I have had a few posts over the last year or so.. some of them you may remember "ahhh..the helix!!" to name one. i have learned tremendous amounts of information from alot of you and for that i am very thankful and appreciative of. some of it has been fed to me roughly....and now i see why! my family and i live in a small 800 square foot house which we are proud to call our own. no basment, no spare room, just me and the wifey's bedroom for a small layout. i was planning on using our small shed for a 8 x8 layout space, and finishing it off completly i soon realized that filling in this space with a the prototype iam obsessed with since a child was very hard to replicate with those space constrictions regardless of scale. I spent a few months trying to make it fit using every off the wall brain storming idea i could come up with. the end result....the shed is still holding wood for the winter!! i then moved my attempts to our small 10 x 10 bedroom. my wife gave me a 7' wall to build the layout...with awindow in the middle!!! so of course i whipped a track plan and within 3 months had a nice small switching layout. it was a free lanced version of my favorite railroad in a what if scenerio. it was alot of fun and i learned alot. at that point i started attending operating sessions on a club sized layout and was HOOKED on operations, still am!! of course i quickly got sick of my small layout and wanted bigger and better like most do. so i cam up with 3 level track plan going around our bedroom being no more than 6" wide (n scale) 2 seperate helixs....hence the "ahh the helix" post!! i had a decent track plan, basically pure point to point mainline yard to yard desing with a few switching spots here or there. pretty solid plan and excellent true operations for switching and mainline running. so i made the mistake of tearing down the old layout and got started on building the new "big one"...............
this was 8 months ago. i am a local truck driver and work 60 plus hours a week. i wake up at 1:30 am and i am not home until 5-6pm monday through friday. i have a 7 year old son and all the responsibilities of owning a house a mortgage, a yard and a honey do list.... if i am luck i can dedicated up to 5 hours a week on layout construction....(this is eating up some of that time!) so after 8 months.....the walls are bare...the trains are in boxes...i have ONE complete helix constructed...i have now realized that all the info i read and requested is not for ME!! i have come full circle and realized LESS IS MORE!!!!!!!!!! i have no layout...just a 4 level helix...and I have also accepted the fact that i am not a experienced track planner....even though i have several notebooks of solid plans...it doesnt make me a GOOD designer!! just someone who loves trains and has alot of ideas, not nessiscerilly good ones!
i have spent the last 8 month building and planning for a layout that i am not ready for at this point in my life. so with this being said...i have scaled wayyyyyyback. i have a 5' x 3' L space shape for a layout..(restrictions put on by me for my wife's sake..and mine). i feel this size is good for me, it makes it doable in a reasonable amount of time. i have said goodbye to my "dream" layout plans (a 11 mile abandoned brach of the providence and worcester railroad) and helloto somthing that will relax me and somthing i know i will enjoy alot more than just dreaming about someday.....so i am hoping to finalize a track plan soon and get started!! i am not sure on a plan or era or theme at this point. i want modern day switching.. in either N or HO scale. preferably in HO scale. this will be small...but VERY manageable for me. Thank you all for your advice and helpfull information you have shared with me over the last year or so. we have all been blinded by the light at one point of this great hobby, and i am now happy and thankfull to have a good pair of sunglassess on!!! i'm sure i will be posting a track plan on here at some point soon, and will take advantage of the many great areas of this hobby and share pictures with you all. if anyone has any ideas on a small shelf ho scale switching layout plan...send them my way!!! (i have looked at spacemouses guide and track plan submissions.) again thank you all..and thanks for reading!!
Joe
Modeling:
Providence & Worcester Railroad
"East Providence Secondary"
HO scale
This drawing board stuff is fun. A “coming full circle” is perfect follow up title for the helix discussion!
You are working out things in a similar fashion to my own situation. However, since I am renting, I have the “luxury” (forced upon me) of staying in the extended planning stage. I am swallowed up in research, always having something related to railroads to read, more resources to find, old maps to poor over, and good practices to learn, weigh, and factor in to my layout design.
Meanwhile, there are kits to build, a test track to design and build, a small shelf layout to complete, a DCC system to select, trips to university libraries, automation software to learn, and so on. It has taken me over a year to decide on an era, and I will continue to study that era in reading histories as well as fiction from that time.
My point in this is that your next layout can be even more enjoyable if you can accept that it is not your last layout. Keep dreaming, keep planning at that drawing board.
Crews
Sometimes, when your reach exceeds your grasp, you discover how much you can hold - and just what you want to hold.
I, too, have had grandiose dreams - only to have reality intrude itself on my dream world. My under-construction layout reflects the dream, but has been distilled down into something one person can build and operate in something less than a younger person's lifetime.
The nicest part is that I no longer feel frustrated about my inability to reach my dream. I simply scaled the dream back to something I can reach.
Good luck with your layout building. Above all, have fun.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I would love to have a warehouse in which to build my grandios vision of "the" layout for me.
Space is an issue for me as well. I'd be tickled pink with blue and purple polka dots to have an 8' x8' space all for my trains and me!
As a kid/teen I had o/o27. As a teen I also had N. Recently I got back into the hobby and got quickly tired of my old (and new) N stuff. (2.5 x4' layout space)
Why? Because I had always always always always wanted HO. So I have forced the space issue and built a 3.5 x5' HO layout. Can't do much with that, and I want to add another 6" to the 3.5 side, forcing more space issue. I can do it, I think.
Had I stuck with N, I could have quite the little layout, bigger than I had (N).
I learned the/my limitiations currently with HO, but am rather happy with my dinky layout. I have one and it's HO!
Leastways I have one now. The hobby is about having fun!!!!, not (grandios) plans that may never come to fruition. We'd all like bigger and better I think if given a chance!
Someday in the next 5 years I hope to have more space for my layout, Till then, all I can do is enjoy what I DO have!
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Layouts and planning- Maybe you could build switching modules (one at a time) that could be used for the towns on your "dream" layout. Build one, complete it, operate it until you are bored with it. Then select and build another, etc. Put the previous one in storage.
Space for a layout- Last year we bought a pre-made shed. It was 12 x 24. If you could get or build something like that, it could be insulated, heated & cooled. It would provide a place for your layout and small work shop.
Time to build- I used to travel some with my job. I put a tool kit together so I could take some projects to work on when I was on travel. Could this be an option for you?
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
Ringo Starr did an interview recently where he talked about how a lot of his (and other musician's) "styles" often were as much the result of their weaknesses as of their strengths...someone can't do some particular lick, so they come up with a way to work around it in a way that still makes sense musically.
Kinda like how Chopin couldn't use two fingers on one of his hand due to an accident. For a generation piano pieces were written to use only eight fingers because they were copying his 'style'.
cregil wrote: This drawing board stuff is fun. A “coming full circle” is perfect follow up title for the helix discussion!
haha!! i swear there was no pun intended there!! Thank you for the replies as always guys.
Galaxy...i would love to see some pics of your layout or a track plan. its funny as i sit here trying to fit what i "want" in this space, i realize im doing it again....trying to cram as much in as i can!!! LOL!! trying to get the most out of this small space is proving quite tough!! but i am finding it highly enjoyable!! thanks again
EDIT: Gandydancer...some good ideas!! thank you
galaxy wrote:I would love to have a warehouse in which to build my grandios vision of "the" layout for me. Space is an issue for me as well. I'd be tickled pink with blue and purple polka dots to have an 8' x8' space all for my trains and me!As a kid/teen I had o/o27. As a teen I also had N. Recently I got back into the hobby and got quickly tired of my old (and new) N stuff. (2.5 x4' layout space)Why? Because I had always always always always wanted HO. So I have forced the space issue and built a 3.5 x5' HO layout. Can't do much with that, and I want to add another 6" to the 3.5 side, forcing more space issue. I can do it, I think.Had I stuck with N, I could have quite the little layout, bigger than I had (N).I learned the/my limitiations currently with HO, but am rather happy with my dinky layout. I have one and it's HO!Leastways I have one now. The hobby is about having fun!!!!, not (grandios) plans that may never come to fruition. We'd all like bigger and better I think if given a chance!Someday in the next 5 years I hope to have more space for my layout, Till then, all I can do is enjoy what I DO have!