient, opening packages and finding parts were not glued on expensive cars and engines, finding that I generally had to rebuild many of my expensive purchases. My wife asked the other day "why do you keep adding more if you are so unhappy with the quality. You have enough to last a lifetime now." You know? SHE IS RIGHT!! Bob Funny, my wife asked me about buying more stuff yesterday. I've been waiting for some more U2g's I just bought and she said, don't you have enough stuff? LOL, first time she ever said that. I went into the train room later that day and just looked around. She is right, I've got more then I'll ever use in my lifetime. I didn't realize just how much I had until I started looking around, lol.
pastorbob: I am also declaring a truce on buying any more equipment. Tired of placing advance orders, waiting on containers from the Orient, opening packages and finding parts were not glued on expensive cars and engines, finding that I generally had to rebuild many of my expensive purchases. My wife asked the other day "why do you keep adding more if you are so unhappy with the quality. You have enough to last a lifetime now." You know? SHE IS RIGHT!! Bob
I am also declaring a truce on buying any more equipment. Tired of placing advance orders, waiting on containers from the Orient, opening packages and finding parts were not glued on expensive cars and engines, finding that I generally had to rebuild many of my expensive purchases. My wife asked the other day "why do you keep adding more if you are so unhappy with the quality. You have enough to last a lifetime now." You know? SHE IS RIGHT!!
Bob
Funny, my wife asked me about buying more stuff yesterday. I've been waiting for some more U2g's I just bought and she said, don't you have enough stuff? LOL, first time she ever said that. I went into the train room later that day and just looked around. She is right, I've got more then I'll ever use in my lifetime. I didn't realize just how much I had until I started looking around, lol.
I'm there too. Even if I fill the basement with layout I have more cars and engines than I can use. I slowed down last year and haven't bought any this year. I doubt that I'll totally stop, but future buys will have to be special in some way.
Enjoy
Paul
A French model railroader used to say that avery model railroader has an hamster syndrom. Always getting new stuff and forgetting about what he already has.
Few weeks ago, we decided to run some 70's CN trains on the layout. My first reflex was to check what was available on the market. Then, I stumbled on a cardbox full of nice cars fitting this era I completely forgot... There was enough to fill the yard!
Over the last 20 years, I had a multitude of small layouts and dioramas. Most of them built over and over on the same 4' x 4' plywood sheet my dad bought when I was 7 year-old.
The actual layout celebrated its first anniversary this month. It's a rebuilt version of the previous incarnation. Same scale, same locale, same industries... We tore down the first one progressively and one day, we found out nothing remained from the original. This is an evolving hobby. When you complete a layout, you get bored and rip thing off. Then, you complain about what you loss. I think that most of us have the strange habit to live their hobby in expectative mode. It's a double-edged sword...
Matt
Too Much Stuff!
I have no clue as to how many locomotives I have, and besides it all depends on *how* you count them!
But in the past six years since the advent of affordable plastic subway cars my whole layout morphed into a subway layout. I thought of selling my old passenger stock, but after looking at it and deciding that it had greater sentimental value than a cash value, I decided to build a static display of Pennsylvania station under a part of my layout just to display the equipment. 21 tracks *should* be enough, you think?
Oh well, I still do not know how many locomotives I have, and what of those still work.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
ARTHILL Like you, each new parsonage got a new layout. I tried to move two, but that never worked well. I have now been in this house, not a parsonage, I own it for, for 27 years, though I did not start this layout until my 70th birthday. I wonder what I might have had if I had started it when I moved. For one thing, I would nothave had this space. I don't anticpate starting over, thouh I have upgraded some parts.
Like you, each new parsonage got a new layout. I tried to move two, but that never worked well. I have now been in this house, not a parsonage, I own it for, for 27 years, though I did not start this layout until my 70th birthday. I wonder what I might have had if I had started it when I moved. For one thing, I would nothave had this space. I don't anticpate starting over, thouh I have upgraded some parts.
The problem is your choice of vocation! ☺ I am a Benedictine Monk, and as such have a vow of stability! I have been here in this monastery from the time I entered in 1983 and will be here until I meet the Lord on his layout in the sky!
That said, this is my THIRD layout since becoming a monk. I might not move but we renovate, tear down and rebuild buildings almost continuously. My present layout is in a former classroom above the library. Even so, I just tore out the entire lower level and am rebuilding it for operational reasons. It is a good thing that the Abbot is tolerant of little boys and their toys!
Bottom line, as you have figgured out: Change happens.
Hi!
Excellent question ! In my case, the more significant layouts were:
- Lionel (1956-1958) an 8x20 layout built totally by myself. Taken down when we moved.
- HO (1958 - 1960) an HO layout that was built in a difficult place and was really never enjoyed, and quickly mothballed when car fever hit.
- HO (1970-1973) started a layout for the kids, but it never really could compete with slot cars, etc.
- HO (1973-1978) built a layout just for me (8x16 U shaped), but was limited by time and money. Took it down with a transfer to Dallas, Texas. Never got to build a layout in Dallas, but worked on lots of kits and built up "inventory". Moved to the Houston area in 1981.
- N (1987 - 1989) wanted to try something different, found N too small for my skillsets and liking.
- HO (1993 - 2008) this was a nice double level layout, but I made it too complicated and built in a couple basic flaws that eventually helped me to lose interest and enthusiasm.
- HO (2008 - ???) A similar layout to the previous one, but uses DCC and "better planned".
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.....
Southeast......Southwest
Ship IT on the FRISCO!
Chief cook & bottle-washer, SLSF Arthur Sub, Paris, TX, circa 1975-1978
As I said originally, my goal isn't to build as many railroads as I can, but to build a railroad that will last. And as I stated in my original post, my current layout was started in 1984 and is still going stong.
I'm closing fast on 48, and I'm on my third layout -- although I took a long break in the middle.
After I got back in the hobby 11 years ago, I built a throw-away one that lasted about 3 years, but was intended from the beginning as an experiment. I'm now working on a version which is an intermediate stage (and also, incidentally, building one for my sons, but I'm not counting that one in my layout total). I'll keep tinkering with that one until I have the money to finish my basement (where the layout is) and build my dream layout.... most likely when my kids are out of college. So figure the current one will last about a dozen years.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
I'm only 8 years into the hobby and am already on my 5th layout.
I started with the standard 4x8 loop, eventually got bored, then expaned to two 4x8's. After compeletly dismantling my previous layouts, I'm now at a satisfactory 8x12 "around the walls" style layout. Its satisfactory to me and will hopefully last me until I graduate college.
IRONROOSTER TA462: pastorbob: I am also declaring a truce on buying any more equipment. Tired of placing advance orders, waiting on containers from the Orient, opening packages and finding parts were not glued on expensive cars and engines, finding that I generally had to rebuild many of my expensive purchases. My wife asked the other day "why do you keep adding more if you are so unhappy with the quality. You have enough to last a lifetime now." You know? SHE IS RIGHT!! Bob Funny, my wife asked me about buying more stuff yesterday. I've been waiting for some more U2g's I just bought and she said, don't you have enough stuff? LOL, first time she ever said that. I went into the train room later that day and just looked around. She is right, I've got more then I'll ever use in my lifetime. I didn't realize just how much I had until I started looking around, lol. I'm there too. Even if I fill the basement with layout I have more cars and engines than I can use. I slowed down last year and haven't bought any this year. I doubt that I'll totally stop, but future buys will have to be special in some way. Enjoy Paul
Proudly modelling the Quebec Railway Light & Power Co since 1997.
http://www.hedley-junction.blogspot.com
http://www.harlem-station.blogspot.com
I'm on my third layout, all have been in N scale. The first one was 4' x 6' in my parent's home when I was a teen, and it lasted nearly twenty years before it was dismantled, but more than half of that time I was away at college, or living in an apartment with no room for it. It had some rough scenery on it, but the track was poorly laid and it didn't run well.
The second was a small 2' x 4' that I used to hone my skills while living at the apartment.
The third and current one is in my basement and was started in 2004. Trains have been running for years, but there is no scenery. But that's okay, because earlier this year I decided that this one needs to come down. I realized that several of my scenes just weren't going to be plausible. I've decided to go a more prototypical route this time, so I've spent the last several months doing research on the area I'm going to model.
Last month we found out my wife is expecting our second child, so I'm sure the next layout will take longer than expected to get up and running. In the meantime Layout #3 is still running and will continue to do so until I have a track plan I can live with.
Scott
TA462 pastorbob: I am also declaring a truce on buying any more equipment. Tired of placing advance orders, waiting on containers from the Orient, opening packages and finding parts were not glued on expensive cars and engines, finding that I generally had to rebuild many of my expensive purchases. My wife asked the other day "why do you keep adding more if you are so unhappy with the quality. You have enough to last a lifetime now." You know? SHE IS RIGHT!! Bob Funny, my wife asked me about buying more stuff yesterday. I've been waiting for some more U2g's I just bought and she said, don't you have enough stuff? LOL, first time she ever said that. I went into the train room later that day and just looked around. She is right, I've got more then I'll ever use in my lifetime. I didn't realize just how much I had until I started looking around, lol.
Agreed, change happens, coming slowly for some, quickly for others. There have been times I wished I had just a little more space in the basement to add another town or branch, but my wife brings me back to reality saying "no, I can't take over the bathroom" or no I can't expand the basement, concrete walls don't move. I have learned to be happy with what I have, knowing that maintenance, improvements, etc. will be going on the day I die.
However, I will tell you that many years ago, a good friend was looking for a new home. He is a UP modeler. The house next door was for sale, and there was some serious talk about them buying that house, and we would tunnel between the houses linking his Union Pacific with my Santa Fe. Cooler heads (wifes) prevailed and he decided not to buy the house. Probably a wise choice.
Here's another reply from a member of the Pastors in Model Railroading SIG ("No officers, no meetings, no sweat"). I'll be retiring next year and have bought a house with even more basement space than I've had these past twenty-plus years. But as I've reported elsewhere, vision issues, and the realization that I'm just not as competent as I'd like, leading to unsatisfying running performance, have led me to make a shift to HO and DCC in the new place, with my wife's blessing.
Another reason for the change is that this layout was first built in a California garage, cut up and reassembled in Ohio, and about ten years back, slightly expanded to fill its space; this cutting and pasting may account for part of the mediocre performance, in fact. I don't expect to change the design or operating scheme much, apart from what's demanded by the change in scale, but I think I'll go smaller in general (startup costs in DCC equipment and rolling stock being what they are).
Most of all, I'll have a less linear approach to construction. In retrospect, I think the nature of otherwise very helpful books led me to believe that you design your layout, then build the benchwork, then lay the track, then wire everything, then test, then ballast, and so on. But clearly some wiring needs to be done, or at least figured in, when putting up the benchwork, and it makes way more sense to wire feeders to rail before gluing down the track than after. And so on.
Lessons learned this way always seem to turn up in the material you read or heard about long before, but apparently that's the way it is for some of us. As long as we're having fun in all this building and rebuilding, I guess it's worth it. And the more opportunities to make decisions without committee meetings, votes, political calculations, second-guessing, and all the rest, the better.
I cut my teeth in the hobby as a teen. I built two "forgetable" layouts, but I learned a lot in the process. The third layout was of the quality I wanted, but I never "finished" it because I graduated college and had to be able to move as necessary for my career (ten different addresses in the first 3 years after college).
I continued to plan in my mind and on paper for my return to the hobby. Life became more settled after 20 years of my career, and I put my plans into action. I regard my 12-year old layout as a constant work in progress. I continue to add and revise as I learn new things and when the mood strikes. I doubt that I'll ever declare it "finished" because there's no fun in just owning a model railroad; for me the fun is in the creative aspects of it.
Having said that, I've come to a couple of realizations:
Finally, I'll say that the durrable nature of model railroads is on of its unique characteristics. My father built scale R/C airplanes. He also flew them and occasionally they suffered (euphamistically) hard landings. Thus, he never had to store too many of them. Our trains, structures, etc. accumulate and that brings with it a challenge that I've yet to resolve - my layout cannot expand as fast as my structures and rolling stock accumulate. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that many of us tear down and start over.
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
Forty years and by my count eight layouts. HO while I was in high school and college. Then several N scale layouts while in the Air Force. Ultimately built a set of LDE bookshelf modules that I could take with me and just need a section of connecting layout to set up. Each module could operate as a stand alone town if needed. That let me keep the hard part of the layout through all the change of station moves and only rebuild the throw-away connections. After I got out it was back to HO and now working on my current layout for about 10 years.
If I had the space, I'd jump to O and probably build that lifetime layout. Since my goals are more structure and detail oriented, a larger scale would fit me better if I had the room.
Art:
never did the parsonage thing, always bought a house wherever I was, but was fortunate to stay at the same church for a lot of years this last time. I "retired" in 1996 with my house paid for and no desire or reason to sell and move. Then did another 10 years part time at a rural church near here. I do believe the layout helped me keep my sanity many times.
For all the usual reasons I have had several layouts. The longest lasted 15 years and never got beyond the track stage - in fact I never finished the track, although I was running trains after the first year. But I was going to school, active with the Boy Scouts while my sons were growing up, etc. When I finally had time to work on it, my interests had changed so I started a new layout. Then I retired and moved.
My current layout is 12x31'. It may or may not be my last. I can expand it to 1000sq ft if I want, or it may be big enough. I've not done a point to point before so it's kinda of an experiment. If I don't like it then I'll do another one. If I like it and decide it's big enough then I'll spend whatever years I have left detailing and running it. Or build a second but different kind of layout in the other part of the basement, maybe in a different scale. But with the flex track and other RTR stuff these days it's not as time consuming to get a layout up and running as it once was.
Heh. I've never "completed" a layout. They usually last up to 2 years until an involuntray relo or voluntary move takes place. I have a habit of tweaking as I go along also - too many tweaks and I just scrap the thing or I discover something else that I prefer to model.
I think that's just the nature of this hobby.
Bob..
In my 'adult' years I've had 4 RR's
Small switching layout for about 4 years while in collegeA bookshelf RR, the freelance Hampshire County RR, for more than 25 years (featured in RMC in 1995 if I remember right)A short-lived C&O themed RR that had to get dismanlted due to a change in circumstances
and now under construction for the past 2 years a new C&O based RR. Hopefully this one will be the last and best.
Charles
Like Ulrich, I too will be turning 55 soon. In just over a week actually. And I am finally done building a layout and having to tear it down for any number of reasons as in the past.
Since early childhood, I have had numerous layouts that had one very common theme: None of them ever acheived even a remote level of completion. For one reason or another, I felt like I was always spending more time demolishing layouts than actually building them. I think I've chopped up enough lumber and plywood to frame a small house. I am sure many of you out there have had similar experiences over the years.
My current layout will be my final one, come hell or high water. I've made the change to N scale and have around 250 square feet to play with. The layout will modular in nature so that I will never EVER have to waste a single stick of lumber again. I have completed an 8 by 9 foot section so far and will work outwards from there.
I think we all reach a point in our lives where we just know that the days we have left are fewer and fewer and we can ill afford to waste any more time starting new layouts. But by the same token, model railroading as a hobby is the ultimate learning experience. You make mistakes, and go on from there. Hopefully all that accumulated wisdom will now result in the model railroad I've always wanted but has somehow remained elusive up till now.
Frank B.
Dorval, Canada
I think the duration between moves has more impact on the life-span of a layout than anything else. You even cited moves as a cause for starting over.
I have proven to my own satisfaction that repeatedly moving a larger layout larger just isn't going to happen. Whether it's a rectangular configuration or modular or shelf doesn't matter - the work involved in readying more than about 4 easily transportable sections of a personal layout isn't going to happen more than once.
Then enter in the "new start in a new place" mentality, new prototypes and regions to research and fall in love with, improvements in workmanship, and the difference in layout space in the new place - it's pretty much inertia that causes a layout to move (my opinion).
The longest time in one house in my entire 50+ years was seven years, with the second longest being 4 years. I'm now on my 15th house/town house since leaving college. A small layout has lasted several moves; no larger layout ever has. But eventually the cited changes caused by moving take their toll on satisfaction with even the small layouts, and it's time to start over.
Moving frequently also puts an effective kabosh on a large-crew operations-centric layout - whether my own or somebody else's. It takes time to get the non-hobby side of moving taken care of to the point where I can regularly spend evenings with a club or group of model railroaders. And it takes a while to find a group I can fit in with - with reasonable chance for mutual enjoyment of the hobby.
Just my explanation for the short lifetimes of many layouts.
Fred W
I started building my current N scale layout in my new house in 1991. It went through various incarnations, wallside, stand alone, large loops, under & over, drop door accesses, you name I tried it, until I hit on a layout of enormous size about five years later. This set up lasted until the winter of 2010 when I down sized by chopping off two giant sections that encompassed about the size of two 4 x 8's, nearly 40% of the total square footage. It was too big in it's scope and it had fallen out of favor for other reasons. I just went down there one day with a fully charged drill and started taking it down. About two hours in my wife asked me how much I was going to take down and I told her when my drill runs out of charge.
Today my layout is a manageable 100 square feet give or take and has brought new life to the old hobby. I've done more to it in six months than I did in six years. I've had to scale down some scenery I was wanting to do and some of buildings no longer fit in but I'll get over that. However, the creativity and interest are back 100%. So to answer your question, in 20 years my layout had many forms early on, then settled in like a comfortable pair of old brown shoes, but at some point it had a mid-life crisis and a sporty red convertible has taken it's place.
-Paul
Excellent question, Bob!
In my 48 years as a model railroader, I have built 7 layouts. The first one evolved from a Marklin starter set in my teen days and lasted just a couple of years, as I discovered other interest. It was a rather crude layout, toyish looking, with Marklin´s typical tin plate track of those days. No wonder it did not keep my interest for long. I dismantled the layout and sold off all the materials I salvaged.
Years later I built a N scale layout, not a big one, just a 2 by 4 roundy-rounder. It was fun to build, but operation was limited, so it had to go. Life got in the way of further activities, so there was a 15 year hiatus from the hobby, well not really. I kept my interest in model railroading, ventured a little into HOn3 after coming home from a year in the States, but did not make it into a layout worth that name. After I founded a family, the interest got rekindled and I ventured into Z scale, only to find out, that this scale was to small to give me that railroad feeling I wanted to have. But the bug had bitten again! I started out building a small HO scale layout of German prototype - just to try my hand on various techniques. It was Marklin again - for reasons of pure nostalgia. I kept it for about 5 years and then it had to make way for some serious model railroading - a small HOn 2 1/2 layout, following a prototype of a place located in the Saxonian mountains. In addition that, a garden layout was built, where I could operate my live steam loco.
Both the garden layout and the narrow gauge layout had to go when I lost my job and my house went into foreclosure.
I am now back into business, building a small mini-modular layout, which is just pure fun!
Although I have always dreamed of building one of those basement filling train empires, I have never actually gotten around to doing it. But guess, what - I have never missed it.! My interest in model railroading covers a wide range and I am afraid I don´t have the energy or the will to stay with one theme over a period of 10 or more years. I am glad that I have come across this concept of mini-modules. Building a single module is a matter of, say, two weekends - not much time is needed to come up with something new. even a complete new layout can be done, without having to sacrifice the old one. The "Big One" has to wait until I grow up - I´ll be turning 55 pretty soon, and chances are minimal that I actually will.
My previous layout didnt last 6 months after I completed it before I realized it was too big for its location and to dismantle it. The newest version fits better even though its 1/2 the size of the last version, just a heckova lot more compact.
Have fun with your trains
I have just been reading the new issue of MR, in particular the story about the demise of the D&DR owned by Pelle Seeborg. I had admired his work over the years in bulding the layout, now it is history.
This brings a question to my mind, what is the average length of life for the typical model railroad? I started my first HO layout on a sheet of plywood that slid under my bed in the dorm as I was going to Seminary. After graduating, I took that sheet of plywood, strapped down and devoid of anything but track to the top of my car and left Oklahoma (true Okie) to take my first church in Kansas. From that point on, I built one new layout, fairly large, while living in Topeka from 1959 until 1970. I then moved to Kansas City, new job, new house, and a second layout was underway in a basement under the two car attached garage (great spot). In 1979 after another move and another layout (the Mojave Western) I was set again until after the NMRA National was held in KC, I had lots of visitors, and following I demolished the MW to build my current layout, the Santa Fe in Oklahoma 1989. Here it is year 2011, I have that same layout, three decks in a space 30ft by 33 ft, all scenery done, all trackwork done, layout running fine.
I am older but wiser and feel no need to demolish and build a new one, I just refine the current one. According to my calendar the railroad is now twenty something and I continue to improve, modify, but no need at my age to start over.
How many of you actually retain a layout that many years without tearing out and rebuilding? It seems every time I look around, layouts are gone, new layouts are started. How about you? Could you keep the same layout as I have for that many years? Just curious.
Bob Miller