I am currently between layouts. It has been almost a year since I ripped apart the "Spare Bedroom" version of the STRATTON & GILLETTE railroad.
.
The house is going through a remodel that should be done in two years. The front "public" bathroom is the current project. Once that is done we move onto then kitchen, then the new master bedroom suite. Once Mary has her new bedroom and is happy, the old master bedroom becomes the layout room.
So... I have been months with no layout, and I am years from starting the next one.
I am building the freight car fleet. That is my main inter-layout project. I hope to have 150 freight cars ready when the layout construction begins. Of course, locomotives and cabooses are also in the works.
I built a cardboard layout a few months ago because I just had to build something. LINK TO LAYOUT THREAD: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/262808.aspx
I am also having a pretty good time photographing my trains on a small diorama I have set up. Weekend Photo Fun and Show Me Something are a blast.
Still... the anticipation is killing me. I cannot wait to get going on the layout.
How do you cope?
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I plan, and research, plan some more, research some more, and build structures, and collect locomotives.
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
I would suggest a micro layout. See this site
for some ideas.
Good luck
Paul
I have given up on my plan to build a layout in my garage because my back has become too painful to do the work and I can't afford to have someone do it for me. Carrying the groceries into the house causes significant pain. I can't imagine trying to handle a 4 x 8 sheet of 3/4" plywood.
I have turned my focus towards the new club layout. I was fortunate enough to have my plan chosen as the one the club will build. Generating the layout construction drawings has almost been a full time job over the last few weeks.
I have also chosen to put my name forward to become a member of the club executive. I have identified about 15 projects that the club needs to get involved in so that we can function properly and attract new members. The election is on Oct. 10. Two of us are going to share the President and Vice President positions, and since nobody else has so far put their name forward, it is probably fait accompli.
I have stopped building models, at least temporarily, because my modelling juices are just not flowing these days. Hopefully I will get over that soon.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Club layout
(My Model Railroad, My Rules)
These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).
I've been without a layout for about 3 years now. To help fill the time I've been working on "projects" (primarily assemblying kits) to keep my modeling skills honed and learn new ones. I also have a small piece of track to test my decoder installations on. Doing research for projects also has its own rewards - even if I can't track down the information as quickly as I would like.
I'll have to wait until I'm employed again before starting another layout. And that will be contingent upon whether I stay where I'm currently residing, or move to another location and/or city.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
SeeYou190So... I have been months with no layout, and I am years from starting the next one.
SeeYou190How do you cope?
Im building a modular garage switching layout that can be disassembled in a short time period to allow the other intended uses of the garage.
Almost 4 years without a layout - planning the new one, working on the electronics that will control the new one, and preparing my basement. And lots of reading.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
In the same boat about bein between layouts. The worst is I can't work on any cars since they are packet up.
the way I cope is doing more research in designing my new layout. this includes applying lessons learned from the first one, but also working on sketching out the new layout. Fortunlately, onlynhave to wait 6-8weeks before i can work in earnst in the layout
is a support group somewhere?!!
SeeYou190 I am currently between layouts. It has been almost a year since I ripped apart the "Spare Bedroom" version of the STRATTON & GILLETTE railroad. . The house is going through a remodel that should be done in two years. The front "public" bathroom is the current project. Once that is done we move onto then kitchen, then the new master bedroom suite. Once Mary has her new bedroom and is happy, the old master bedroom becomes the layout room. . So... I have been months with no layout, and I am years from starting the next one. . I am building the freight car fleet. That is my main inter-layout project. I hope to have 150 freight cars ready when the layout construction begins. Of course, locomotives and cabooses are also in the works. . I built a cardboard layout a few months ago because I just had to build something. LINK TO LAYOUT THREAD: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/262808.aspx . I am also having a pretty good time photographing my trains on a small diorama I have set up. Weekend Photo Fun and Show Me Something are a blast. . Still... the anticipation is killing me. I cannot wait to get going on the layout. . How do you cope? . -Kevin .
kasskabooseis a support group somewhere?!!
here...
How do I cope? Almost the same ways that was posted before.
I design my future track plan with many, many alterations. That has to fit the theme am trying to do.
Collecting freight cars and locomotives for my time eras.
Watch videos on internet of modern railroading. It's my version of railfanning.
Taking cars and locomotives out of the boxes and sit them up on a piece of track. Pretending its running on a layout or in the middle of country like a real train.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
I recall the ten years that I didn't have a layout. I would try various plans on paper until I finally decided on one I liked. I also bought a few pieces of rolling stock and a few locos when I had a little extra money to blow which kept me from abandoning the project. Building and all was a bit slow going and took about six weeks from the time I built my table until I installed the tracks and was able to run trains. I'm told that six weeks is nothing compared to others who take months or even years before they're able to run trains. Anyways. Yes, I know what it's like to be without a layout...
Tearing my HO layout down.
Macular degeneration in one eye and fingers and hands not steady at time, anymore. Knocked over to much, even at the club layout. Finally left.
Soldering, forget it.
Forty miles of rail trails in my area with a former station in my city and a Union Station about ten miles from me. I ride a bicycle about thirty to fifty miles a week.
A couple places still have the old end of siding stop made from welded steel rail. I sometimes tie my bike to one at the Union Station with a nice outdoor dining area.
Work out at local senior center.
Watch a couple MR forums.
DCC locos to LHS and being sold on consignment.
Gave rolling stock to a local recycle shop a friend maintains in my small city. It sells fast.
Gave 0-27 to a nephews son.
Thankful for many years of playing with trains.
Turning to seventy seven in a few months. Life is what you make of it.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
I'm getting a divorce, selling the house and planning to move somewhere warmer. My girlfriend and I are already thinking about where we want to retire. We even look at real estate ads.
My layout has been completely packed up for some time now. I was able to preserve the layout and benchwork itself and pack all the trains and structures. Of course, it's unlikely to fit as is in any new space, but it's all in sections. I think that once the house sells, I will pull the one very large section out and demolish it. That one will be difficult to get into a new home, anyway, and if I can save it in pieces it will be easier to rearrange the rest of the parts into a new and better layout.
There are things in everyone's layout that they would do differently. I've got a number of those, and I'm looking forward to them.
The GF is very supportive of my hobby and recognizes that our search for a home must include a train room.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Getting ready to move the layout downstairs and I expect to go through withdrawals till it’s running again.
Joe Staten Island West
I went from 1998 to 2006 without a layout. Although I wasn't very active in the hobby during that time, I still found some very small projects that I could work on, notably a "scratch bashed" version of an Erie class N3A caboose that consumed much of that time as I took my time on it. I also scratch built a feed mill/grain elevator from a project out of a Kalmbach publication. That thing, working on it on-and-off, took upwards of a year to build.
I will be getting re-married next year, so I will be moving out of my present location next spring. My present layout is all tracked and wired without the scenery and most of the structures are already built, so they're on it. In anticipation of the move, I will not be scenicking the layout. I moved in here last fall and reassembled the layout, as it comes in four bolt together sections. So, I can run trains, just can't do the scenery. In the mean time, I will work on the remaining structures. The biggie will be a two stall engine house, the prototype of which is a Rutland RR structure, the drawings for which appeared in a back issue of NMRA magazine (May, 2011), that fits the bill for me.
Bottom line: there are plenty of things to do that are related, either directly or indirectly, to model railroading without having a layout.
There's a surprising number of the more prominent (and long term) forum members here who are going through changes that are driving layout losses!
I've been in between layouts for several years as well, due primarily to my late wife's terminal illness. It's been nearly two years since her death, and I'm just now beginning to have enthusiasm for anything again - except for retirement, to which I've been looking forward for long time. My proximity to retirement (five months and seventeen days! Can't wait!!! ) and the move that will precipitate are now the main reasons I don't have a layout. After I move (probably back to my house in NJ) and settle in I'll start building again.
Meanwhile, I'm updating my prehistoric old CB&Q in Wyoming website (in-work update at http://mapruitt.com) and planning my last large layout project on the assumption that I will be moving back to my old house.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
I am only an n-scaler without a layout. The 2 local n-scale groups are into modules and have no group layout. The group I belong to are mainly HO. Perhaps I should ask the HO group and see if anybody needs a building built? They have no group layout. I have the equipment including a soldering iron and an airbrush. No experience with the airbrush. I am also 64 with the shakes & cataracts. Perhaps a year from now, remove the cataracts. The shakes I'm stuck with. Perhaps I'll work as a State employe till 70, 75 or 80. I live alone and may keel over in my abode while sleeping.
I was without a layout for about 14 years because I didn't have space for one or a place to even do wood working to try to build a small layout. I did research and worked on building a roster during that time. Sure, it sucks but *shrugs* not much I could do about it.
I did try to get involved with a modular group but the only bunch in the area had their noses in the air and their heads up their you-know-whats and only wanted people who could do contest level work. I moved to Virginia, the club in the new location didn't respond to my request to get involved. My wife and I finally bought a townhouse with a basement and wouldn't you know it, by the time I was well into buildin a layout, the modular group got a new president and I did come run some trains with them.
I recently tore down my layout and am hoping to move this fall and eventually start a new layout. In the mean time I still work on research and tweaking the roster. I just got back from the Timonium show in MD on Sunday, which I thought would be a bust, but found 6 HO RTR Red Caboose GS gondolas for $12.50 each, a very good deal!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
rrebellFirst off, you should do the master bedroom first as it gives you a place to retreat too when things go wrong and they always do
We still have the current master bedroom, and it is fine. If you saw the house you would definitely say to do the front bathroom and kitchen first! They are both horrid 1980s nightmares.
They need to go!
While having a layout is a great goal, it's not something that defines you as a model railroader. Being a model railroader is defined by your interests and your modeling. I went for several decades without a layout and I was still a model railroader. I read, researched, acquired and built models.
Since I've started the layout, two big revolutions have changed the hobby. One is the internet, which has changed many aspects of the "read, researched" part of the hobby, making it both easier to find the basics and more difficult to discover the many details that animate the basic info. The other is specific to the hobby, RTR, as in "acquired and built." I'm NOT dissing RTR (please let's not go there, plenty of threads about that already.) I'm just noting that with so much RTR what used to be the building phase is now mostly an acquisition phase, UNLESS you put in the effort to learn the basic skills of model building, which serve you well whether or not a personal layout is in your future.
So I'd argue if you do need to somehow cope without a layout, there's plenty of model railroading fun still available if you take the opportunity to build, as well as acquire. It's something you'll purposefully need to pursue, because kits and scratchbuilding supplies are something you need to seek out these days. Will the results be factory-perfect? Probably not, but you'll find the skills you do learn are of great value should you ever have the good fortune to build that layout.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Planning a new layout. I've gotten stalled by not settling on the space. Either a spare bedroom or spare attached garage in the basement. Don't like the idea of trapsing upstairs next to the other bedrooms to work/run the layout, but not sure I want to deal with the humidity changes in the basement garage. Although I think I like the layout I have planned for the garage better than the bedroom, the garage is closer to teenager public space...don't trust them. Both space will allow for about 18x12.
Planning and changing over some roadnames. Selling some and accumulating others. Have the basic trackplans designed already. Just need to make a decision.
- Douglas
gcri I got some KATO HO Unitrack to allow me to run some.
I have enough Kato HO Scale Unitrack to fill my living room and dining room! About once a month or so I set up some track on the floor and run trains like a little kid.
This activity certainly helps me deal with not having a layout.
Never truly had a layout. Had a 4x8 loop with a few sidings when I first got into the hobby. Since truly getting back into the hobby about two years ago, I've gone through what I bought when I was younger and thined the collection significantly. However, since starting to narrow in on my interests, I've added a lot back. When my dad retired, he build very basic collapsable benchwork for an easy to setup sectional layout that totals 2' x 8'. I painted some buildings over the summer and continue to add to my building collection for future usage on a bigger layout.
My go-to activity for the time being is "dreaming" about my future layout. The house my wife and I have isn't big enough for a dedicated layout room, instead it's the sectional pieces. I've been doing a lot of research for what I'd eventually like to create in our next house when that arises. Researching railroads of years gone by to create the freelanced railroad of my dreams, I guess. Watching a lot of videos on YouTube and DVD to get inspiration, too.
The individual who got me into the hobby has invited me to operate on his home layout once a month as a regular member, too. This has been a great experience to meet other modelers, learn about the hobby and its many facets, learn about real railroads, and have fun in the hobby instead of dreaming.
My hope is once I graduate in December with my Master's Degree, I'll be able to dedicate more time to the sectional layout I have. I'm most looking forward to getting the NCE system from my wife for Christmas and getting things set up to run trains with that.
I'm without a layout.Thirty years have passed me by quickly and I still don't have one started. About twenty three years I ended my employment in a very stressful 13 year law enforcement career. I built a nicley detailed 4X8 to keep from getting depressed when I quit and having my son, then about 13 yrs. old helping me. It turned out really nice, but I seemed to building it for me....too detailed. My regrets are I didn't build it for my son. My dream was to build a layout for us to enjoy...well he has since graduated college and is moving on in life in another city. This will always be my biggest regret. Never building our dream layout. Wish I could turn the clock back.
And if I was to turn the clock back even further, time would show that even I as a young boy didn't have a layout. I did have a slot car track, Tyco, on a table top. I did have the famous "Carpet Central." HO Tyco Santa Fe. I did read a lot on MR Magazines........admiring and dreaming. I still find that little boy in me today. I lost my father to an accident at five so growing up was difficult and at times a huge challenge being all alone. Some stories I have read over the years here folks talk about their fathers getting them in the hobby. All of you are so lucky.
So here I am today at 59, still no layout. I read MRR all the time and frequent this forum to stay informed. My layout room is built and ready, except I had a copper pinhole pipe leak and it trashed my laminate wood floor. Lost the floor. I need to replace my piping before I proceed any further to avert a disaster if a layout is tobe built someday.
im hoping that someday when I retire I can start building and find some good friends that model as well.
Im thankful for MRR and this forum for helping me keep interested in a truly fantastic hobby. I have armchaired almost my life.
SeeYou190 gcri I got some KATO HO Unitrack to allow me to run some. . I have enough Kato HO Scale Unitrack to fill my living room and dining room! About once a month or so I set up some track on the floor and run trains like a little kid. . This activity certainly helps me deal with not having a layout. . -Kevin .
Glad to see I am not alone!
I live in a small retirement apartment so have little room for a layout, this is where belonging to a club comes in handy. You not only have a place to run trains but also help if needed and companionship.