Total Time for your Layout...

[kathymillatt]

My layout is approx 12' sq and I got the main line laid, point motors wired and building mockups in within a couple of months because I had an open house taking place.

The next open house is November and I guess I'd better get some more done.

My next job is backdrops but I'm struggling with finding the right kind of material. The ply I've currently got has too much of a pattern to be sky...

Kathy

[grandeman]

A nice small to mid-size layout can be built in a year or less. If you're motivated, considerably less. My philosophy is, get it built and sceniked first, then go back and detail. It's nice to have a railroad to run trains on and you can detail it at a slower pace. I adopted this attitude because I realize my little guy won't be little long. I didn't want to waste time we could be enjoying the railroad. I hope he never out grows trains though.

I should mention that I did have prior experience to speed things along. That helped a bit...

[leighant]

10 days: http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aak.jpg

one month: http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aao.jpg

ten years to get to this point, but it hasn’t come all that much further in ten more years:
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aad.jpg

one year: http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aac.jpg

starting now, probably 10 years: http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/ael.jpg

won’t live long enough, unless I win lottery and somebody else builds the “train palace” I will need.
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/abq.jpg
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/abr.jpg

But I have already built and run parts of this layout... just not all at once in same place.

[mondotrains]

Hello Guys,
I tore up my first layout about 5 years ago because while it was progressing nicely, it had a lot of limitations that I didn't want to live with. As my buddy said at the time....."Do you want to spend another bunch of years completing a layout with so many limitations or do you want to start over and get it right"?

Now, 5 years into my new layout, I have all the things that I wanted....a double track mainline so I can watch trains "meet". A double-ended classification yard along with a real neat turntable and engine facility and in just a little more space than I used for my first layout, I've got much more switching with over 20 industries, including some on a wharf. I also have 6 staging tracks hidden under my elevated city, allowing trains to come in from both the east and west and enter my "world".

If I had to estimate how long it would take to really get this layout "finished", I would guess 10 years. That includes time to light up all the buildings, installing signals (including detectors, obviously), grade crossing flashers, and all the details, right down to seagulls on the warf.

But, to tell you the truth, I've 57 years old and really don't want to ever "finish" the layout because then I would have a real hard time finding something else to fill the time. If I have to finish it, I would like to finish it the day before they lay me in that hole in the ground. Kind of like my retirement savings....I'd like to spend my last buck the day before I go to that big layout in the sky. (I'm assumiing there is a big layout in the sky).

Mondo

[robengland]

this months Model railroader has the 25th anniversary of the Ohio Southern. I think McLellan spent over 30 years on the V&O.

I'll be happy if I get that finished look within 5 years for my 10x11 around-the-room layout, but then my job consumes about 60 hours a week. I think what is clear from the preceding posts is that the main deciding factor is whether you are retired or not.

[vsmith]

3 years, 1/2 finished, this included 2 build ups and tear downs.

Time to finish? depends...If I had nothing else to do? 6 months, Finished, magazine ready, if I push it.

As it is? Sheee-ooot, I dunno. I'm reminded that Master Model RR'er Joe Crea has been working on his large scale indoor layout for close to 20 years now, its only about 3/4 done, so I guess theres no hurry.

[ChessieFan13]

have been working on our pike on dec 26 2004 and work on to pike about 8 to 10 hours a week on it. Feels like it will never be done.......but at the same time there is always someting new that i just gotta have and there fore i will always look at it as a work in progress

[ARTHILL]

One month to design and clear area, Dog bone 22 x 10, one month to do benchwork and sub bed. 1 week to lay roadbed and track. two months to get some nice scenery started. Built a few models in the process in cluding Berschealer bridge. That is where I am now. Another year to get basics done. I hope for five years of finishing touches. I am retired and average 3 hours a day.

[alstom]

Probably about a year for the track and locomotives, cars etc., which i'm doing pretty good on. Then i'd say another half year to wire it up and get it running. So i'd probably say 11/2 years to construct a layout on my 10 x 12' table.

[howmus]

"it's never really finished" pretty much descibes it! That said, I been about 22 years putting together the current layout. That, of course, includes the 15 years after my wife died that I really didn't do much with it. Since I am rebuilding a major portion of it and expanding into another space in basement, I have 3 or more years to get where I can say, "There, Done!" (quote from Grumpier Old Men by Burgess Merideth). [:D]

[jeffshultz]

Since I have no idea what the rest of my layout is going to look like at the moment... I have no idea how long it will take!

[Anonymous]

yea living expenses in CA suck, my family was going to move there when I was about 16 because my stepfather found a job there that payed alot better. problem is the house would have cost 10x more than the house we were living in at the time and it was SMALLER.

[Anonymous]

Spacemouse brought up cost - cost is definately another issue. Living in CA, I simply don't want to spend much money on my hobbies. Any extra money feels like it would be much better spent on the mortgage / savings/investment for future mortgage, etc.

This is another reason why keeping the layout very small fits my situation.

[Anonymous]

Picked up my first MR mag in years about a year and a half ago. Been planning a 2' x 8' switching layout for the last 6 months or so.

Having moved into a new house, started my own business, and a baby on the way, I haven't gotten much past the planning stages. In between moments of intense working, etc., I plan my layout.

However, I think I'm progressing in that I've had a lot of time to think about what I'd like to accomplish.

I love seeing the super huge layouts in MR. However, I don't think I'll ever build a huge one in my lifetime. There are just too many things in life that I like to spend my time on darnit!

[SpaceMouse]

My 4x8, had I taken it to completion, would have run about 1 year. A lot of that time was working on the locomotives, rolling stock, etc. that will be used in my basement layout. I expect that my basement layout 14 x 25, will go about 5 years form the start. A lot of that time will be spent building the structures and engines. Practiacally none of the engines I need are comercially availble so I'm going to spend a bit of time kitbashing. I had hoped to start working on the layout come September, but I'll be lucky to get it under way by January. There's this little technicality or clearing and remodling the basement to make room. My wife has approved the money for the remodel, but has a wait-and-see attitude on the layout. I told her $1500 for the benchwork and track, she said "Okay that means $3000.

Dang she's good.

[rexhea]

Crandell
I well understand what you mean about the 10 hour days. My first year was like that and I became pretty beat up because of it. Beside that, it was too much like work. Finally, I remembered that I chose my design to be a retirement project and if I didn't finish it by the time of my demise or disabilities, who cares. I will still have had a great time. Now, with some exception, it is a couple hours a day and more fun.

REX [:)]

[selector]

I commenced my 11' X 8', with wooden benchwork and foam construction, commencing 13 January of this year, and got to the point where I could call it ready for some finishing touches and real train running around the end of March. As I am retired, I was able to work on it for up to 10 hours most days. I'm not sure I would recommend that approach to anyone. It isn't a great way to keep a relationship going.

[loathar]

Been "practicing" for 35 years and now got the rest of my life to get it right!!!(hopefully[:D])

[Anonymous]

I started on my buildings in Nov 2004 and then started the benchwork Jan 2005 (I had to get a miter saw, which was what I got my girlfreind for Xmas, she loved it and let me use it [:p] )

I got the foam and track laid in about 2 weeks, scenery took about 2 weeks to lay down a starter base. Now I am too busy running trains and not getting any other scenery, buildings, roads, detailing done [:(]

I need to figure out why, I think it's not the season to start the buildings and stuff until the kids get back in school. Then I think it will feel like work time.

But is a layout really ever done? I would think boredom would set in if everything was done.

[MisterBeasley]

I built my benchwork in the spring. I've got about 2/3 of my base level of foam down. I'm putting in subways, so I need to complete the tunnels with full ballast and scenery, so that I can roof them and then put more tracks on top. The station at Saint Anne Street has taken a lot of time (well over a month for what comes to about a square foot of scenery,) but I hope to finish it this weekend, thanks to some subcontracting of the paint job to my wife. (Coyote, you'll be interested to know that she demolished her ACL a few years ago, at about 55 years of age. She had it fixed, did a lot of rehab, and last season she worked as a ski instructor.)

My near-term goal is to get the upper track loop, including the rest of the base foam, done in the next couple of weeks. With the tunnels done, I can now concentrate on track work again for a while, and then get back to scenery later. I figure it will be pretty presentable by Christmas of '06, which would be about a year and three-quarters for a 5x12 foot HO layout.

[icmr]

Coyote,
I have been working on my current one for about a month. I expect to work on it for 3 to 4 more years and as REX said there will be times when I want to tear something out and redo it.

ICMR

[rexhea]

Well Coyote, a decade may not be far off target for me. [:D] When I designed my layout, I did it as a one and only layout for my retirement. I have been on it for 1 1/2 years now and have most of the track mains with yards and spurs completed. I have maybe 20-30% of the scenery done. It is capable of operations with multiple consist running at the same time. I still have signaling, towns, more industries, and loads of detailing to do.
How much longer? Probably 2-3 years to look close to completion, but there will always be detailing to do and there will be those times when I come up with a better idea and tear something out and redo.

REX

[wxtoad]

Coyote,

Now there's a good question! I've built a number of layouts over the years. Length of time to do them ranged from 2 weekends for a 2'x8' switching layout (complete with grades for a switchback) to the current project, the remaining,piece (30" x 9') of a once-large layout that I now am re-habbing. I first built it in 1975 as an addition to a small 4' x 6' layout. So thus far I've spent 30 years on this little empire. Boy, I ought to have more to show for all that time! <G>

I was wondering how long it took you to make your layout or how long you expect it to take...

[Anonymous]

Setting the old chestnut of "it's never really done" aside for a moment...

I was wondering how long it took you to make your layout or how long you expect it to take...

I ask this in light of some layout and layout plans I have seen over the last weekend that had their completion time measured in decades!

Peace.

Coyote