What Have YOU Accomplished This Year?

[Big_Boy_4005]

Tim, I expect to be here next year, and yes, I'll bring this topic back. I love tradition. Even demolition is progress.

Krump, I believe even you have made some progress this year, since last year all you said was

"."

Well done, some words! There's hope for you yet.[swg]

[krump]

not much...





same as last year

[trainfreek92]

I have ripped up my ho scale layout!!!! now i have started laying track on the new n scale. My goals for next year are to complete the layout[:D] see this thread next year!!! (you are going to reserect it again right) Tim

[Anonymous]

i got my first layout (4X4") and already added 4X8" to it. -This spring my granfather passed away. A few months ago we ran across his 4'X4' layout and i said i'd take it (i always enjoyed running it) and just like a spark i had a model railroad. Now I'm into the hobby[:D]

[htgguy]

I have learned a lot and enjoyed even more. Got all the track laid on my around the wall switching layout. Began using an airbrush and learning to weather. I have started scenic work on my layout, built a number of rolling stock kits and my first structure. Working out a method for making trees. I have about 8-10' of track ballasted.

I have to thank people on this and other forums for much of this progress. It has been a great year for modelling and I just wish my job allowed me more time for it.

Jim

[Anonymous]

Ive:

1.Planned my track layout, drew it up in AutoCadd, pirnted it out full scale.

2. built all my benckwork (all 3'x6')

3. laid down foam base, hardshelled everything with paper Mache

4. Laid roadbed, about 60% of my track

5. built 3 structures, to about 90% finished, then stopped...[banghead]

6. Made ground foam, scenicked about 20% of the layout

I keep a digital camera handy and take pictures as I complete things... flipping back through the pictures helps me feel as though Im getting somewhere. I put them in different folders on my computer with the date they were taken as the folder name.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Well done Noah. [tup][tup]

It wasn't my intention to make this a guilt trip or a confessional, but motivation comes in many forms. Actually pride and an opportunity to boast a little, was more what I had in mind. [swg]

[Noah Hofrichter]

Boy, I sure lied this time last year!! Looking back at my old post, I figured that I'd do quite a bit of custom painting, and get an HO scale module started. Well, okay, so I got a module started, but not much else that I had planned on at least!! Anyway, here's what I got accomplished:

• I got a module about half way through being done for my local club. I've got the track laid and feeders wired, and a few of the basic landforms in.


• I got the track relaid on my layout. I ripped most of it up, relaid it including several new sidings, and overall improved operations. Derailments are down by probably 50%


• I started on some new scenery for the rock quarry on the layout. I would be done with it, but I got to concentrating on the module instead. I got the basic form and rockwork done though


• My biggest accomplishment this year though, was finally going DCC. I have yet to get the Digitrax System fully installed, although I have started on it.

So overall it was an okay year, but I think my problem is that I spend too much time on this forum.....

So for next year, here's what I want to accomplish:

• More custom painting!! I have about three GP38's that need WSOR Red and Grey.


• Finish installing the DCC system


• Finish scenicing my module(very important)


• Finish Rock Quarry


• I've got a few scratchbuilding projects that I'd like to do


• And finally, actually operate my layout more! Operation is my favorite part of MRing, but I don't seem to do as much of it as I like.

So let's see how much I lied again this time next year!

Noah

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73

Well said, Elliot. Nice thread.[bow]

As promised Dale. [;)]THANKS!! and [#welcome] to the other side of the tracks.

Now I have to keep that one about Dave Zuhn.[:I]

[nanaimo73]

Well said, Elliot. Nice thread.[bow]

[Big_Boy_4005]

I started this topic last year, as a year end retrospective.

This is everyone's chance to take a look back over the last 12 months, see what they have accomplished, and share it with everyone else. If you have photos, by all means share them too. Be proud of what you have done, and notice that it really does add up over time.

It might also be fun to share your model railroading goals for the upcomming year.

For those who were here last year, don't forget to take a trip down memory lane.[;)]

---

This has been a busy year on my layout. I recently posted an update in a seperate topic. Rather than say it all again, here is a link:

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=50067

For next year I would like to:

• fini***he last bits of benchwork
• complete the trackwork on the lower level
• get all of my house electrical circuits in place for lighting and train power
• build a second helix
• finalize my trackplan for the upper deck
• power up turnout motors on the mainline
• sell some of my excess junk on Ebay

This sounds like a lot work, but given the amount of free time I have, it is not necessarily unrealistic. Prehaps by listing my goals in public, I will be more inclined to accompli***hem.

Topping post.

[Anonymous]

Got my club started,had a awesome layout and the building that it is housed in donated to the club.Iam working with the help of many freinds to set up a program to get kids of under privledged families the oppertunity to experience model railroading thru the club.Everything i have done to my layout seems unimportant now.The only other thing is finding this forum,I have learned a great deal ,and found reason to smile when I could find no other.May the holidays bring all of you,all that you desire.Thanks
Terry.

[Anonymous]

On3.....Bought a basic Lenz system 100 DCC, got benchwork up for the 'long' stretch of our wall mounted shelf layout. Got my brass locos out of storage and got them lubed and running. Built a 'semi-craftsman' kit of a neat little tank car from Jerry Kitts of Foothill Model Works - [ gotta order their new 'firecar' now,] LOTS of track planning and idea scratching for the On3 layout, right now extending the frame and drive shafts of an Atlas/Kato mechanism I windned to On3 gauge...will be used under a freelance scarchbuilt McKeen style motorcar.

Lionel ....... Mike and I finally got the famous ATSF warbonnet F engines and a complete set of passenger cars in 1951-1953 vintage Lionel, lots of Lionel track, about a dozen postwar Lionel cars, and a postwar Hudson.

HO........Found a beautiful 4-6-2 in B&O green for my 20 year old Capitol Limited [ got help here on the forum finding it!! Thanks forum members!!!!!
Joined a model RR club, all scales, round-robin
Joined the National Railway Historical Society

Happy Holidays to all! Jennifer

[trolleyboy]

Well hello I'm new as this is my first post,however this year has been fairly busy. We bought a new house last year and i've finished the layout room and got the bemch work up, unfortunatly now I'm at a loss because though I'm a cp nut with the right equipment my second railway hobby (member of a traction museum)has me thinking nasty thoughts are my beautifull maroon and grey diesels going to be replaced by strung overhead or will the two peacefully cohabitate! i've also started working on an ho scale peter whitt streetcar and if all goes well we are going to try and make some for others to enjoy as well but thats next year sometime. Happy Christmas to everyone! trollyboy

[ksax73]

I got my tracks off the carpet!!!!

I don't have the resources for a "real" layout and therefore I have to resort to setting up my layout on the floor. During the Month of November a lightbulb went off in my head and I realized that I could section off the layout and put the tracks on 3/8" foam project boards with woodland scenics foam roadbed.

This decreases the layout set-up times substantially. It will hopefullay also make it possible for me to set up my layout when I come home from school for those breaks in between quaters.

The true test will come in mid June. I've been able to remove certain sections for cleaning purposes, etc. with no problem.

With this new setup I've been able to actually ballast for the first time!

[Anonymous]

locomutt,

Don't worry. Deficit spending aint just for governments anymore lol

[locomutt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by PennsyHoosier

2nd answer: I managed to spend more money on MRing than I thought possible. [:D]

Not hard to do, is it? I think my budget for last year,this year,and next year
has already gone out of the window.[:D]

[Anonymous]

2004 was a busy year. Here are the facts as I understand them:

1. My wife and I turned 50....pray for us.
2. Acquired four HO locomotives, two Kadee boxcars and an Alesis Ion synthesizer as gifts.
3. Continued trying to figure out how to shoehorn a reasonable layout into our basement-free house.
4. Travelled to British Columbia, Alberta and Japan, and, to paraphrase Phineas Fogg, travelled the world, saw new cultures and made some new friends. Oh, and rode the Rocky Mountaineer cruise train on the CN & CP between Vancouver and Banff via Kamloops and way too many JR East commuter trains around Tokyo.
5. Forged closer bonds with my wife and son through our travels and personal challenges at home.

[Anonymous]

Ron,

That's one of the many good things about having a grandchild. Nothing gets slowed down. If you've had enough of the kid (not likely) you just give him back!

m

[n2mopac]

Well, I started and completed the basic benchwork for my new 17' X 16' BNSF Wichita Falls sub, started on basic landforms, and had a baby boy which slowed model railroading down significantly for 6 months.

Ron

[Ibflattop]

I got back into the NMRA after a 5 year absent. Started to weather my rolling stock with pastels, India ink and Alcohol. Made scratch built loads for my open gons and made the wife mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-) Kevin

[jockellis]

CP 5415, you need to write a book on buying locomotives without making the wife mad. You could make a fortune, win a Nobel Prize and make a lot of us happy.
Halfway through the year, I took picked out an Atlas plan, no. 19, and began amassing the track, etc. needed for its completion.I now have it all. I'm going to have Boy Scouts, including my son, do it as part of their Railroad Merit Badge. Then I'm going to invite people from our subdivision to come over and run it, and hopefully, become interested in the hobby.
The most important thing I did was get a column published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution concerning the need for good customer service in order to get people to ride the southside commuter rail that the Georgia Department of Transportation is planning. Also when driving to work from the hobby shop where I buight my Atlas track, I saw an old street car up on blocks ready for moving. It had, for many years, been used as a storage shed beside a mom and pop convenience store. I alerted the local newspaper, The Times (of Gainesville), and they were able to get a story about it. Unfortunately, I don't live in Gainesville and never saw the story and do not know where it went. I hope it is being restored.
Jock Ellis

[rexhea]

One year and a month ago and after 3 months of many design revisions with 3d Planit, I have managed to accompli***he following:

1. Built a 3 level bench 18' x 24"'
2. Laid 600 feet of track for two mainlines and main yard.
3. Installed wiring for DCC with Digitrax Super Chief and Tortoise switch machines.
4. Re-designed and built ( 80% complete) main yard for larger capacity and include engine service facility.
5. Built CMR 120' turntable (100% complete)
6. Built steel mill complex with blast furnace, rolling plant, and coke plant.
7. Built 23 Branchline rolling stock (both blueprint and yardmaster) and 3 passenger cars.
8. Built New River Mining company tipple and track side buildings.
9. Have a stable of 14 locomotives
10. Have about 60 rolling stock
11. Ability to operate on two mainlines, steel complex, and main yard.
11. 5% of scenery [:I]
12. And, as some will remember, cleaned up my shop![:D][:D]
13. Met and corresponded with several fellow MRR's
14, Found this forum and the fellowship and info it has to offer.
15. Joined NMRA and received the Golden Spike Award

I figure at least two more years of major work. Yes, I am retired and have the time and what a great time its been. As I progress the more fun it is. It is the "World's Greatest Hobby".

REX

[PennsyHoosier]

2nd answer: I managed to spend more money on MRing than I thought possible. [:D]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dkelly

mehrlich,

Why apologize? I thought that was the role of grandparents and if you didn't brag you'd get kicked out of the club. (that's what my mom says anyways!).

Congrats on having a great year all around!!

Dave

I can't wait till grandson gets old enough for me to start buying him trains. In another post here someone said little kids would have more fun with wooden trains rather than electric trains. I consider that good advice. Suppose he'll be ready for them next Christmas?

m

[bruce22]

fully operational DCC L shaped double decker 15x 19 layout:; 25% landscaped; 40% structures completed; all loco's and rolling stock acquired; expect to be close to 80% completed in all areas by the end of 2005, ( one has to leave one with something to do) It helps to be retired when working on the RR. Regards to all and the best of the Holidays

[PennsyHoosier]

I did a lot of stuff this past year. If I had to choose one thing, it would be that I've become rather handy with the airbrush. For years I was intimidated by the things. But I upgraded to a Badger 200 and really got the hang of it. Now I'm thinking of going for a Badger 155 or 175. Whatever happens, I've found a new niche in the hobby.

[Anonymous]

Finished painting my GHQ/Kato L1,
Helped a buddy thin out his collection, no I didn't equally expand mine, just helped him thin out his.
Found out how much fun old Limited Editions kits are.
Spoiled by how great Walthers Budd cars are.
Got back into HO, after really trying N.

Not to much, been busy with many things this year.
Alvie.

[camarokid]

Joined this forum in October and have learned so much from other people it makes me want to really work on my RR. I did put in two bridges and leveled a third permanently (I hope). Moved junk from under the South side of the layout to the North side to rewire for DCC. That was last March. I just don't like to run wire. Now my granddaughter is coming for Christmas and there won't be anything running by then (maybe). Eveyone have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Archie