Didn't really make a NY resolutionof it, but I sure would like to get my new (smaller) room finished (exterior walls and drop ceiling ) and a shelf up so that I can start doing some track laying.
Also have two locos that are giving me fits to get coupler height right. May have to take them to the pros on that one.
Best wishes to all,
Richard
I got a lot done last year and am happy about that. The roundhouse project was very time consuming because of my learning curve as far as doing the lighting of it.
This year I will return to working on more than one thing at a time which I enjoy as a one project focus can get stale after a while.
Ulrich, you can continue to be involved in the hobby through participation in places like this forum. It is extremely painful for me to lace up skates and get on the ice and so that has not happened for a long time, that being said I have been in many conversations about the annual hockey tourney in Alberta this year and that makes me feel like I am still contributing and part of the sport. Another passion was cycling, that has also stopped as it was also painful as every bump was a killer. I found a recumbent bike still keeps me very fit and does not hurt like heck to ride. I miss the scenery of not riding outdoors, however, I watch a little 4-4-0 ply its way around the layout for an hour while listening to the tunes.
I can't ski anymore either and gave all my high-end equipment away to a new immigrant family. They were thrilled to get it as I was to see it going to good use. I was a pretty good golfer at one time having been tutored daily by the Pro at the golf course I worked at for two years. Golfing is also very painful and not much fun, however, the time I get to spend out on the links with my kid makes my poor showing irrelevant.
We all have to give things up as we age, however when that happens we can still offer up the lifetime of knowledge we have. I am always happy to oblige when asked.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Spend less time...
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
SeeYou190I am over two years now without a layout. This has never happened before.
.
I just realized that it has been more than three years since I had a home layout of my own.
Now I am completely beside myself.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Due to a few move's, I have been without a layout since 2010.
But, the new house is 2 week's away from the final "inspection", And once that's done my wife will have no way of keeping me from my workshop !
So my resolution's are as follow's.....
1: paint a sign that will be over the workshop door. the sign will read, " Little Timmy's House Of Miniature's"
2: Open ALL the boxe's of train stuff that haven't seen the light of day in over 10 year's........ sit in the middle of the pile..... and just enjoy the smell of "old kit's" for a day...... or two .....
3: Fix all the broken stuff...... ( this could take the rest of the year, so I will leave the layout build for 2021.)
4: Try to figure out a way to keep the wife from making me work on ANYTHING ELSE !!! ( this could require me to fall off a ladder so I break my leg ..... or something along those line's ...)
Rust...... It's a good thing !
I’m currently working on this:
Build an Intermodal Doublestacker Train to run on the club layout. Era will be 1990+
The Consist is as follows
- EMD SD75M Warbonnet SF
- EMD GP60B Warbonnet SF
5. Maxi Well 5 Unit Set Red SF
10. Maxi Well 5 Unit Set Blue CSX
15. Maxi Well 5 Unit Set Yellow TTX
20. Maxi Well 5 Unit Set Yellow TTX
25. Maxi Well 5 Unit Set Yellow TTX
30. Maxi Well 5 Unit Set Yellow TTX
33. Trinity 57’ Spine 3 Unit Set Yellow TTX
FRED
Extras
Maxi Well 5 Unit Set Yellow APC/TT
I really like the 90’s and Santa Fe’s 75M fleet so I decided to try and recreate one myself. I never get tired of seeing Red/Silver diesels leading. I prefer that Scheme over Black/Orange.
The spine set will feature trailers only.
Photos on google and Railpictures.net should help me out.
I welcome your feedback
We had a relatively modest new home built when my son, now 18, was less than 6 months old. My father (now gone in 2018) finished most of the basement including fluorescent lights, drop ceiling, and 3/4" natural cherry paneling on many walls, and he custom built the benchwork to accommodate my folded dogbone layout while keeping the layout minimally invasive with respect to the rest of the room, so that kids could play. (He also completely finished the "bonus room" over the garage to be the older son's bedroom).
We've been enjoying trains all these years, either large scale (till James was about 4) or the HO layout. Now it's getting a little the worse for wear. Cat scratching on edges and trying to eat wire trees resulted in removal of most vegetation so he wouldn't choke on it, which is fine as most of it is rural desert anyway. Could be Mojave, or Sonoran...
I look forward to the next layout in the next house after we downsize in a few years.
My existing track plan is very simple, for long continuous run through rural open spaces...and not really worth posting photos of...about half the scenery is sand dropped into sand colored paint while wet, with thousands of Woodland Scenics tufts of weeds glued in one at a time. I love the bleakness of the desert.
For me it's all about the trains themselves and watching them run.
Even in college, I nearly always had access to a layout to run trains. We had one in the Penn State student union building basement...as a single apartment dweller I had a 5X9 that could accommodate articulateds.
John
SeeYou190This is painful for me. January 2020 was supposed to be the date of breaking ground on the Actual Sixth STRATTON AND GILLETTE layout, but nothing, NOTHING, has happened on my house remodel in 2019. The Master Bedroom is not done, so I do not have a Train Room, and no layout construction. I am over two years now without a layout. This has never happened before. -Kevin
January 2020 was supposed to be the date of breaking ground on the Actual Sixth STRATTON AND GILLETTE layout, but nothing, NOTHING, has happened on my house remodel in 2019. The Master Bedroom is not done, so I do not have a Train Room, and no layout construction.
I am over two years now without a layout. This has never happened before. -Kevin
I guess it's all relative. What is painful for some has sadly been the norm for others. Consider yourself lucky or something to only having gone 2 years without a layout.
Due being a nomad, or married to a model train hater for years (1st wife) and hit hard by the recession I've gone many many years without a layout. I suspect there are others here who have been in a similar boat.
After some 15 years I got to finally build layout #3 starting in 2014 and it came down summer of 2017. I moved out of the townhouse and purchased a bank-owned stand-alone home with an unfinished basement Thanks Giving 2017. Had to remodel the kitchen first, then gut and replace the master bathroom shower and jacuzzi tub, and front door replaced to fix water damage, all before basement finishing could begin. I'm not loaded so wife and I did most of the basement finshing ourselves except electrical and plumbing. That wrapped up end of last November so 2.5 years without a layout. Construction is finally under way.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
To clean and organize the train cave. Then repair the half dozen cars that took a stringline header onto the concrete floor. Maybe carpet the cave, too.
WP Lives
SeeYou190ckape My traditional modeling resolution is to finish more projects than I start. . That is an impossible goal.
I agree!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
ckapeMy traditional modeling resolution is to finish more projects than I start.
That is an impossible goal.
This is painful for me.
I need to be home to get the contractors and workers doing what I cannot do. I am just never here.
In 2019 I had to oversee the remodel on our Atlanta Facility. In 2020 I need to spend several weeks in Atlanta, Indianapolis, and Charlotte. I only made it to Charlotte once in 2019, that will not do.
I don't know what I can do to get this thing moving along.
My resolution would be to finish the train room in 2020, but that does not seem likely. I am running out of time, and I feel like I am failing at my personal life goal.
At the rate I am building the Fleet Of Nonsense, it will be done in 2020. I guess that is getting work done, but not what I want to be doing.
I am over two years now without a layout. This has never happened before.
My traditional modeling resolution is to finish more projects than I start. Maybe I'll actually manage it one of these years.
My goal is to build a diorama of some sort to practice basic techniques and develop some skills. I'd also like to assemble a few kits. Continuing to add to my reference collection for future modeling ideas. Lastly, continuing to add to my per diem boxcar collection and adding other rolling stock and a few locomotives. Maybe sell at another show or two. With a 7 month old starting to move and no space for a layout, I hope these are easy goals to accomplish In my "free time".
My New Year's hobby resolution is simple:
Plastic diesels are out; brass is in. My goal is to sell every plastic diesel I own and to only run brass. (My son will retain his Genesis diesels, which only includes 4 units, and his one MTH SD70ACe). I plan to keep one old Stewart/Kato PRR F-3.
The reasoning is that I got a brass model back from my painter, and the work was so good, combined with the highly detailed model, that it immediately put my fleet of plastic diesels (of the same thing) quite a bit to shame. Without bashing any manufacturers, I realized that those who say the plastic is as good as brass are in some cases not being fully truthful. For me the difference was obvious between models of the exact same prototype. Howard Zane is correct when he says that the look of paint on an actual metal surface generally appears "more realistic" than it does on plastic. With good paint work, that indeed is the case.
Also, I only need a few engines to run my layout, so I don't have all that many to replace. Liquidating the plastic I do have will pay for the paint jobs on the brass I have on hand or hope to get.
I am definitely not saying that anyone else, especially Sheldon, should do what I do. This is what is best for my modeling goals and is not meant to infer that anyone else should ever do what I do. I only responded to the question that was posed above. I have also experienced...a level of frustration with mass produced plastic models not always living up to what was advertised. The brass isn't perfect either, but can often be straightened/realigned/resoldered/modified prior to painting, and then I really have something that is unique (e.g. some Mexican paint schemes not done in plastic).
dstarr2. Design and build a circuit to make the crossing flashers flash. Use two pair of IR LEDs and phototransistors to detect the train.
This is also one of my main goals this year. I have to finish a scratch-build shopping center, and then I have a grain elevator kit I got for Christmas. After those are done, I will try to start my first crossing flashers.
York1 John
I worked for the Post Office for a couple of summers when I was in college. From experience, mailboxes were always too small, particularly when people got Life Magazine delivered, or Playboy. I never delivered to rural mailboxes, though.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
This is mostly a list of projects yet to do.
1. Change out the gears on my Bachmann Shay. I have the NWSL replacement gear set ($35) but the holes in the gears are a little too small to accept the axles. I have a set of numbered drills and I will carefully measure the axle diameter and drill out the gears to match, leaving just a tad of interance fit. I also have a tube of Red thead locker in case I over do the drilling. While the shay is in the shop decal an owner's name on the "tender"
2. Design and build a circuit to make the crossing flashers flash. Use two pair of IR LEDs and phototransistors to detect the train. If a train gets parked on the grade crossing should the flashing stop after a while?
3. Paint and install more people on the layout.
4. Redo the mail boxes. I bought a set of diecast HO scale mailboxes, painted them, installed them and discovred that they are just too small. They don't look big enough to accept an HO scale magazine, let alone an HO scale load of junk mail. My real mailbox is like 2 feet long and nearly a foot high. These diecast model ones are nowhere near that big.
5. Make and install more trees.
6. Trouble shoot a spot on the mainline where the trains slow down for no apparent reason.
7. Trouble shoot a passing siding where I cannot turn off track power to keep the train on the siding. This used to work, dunno what broke.
8. Think up good names from all my lineside industries and put signs on their buildings. I alread have Lotta Rock Diary, Franconia Paper, and Digital Equipment Corp. I need maybe four more names.
9. Think about a deep river gorge that the mainline crosses on a soaring bridge. I may not have enough space left on the layout to pull this off.
10. Make some videos of my best trains, B&M stramliner, the long tank car train, the steam powered commuter train, the wreck train. I did a video of my long coal drag and posted it to Utube. It gets a scattering of hits.
11. Add crews to more locomotives.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
I've also moved, and the trains have not been set up yet. So, that's the job. Most of the train stuff is upstairs already in the new train room, but one large chunk remains in the garage and must be disassembled. I still have planning to do. Some of that is the "abundance of riches" problem we face when we must downsize.
I probably will not rebuild the subways. They are neat, but face it, they just run around in an oval, no switching or anything else. Other than that, the most action they see is when I have to keep moving them around to clean the track with the CMX machine.
I'd like to keep the roundhouse and the carfloat terminal. These must be more accessible, both because they need to be practically, and because the new layout won't have a large section, rather be more around-the-walls.
To actually build something. Contractor is coming over Friday to get the down payment for starting the build work, expect to be finished by the end of the month, but they will be working back to front so I probably could start before they are completely finished, but to do so i would have to immediately cut up any lumber I bring home and get it inside, this is not the time of year to leave wood stacked up outside, and there is no room in the garage right now, with all the former basement stuff stacked up and my car parked for the winter.
They (the contractor) turned me on to a place that actually sells the GOOD plywood. I thought they were strictly wholesale to contractors but it appears they do sell retail as well. They have all sorts of specialty products - if you want to build nice cabinets and furniture, this is where you would go.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I was never into this resolution thing either, it seems like an artificial thing imposed by media or peer pressure. Best thing is to resolve on an ongoing basis to do your best.
I do hope to make major progress on a layout started during December. Benchwork started going up in early December:
There are two more sections up on either end (not shown), and two more sections assembled and ready to add. Yesterday I picked up some more wood and a sheet of Homasote and applied some paint to it for a better surface to work with.
I don't do resolutions. That's not how I live, nor is it how I do my model railroading.
My layout has been done (no wait, model railroads are never done) to point of scenery and running trains since 2014? Somewhere around there.
I have many projects in the works, detailing projects, to "deepen" the layout, and fill in some voids, along with locomotive and rolling stock projects.
I work on them as I get inspired to do so. The last week or so, besides running trains, I spent some time with a On3o locomotive, doing some repair work, and running different small layout schemes through my mind.
I think next, I'll spend some time on my steamline passenger train.
Last year I did get my long awaited MILW. transfer caboose project, and an overhead crane "build-n-bash" for my transload area completed.
Good luck with the house and move IrishRR.
Mike.
My You Tube
To actually get trains running!
My personal resolution for 2020, other than kicking Ulrich's butt if he tries to leave the hobby, is to get on with the numerous modelling projects that I have on my plate. I admit to having procrastinated over the past year, so before I kick Ulrich's butt, I need to kick my own!!
Here is what I have been avoiding. Everything is for the club:
- Finishing the 9 stall roundhouse, diesel shop/machine shop, paint shop, brake shop, steam plant, and the ice house/icing platform,
- Building the Huntsville station and freight shed (I'm still not happy with the size),
- Building signals in HO for the club and in N for my friend Henk,
- Updating the club's website BARM.ca,
- Learning to use JMRI to set up basic operations for the club,
- Finishing the mountain scenery.
In amongst all of that I have to lead the club through our 50th annual train show and sale in February, and continue to do all the things that a club's President has to do. I think I'm going to be busy!!
Cheers everyone!!
Tinplate ToddlerI am afraid this year will be my final year in this hobby,
Hi Ulrich,
Happy New Year!!
I don't believe you! If you give up this hobby you will be letting one of your major pleasures pass out of your life. Don't do that to yourself! If you can't actually do any modelling, then at least stay with the forums. You are an insightful and knowledgeable contributor. Where would we be without the many videos that you have shared?
You will disappoint a lot of people if you leave the hobby. If you do, I will buy a ticket to Hamburg (or hopefully, Denmark) so I can personally kick your butt several times!!!
Cheers to a good friend!!
I am afraid this year will be my final year in this hobby, which has been accompanying me for over 56 years. I am no longer able to do the modelling work. I have been trying to sell my layout, but did not succeed, so I will be donating it. Engines and rolling stock, however, will be sold through the usual channels.
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"