I have a good size layout and am about 75% done; all trackwork is done, buildings are about 50% done and scenery is about 40-50% done. I often think about 'getting to the end of the tunnel' when I realize how much I have already finished, but I like building models (structures and rolling stock) as much as any phase of the hobby. I have a problem of NOT building models that I don't keep but sell on Ebay. This has caused me to let the layout go for a while so I can indulge in my other hobby (which also supports my railroad needs!). I now look forward to the day when I can build other models while running my finished layout. I also assume I will be replacing or upgrading other buildings on the layout with newer and better ones as my skills improve.
If you enjoy any phase of the hobby more than others, why not pursue them as a second hobby and maybe even as a small business. Just a thought.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
Hi. I constantly try to get out of my comfort zone... I ultimately would like to get to a point where I could build everything from scratch. That for me will never be achieved in my lifetime. But it will keep me busy. I also build things for the local club, and will eventually build portable stuff in other scales...
Simon
No model train layout is ever done. Once you hit that saturation level, it just means that major changes can't be made. Have you installed road lights, operating crossing gates, working signals, telephone lines. The list is endless and when all else fails you can redesign the town.
My Z scale briefcase layout has hit the major change saturation point so my next project on it is the working crossing gates, a working signal, and a spinning merry-go-round. The type you find in a playground where the kids push it around with the feet.
Can you post a picture of your layout?
The N scale section of my website is now uploaded with a lot of various things. Check it out: www.CarlettaTrains.com
KisNap No model train layout is ever done. Once you hit that saturation level, it just means that major changes can't be made. Have you installed road lights, operating crossing gates, working signals, telephone lines. The list is endless and when all else fails you can redesign the town.
Rich
Alton Junction
This discussion shows the diversity of members here. Personally, I really, REALLY dislike the planning stage. I did plan, however, and build. Then, after a good hard look, I went back and tore out about 60 percent of the track that was laid, (all switches hand laid) cuz it didn't flow like I thought it would, and actually wasted a lot of "real estate" Well, it had looked good on paper...
So I rearranged and relaid the above amount, and it was a huge improvement. It improved train operations, looked better, and added space for a roundhouse and TT, and had room for more structures and nicer proportioned scenery.
Then I was looking at one long siding I'd added going up a steep grade. That "one too many" siding. Out it came, the grade became a vehicle road coming into the layout, and that was the point where the whole layout suddenly looked balanced. Especially regarding scenery. There were some other smaller adjustments too. So the layout is a product more of evolution, some of which has been painful, rather than good original planning, try as I might have.
Tear it out and start THAT process again? No thanks. There's enough building and scenicking potential to last the rest of my life right here, now. But that's just me.
I too love the building part and am not much of a train operator. My layout is pretty simple loops with an emphasis on the scenery and scenes. I am set in modern time with a fictional small town built at the foot of the mountains. This gives me mountains, town and farm for a diversity of interests. I am about 25% done with everything but I can see me hitting a wall when it's fully "scened" :).
I have seen a lot of layouts for sale on eBay and Craigslist so you might want to consider that if you're still weighing options. I've built a few structures that didn't fit well in my scene and I simply sold them on eBay. Now, I order cool buildings just to build them to sell them on eBay... Like I said, I love the building part. I don't make a profit, I do it to keep me busy when I am not working on my empire.
I never met anyone whose layout was done.
Ken Vandevoort
Once your layout is done (whatever that means to you, personally), begin taking photos of it. Not just snapshots, but try to make them worthy of printing in a magazine. Write about your layout as if it was in a magazine, or have an objective person (your significant other perhaps?) write the faux article and send it all in to Model Railroader and see if they are interested in printing it. Does MR pay authors for sumissions? Use that money to buy more models.
Keep your home layout up as long as it makes you happy. Look for modular club's and get involved with them. Free-Mo is always an option too; design and build a module, take it to a 'local' setup and enjoy the weekend running trains on a different layout which you helped build (by using your new module). After your first setup, plan a new module for your second setup. Free-Mo setups are a nice weekend away from your home...it's a great excuse to take your wife to a new town and do some sightseeing and railfanning.
Just being around new people may give you ideas on how else you can enjoy this hobby. It's always nice to have a finished layout you can run trains on while you work on a new project. Free-Mo modules make up most of my layout and I take whatever module sets I wish to local setups...sometimes 1 module and sometimes all 10.
http://delray1967.shutterfly.com/pictures/5
SEMI Free-Mo@groups.io
Hi!
I believe the answer is fairly obvious. The layout is "done" when you begin to dismantle it - for whatever reason.
Since the mid '50s I've built a couple of O, an N, and a few HO layouts, and while some may have looked "done", there was always something to add - typically details and upgrades to structures or scenery.
Only when I tore them down, were they considered "done".
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
My layout, the Poco Valley, is over 30 years old. I designed it with operation in mind, and it was virtually finished many years ago. I still add signals, lights, more figures, etc. from time to time, but it is operated in a prototypical fashion every week or so, sometimes alone, but usually with a group of five or six. We still love it, and wouldn't think of taking it down.
Ken Nelson, Poco Valley Railroad