What in the world do I do ?

[Anonymous]

I have established a layout plan for my layout and have nothing to do. I cannot start construction until mid-july because I have to save all my money for my airline ticket for my church's youth choir mission trip this summer. I have heard some people suggest building athearn blue-box and structures, but I cannot spend money on that either. The only thing I have to do is plan my "someday layout" I want to build a shed in my backyard no bigger than 16x16 or 10x20. I was wondering if you had any suggestions? Any other cheap ( $5) projects? Creating a trackplan book? Thanks !

[Budliner]

get your pals into the idea and as soon as you start the sooner you get it rolling


have fun

B -

[Budliner]

get your pals into the idea and as soon as you start the sooner you get it rolling


have fun

B -

[Anonymous]

Do you have software like Cadrail/3rdplanit/trainZ where you can build your layout virtually? You can operate it in the meantime, and maybe find someplaces where you want to change the trackplan before you build it in the real world. If not, is there room in the budget for something like that?

How about sketching out the layout in like 1/4 or 1/8 scale on cardboard from old boxes or such, and spend the time going over how it works for operation, and get a better idea of how the different scenes relate to each other? Make mockups for the buildings and structures like bridges out of cardstock (like empty cereal or kleenex boxes, that's what I made my very basic mockups from).

And speaking along those lines, there are also several guys who will build up a full 3-D model of your model railroad. Scale to whatever works for you. Use some balsa wood for benchwork if you want, use balsa wood or leftover cardboard/cardstock and paper for subroadbed and the like. Use clay or something for hills, ground cover foam for foliage, and the get the feel for the space and coloring of your planned railroad, and make changes from that.

---jps

[AntonioFP45]

Hi, Alex,

My situation "slightly" resembles yours. I've got my layout planned but can't build yet. I realized that I still want to have fun and do "some type" of model railroad activity.

I hope I'm correct in assuming that you already own some rolling stock. Listed below is what I've been doing for the past several days. Costs are "minimal". [;)][:p]

I looked over all of my rolling stock and realized that every piece could use "tweaking".

[1] It's been bugging me for years that even with the supplied weights, my group of Athearn Center flow, and Covered Hoppers are too light weight . I bought a small carton of 1500 steel BB gun pellets for $2.40 at Wal-Mart.

[1] First I carefully disassemble each hopper, and fill up each floor bin with the pellets. Next, I fill each bin up with Elmer's Glue, nearly covering all of the pellets. I let the glue dry at least 5 hours and move onto the next car.. After reassembly, you will notice a difference! Shaking and jolting is gone and the cars roll SOLIDLY on my test track/shelf. (Metal wheel sets are also a big help.)

[2] Using a jar of a rust color from Polly Scale or Floquil, pour a small amount into a tiny container, thin it down 30% to 50%. Take a small paint brush and carefully apply the wash onto your KD coupler knuckles and tops (avoid the spring).

[3] Thin a dark silver or "Steel" color the same way. With a small brush, dab the tips of your Kadee coupler trip pins. This simulates the air hose connectors on the prototypes.

[4] Whether you have plastic or metal wheelsets, remove the axles from your rolling stock and clean each wheel with alcohol.

[5] Check and make sure that coupler heights are all correct. Quite a few of my cars needed their trip pins raised gently with a pair of pliers.


I know you have your layout in mind, but little activities such as these can be quite fun and fulfilling. Once you actually try these things you'll be sharpening your modeling skills while at the same time making the boredom disappear.

Give it a whirl! Hope this helps![:D][:)]

[Anonymous]

Some ideas:

- Detail and/or weather whatever you have got - rolling stock, engines, track, structures.
- Build cerealboard (cereal box cardboard) mockups of the buildings you would like for the layout. Paint with Dollar Store paints.
- Research - as long as you are paying for Internet access anyway, and/or have a library card.
- Do some railfanning - if you have a digital camera, there is not much additional cost, and you can combine it with any other trips you are making. Even the cost of film developing is not that much at Wal-mart, etc.
- Join a club/create a club/find a friend who needs help and work on their stuff...!

Hope this helps make the waiting a bit easier...

Andrew

EDIT - for spelling [;)]

[cwclark]

I'm in the same catagory...i'm waiting for a carpet layer to install the carpet in the layout room (two weeks from yesterday) ...then i start the layout... I've invested about $50.00 in digi-key, radio shack, and mouser electronic parts to build train detector circuits..i've got 4 of them built already and now i've invested in some brass tubing and building my searchlight targets...there's always something to do to pass the time towards the ultimate layout...Chuck

[Anonymous]

Hmmm, alot of good suggestions. I think I will try a mock up of my layout and see if I can persuade my mom to take me railfanning. I may try to detail my rolling stock and fini***hat Atlas station kit. I may invest in some Atlas right track software and create some trackplans for a booklet or a website ( I have always hated that the best trackplans are in those books that are $15 !!! no offense Kambach but after buying 2 books and finding that I do not need tham, it is kind of frustrating. I would like to make a webstie or a low-cost booklet that has lots of good , realistic trackplans.) Thanks for all the suggestions !!!