Bill, well good to hear im not alone....but yet BAD there we are in this boat!!!! lets hope we can get out of it soon!!! this past weekend i dismantled my n scale shelf layout because i was so sick of it, and operating it. it lived a prosperous life of 6 months...but the companies along side the track decided to demolish everything....lol!!!
Charlie, thanks for the advice. Yes i do live in RI, and the weather like all the northeast is bad in the winter and hot in the summer. the plan was for me to insulate and get power to the shed to keep it climate controlled. but then i had a reality check...at this point n this hobby for me, i cant whole heartidly use the money me and my wife barely have to finish the shed off, and build a layout i wouldnt be happy with, my poorly made structures and all!! so for the time being i will be having a point-to-point shelf layout inside our bedroom. thank you for the link, i saw the "third street industrial district" layout actually built! but I'm now leaning back towards a small RI short line industrial railroad called the seaview railroad in davisville.
heres a pic of the real seaview interchanging with the providence and worcester railroad to give you an idea...
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo=2007103012323619232.jpg&order=byrail&page=4&key=Seaview%20Railroad
its got great operations written all over it! its a 7 mile industrial railroad with 9 customers that i know of. so now i have to go back to my several plans i have drawn up of this railroad, do some compressing, and hopefully be content with a track plan and operations. i think having a live interchange with another railroad and 9 (but i will only model a few...most likely 4-5)customers should keep me busy and happy.....i hope!! i will build it in small sections taking my time..
Thank you all for some great advice thus far. if anyone is reading this and wants to contribute, or share your story, feel free to, its greatly appreciated to kno that im not alone!!
Joe
Modeling:
Providence & Worcester Railroad
"East Providence Secondary"
HO scale
This is why I use the modular approach. I can at least run trains now, and expand later as I have time and space. Although I aquired a new basement (house) two years ago, my new layout space still has the small modular layout which I moved from my previous home. My job takes me "on the road" for long periods of time and it is difficult to get motivated about my dream layout when I can't be home on a frequent basis to work on it. I have just ordered lumber to construct two large staging yards. (I think the guy at the lumer yard thought that I was some kind of "nut case" as I requested six sheets of plywood to be cut into lumber.) Not only do I plan on getting the staging yards in operation, I will construct several modules that I can take on the road with me. These modules will be industries for the big layout. The modules will allow me to constuct, detail and operate these as a small shelf layout while I am away from home. I will eventually take them back home and incorproate them into the basement layout.
JIM
Jim, Modeling the Kansas City Southern Lines in HO scale.
Joe,
I believe Lance is building a even larger Florida layout according to the website. I was in Fort Lauderdale (Port Lauderdale) several times while leaving on cruises to the Caribbean and couldn't help but notice the extremely large fuel depot located near Lake Mable which is going to be the focal point for my shelf layout. The place was probably bustling during the 60's and 70's. If you go to Fort Lauderdale industries and use the satelite imagery button, you can zoom down and see much of the old trackage that once encirculed the complex. Much of the railroad trackage has given way to commerical and industrial building. My new layout will try to capture a small portion of the action.
I sympathize with your planning dilemma having been there myself. But if you can't look at a plan for more than a few days before falling out of love with it then not building is the right thing to not do...
Someone mentioned modules which seem reasonable given your circumstances. Especially if there's a modular club somewhere nearby. Speaking of clubs, here's another way to do the things you're good at while someone else does the things you've trouble with. If you don't want the 'freeway around the perimeter' look there's fremo. Wolfgang Dudler has a bunch of fremo modular meet pictures on his West Port Terminal website.
http://www.westportterminal.de/
And I think you were wise to not try to build a triple decker in a 10'x10' space with three helixes. You'd wind up with the helixes completely dominating the layout. It would be more of an engineering feat than a layout.
You also mentioned that the 10'x10' space is in a shed. Model railroads tend to not like extremes of temperature and humidity. Did I see that you're in Rhode Island? Unless you insulate and heat that shed I'd expect you to have temperature related issues...
Regards,
Charlie Comstock
You're not in this boat by yourself. After reading your post it sounded like me writing it.
Last summer I took apart a 15'x19' E shaped layout and started a smaller 14'x16' rectangular one. After building the tables, temporarily, I ran three loops with some switching, made of Atlas True Track for the grandkids during the holidays. Although it is not the exact layout plan I was going with, there was the issue of ducking under the layout to get into the center that quickly became a pain.
I'm now in the process of planning something smaller that I can walk around and be more comfortable with.
The suggestions that have been given are great!
Bill
Larry, Thank your for the link and advice! i have always been AMAZED at Lance's work. i didn't know he had another website besides his business one, i'll definately check it out, Thank you!
I think if you check out Lance Mindheims shelf layout, you would be surprised as I was at the amount of detail that can be achieved in a shelf layout only about 18 inches deep. I know I have scaled down what I want several times. Simpler is sometimes better.
www.lancemindheim.com/
Larry
I'll put in a pitch for modules. They're (usually) cheap and easy to construct and they're small enough so you can get something up and running pretty quickly although not a continuous run (usually).
The thing is you can work on one or many, add / change / delete them without ripping up a lot of other work and while you can build an enormous layout with modules, you're not faced with an enormous construction job all at once. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time...
Oh, and you can change your trackplan right in the middle of building your layout without a whole lot of heartache.
Thanks guys.. i appreciate your advice! I think i will pursue a small ho scale urban shelf layout. a few pop up in my mind, the third street industrial district (47 top notch track plans) as well as another track plan featured in that book called railroading for city lovers. i really like the idea of having very active mainline, with a interchange for some fun/challenging operations without fouling up the mainline. i will also do some searching to find some other layouts to give me some more ideas. if anyone has a similar plan or ideas, please share!! Thank you
Chartiers wrote:Joe, I think your idea of building a small HO layout with buildings, with scenery, and with details, is a good one.
C:
So do I. If inspiration is needed, pick up a copy of THE HO RAILROAD THAT GROWS. The railroad itself in that book is no masterpiece, but the philosophy is excellent.
Build something ... anything. Leave a place to connect it to the next something. Once you are running trains, you will get more ideas. Impliment them one at a time as they occur to you.
A layout is a never ending project. Don't try to plan it to the end in the first session. Get started.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
well i thought i was happy with a new design and plan, a multi decker w/ 3 helix's...all in a 10 x 10 space, but, the more i thought about it i realized i didnt like the plan. it was a true point to point. it was all about operations which i love. enough switching to enable 3 operators, or three different trains for me to run to keep things different. BUT.....like always ater looking at it for a few days, i wasn't happy with it, another design popped in my head!!. i seem to be stuck in a rut with planning or actually deciding i should say. i have a few notebooks with over 75 designs/themes/layouts i have drawn up, (spanning a few years worth)a few of them hold excellent operation possibilities, yet im lacking in a few areas,,such as wiring, and well funny enough i am AWFUL at making structures, my 7 year old son can probably do better than me!! LOL! so taking on a larger layout for me is most likely not the smartest route. i have been in this hobby for about 6 years and have had a quite a few decent layouts, learning alot from each one.. but soon after i build all the benchwork and get the track up and running and some scenery..i lose interesst and tear it all down. i feel that i am now proficient at benchwork, tracklaying, planning/design and well mediocre at scenery. i know i need to just decide on a small layout and go with it so i can learn how to make structures and make them good...but im just stuck in deciding!!!! the dilemma: i design a plan that im really pumped about but the next night i look at it and i just want to design somthing else...i cant stay focussed on one perticular layout!! lol I model mainly in N scale, but i don't know how on earth people get so much detail in n scale. (my hands are shakey from a injury suffered in iraq) my family and i own/live in a 800 square foot house so a ho scale layout would have to be small, and im afraid i would lose interest in operations of such a small layout. i do have a 10 x 10 shed, in which i was going to house my layout in, but again it seems large and with my current lacking skills of structures, im afraid it would be wasting time/money i dont have to waste.
so i guess to sum up this rambling here, im wondering if i should just settle on a small ho scale shelf layout so i can learn to build structures, and learn to super detail and to enjoy ome small operations. maybe then i can hope a theme for a larger layout will grab me and not let go.
does this seem like the reasonable thing to do? a small ho scale urban switching/shelf layout?
does anyone else have this problem that i seem to suffer from for the past 6 years? being indecisive, never being satisfied with a plan/theme/layout??
sorry for the rambling here, but im hopin for some advice!!! thanks!!