Joe Staten Island West
My first layout lasted less than 7 months but it was a couple 4x8 put together. My current layout is going on 3 years and I still have a ways to go.
My present Santa Fe in Oklahoma layout was started in 1969/70 and is still in operation and doing well. It is three decks, takes up most of a basement and is my pride and joy (besides my wife and family). It was the fifth layout, the first was a 4/8 layout in a college dorm in the late 50's into early 60's. There have been two others between the first, starting in1961 and running to the present layout which I mention in the first line.
Bob
I don't think there's a set time...I don't think most folks think "I'm going to build this layout, then operate it for six months, then tear it down and build a new one". For most people I think they realize their first layout (or first several layouts) may be a learning experience, but eventually most of us want to build that grand "dream layout" that will be around for years and years. Of course real world issues, like moves, can mess that up.
I just removed my layout. I started it in 1987 - That is 25 years! I retired last year and a new layout is my 'retirement project'. There was nothing really 'wrong' with the layout, it was just time to move on.
If you are dissatisfied with your present layout(design/construction issues), then I would go ahead with construction of a new layout. Make sure that your 'planning' is really complete this time before you start construction!
My old layout only had a few changes over it's life:
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Of course my planning will be more complete I am just in the drafting stage now using anyrail. Plus there are elements of the SIW I want to save (Mostly Structures). So I have to incorporate them as well.
Nice original question for which there are as many answers as there are MRs as everyone is different.
For me there is never a layout life-span time limit anymore as the last three layouts have been in my ceiling eaves as a two foot wide HO shelf layout since 1980. I have found that in my life, if it takes up floor space, the lifetime is short by most standards. My interests are widely varied and if the layout is on the floor it is doomed by decree and changing interests. My first layout in my new home was in 1977 and on the floor. It lasted two years before I needed the space.
In late 1980 I got the idea to put it over my head in the roof eaves of my upstairs single large, finished room. In 1985 I rebuilt it completely in the same space. (new homosote and track plan). My hard core operating time on the 1980 layout was about 2 years. I lost interest and in 1985 got the bug again and operated hard for about 4 years and in 1990 just dropped it again. From 1990 until 2010 the layout was just an overhead ceiling hanger. I never ran another train. I am currently, 2010, to-date, working up my first and long dreamed of, HOn3 layout in that same configuration (new homosite and new gauge). I am ready to retire now and I hope to be a bit more respectful of the investment than the last two overhead roads.
Model railroading has always been a hobby with me, (one of many), but has regularly gone moribund due to my being off chasing other rainbows.
Richard
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
Mine last until I move or need the space for something else - anywhere from 5 months to 16 years.
Current under construction layout is planned to be forever since I'm retired and moved already with no plans to move again.
Enjoy
Paul
LION built the "Eastern South-West North Dakota Central" (Serving the Middle of Nowhere). It lasted about five maybe six years when that room was taken away from me and renovated into something else.
The I built the "Eregion Railroad" right out of the pages of JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth. It lasted until I got tired of it, and it became too difficult to maintain.
My new railroad, the "Route of the Broadway LION" has been under construction for about 7 years, and in that time many major changes, realignments, and rewirings have occurred. LION has no plans to change this or rebuild anything. If I can get it fully to my liking in my lifetime, then I will have succeeded (in what, I am not sure).
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
I've had 3 layouts in my life. The first was my childhood Lionels. I sold those to move to HO as a teenager. That layout had to go when I went to college. I kept the trains, though, and brought them out again in my late 50s.
I've been building this layout for 7 years. It took 5 years for Phase 1, a 5x12 foot table. That works out to about a month per square foot. I am a builder more than an operator, and as long as I can keep adding space and doing more trackwork and scenery, I'm happy with my layout.
Eventually, we will probably leave this house after retirement, particularly if Massachusetts follows through on its plans for ever-increasing taxes. To the extent possible, I'd like to dismantle this layout in sections and move it, possibly re-configuring things in a new room. I built it so that should be possible.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
My around the garage layout is built in 8 foot sections that are bolted together. When I get the urge to change something I construct a new 8 foot section on saw horses and when ready I remove and discard the old section and mount the new section. I then work on scenery and the railroad is back in operation while I do.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
First I want to thank everyone for there replies so far.
I have come up with an Idea. Instead of tearing down the main SIW layout this year I think I am going to tear the Stapleton Yard, down a seperate display layout resting on EZ track (as is the SIW) and rebuild it as a small switching layout using flex track and cork roadbed.
This gives me a couple of Advantages
1) The SIW can continue operations while I scratch that rebuilding itch.
2) I will have a small layout to practice my skills such as track laying and soldering before I tackle the bigger space.
3)Flex and Cork can be had fairly cheaply I have a couple of used DC powerpacks I could use for power (The SIW is DCC) All my decorders are dual mode It also means the 3 DC locos I have could become functional again.
4)Minimal Scenery Cost.
CR&T's benchwork should be up by year-end, and; completion will take 5-10 years.
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
I have only rebuilt in the same space once, and that was because I was granted title to the other half of the double garage. All of my earlier layouts succumbed to moves, several of them trans-Pacific.
The present layout has been under construction for several years. It's intended to be my, "Last in this lifetime," layout, and I'd rather take the time to get things right. Judging by my parents, I'm good for a couple of decades yet.
John Armstrong's Canandaigua Southern lasted better than 50 years from first construction to disassembly - a little longer than Mr Armstrong did...
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Leaving out my childhood layouts, I built one in 1971 for my boys that lasted two years. Then I built another one 4x7 for two other boys. That lasted another two years.
Then in 1983 I built a 4x7 layout for myself. That layout is still going. Yes, I have modified and added on to it and it is still working. It's quite a bit larger than it started and I have added a city, yards, more track under the hills, a grain elevator, an extension to the grain elevator, and now I am refreshing the scenery prior to the layout tour in May.
Same layout, just many extensions and modifications.
Oops. The layout is HO.
Roger Hensley= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html == Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ =
Hi,
Interesting question.............
For my example, I have an 11x15 layout room. My first room filling layout was started in 1994, and took 3 years to be fairly finished. About 2003 I began to find fault with it - stuff that I could not change without a total rebuild. In 2006 I just avoided the layout for weeks on end.
In early 2008 I did a lot of thinking, basically do I want to do a new layout, and what changes would I make. I decided "yes", and began design work. That same year the layout was cleaned out of the room, the room refinished, and the new layout begun. I am in the scenery stages now, and have not regretted the rebuild one bit.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Hmm..Excluding a layout or three before graduation from college, I had one for 20+ years before it was 'retired' (and it was a small bookshelf RR too) and a larger one underconstruction for 3 years that got torn down because of a move. The current under construction RR - the largest and most complex of them all - is 3+ years old and being built as a project to last the rest of my life.
Charles
My first layout was the LIonel trainset oval i got for christmas as a kid the 2nd one was when i was married and it was a 4X8 very nice layout now i bought a new house and i am currently working on my third layout i chose a 6 X 10 with a double mainline
My current layout is a reincarnation of one that I moved 7 years ago - a practice that I wouldn't recommend. I have added to it three different times to where now it covers 225 square feet. I have 8 structures waiting to be built, scenery to complete and numerous other things to do including another small addition. I would look at it as still being very much alive but when it stops being fun then it might be time to start over. I am 65 and maybe have one more major layout in me but right now, the current LS&I is what I want.
There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.....
I built my first layout as a teenager in the late 60's. Gave it up and in 1983 I was retired and bored so wife got me back into the hobby, been buying stuff and just retired again a few years ago (kids are expensive so had to go back to work). Working on a 15x30 HO but I built it modular style, just in case!!!!!!!
My current layout is only 2 years into it's Second DECADE !
This is a 2500 sq ft layout and I plan on it taking the rest of my life building it - as I am now 3 years retired!
For me the only reason I am building the layout (especially this large) is for Operations!
And to top that - I am doing it based on a real sections of the Conrail Lowgrade line in Western PA !
So it isn't something I can just throw a bunch of Walthers Kits at and call it Prototypical!
Scenery will come in due time.
I am in no hurry to finish this layout as my main objective (OPERATIONS) has been ongoing for the past 10 years.
Anything I do from this point on is just gravy!
Having more fun that one person should be allowed! ;-)
BOB H - Clarion, PA