doctorwayne I'm still doing work for others, but when the current stuff is wrapped up, I hope to put a major push on getting the whole layout looking at least presentable. Wayne
I'm still doing work for others, but when the current stuff is wrapped up, I hope to put a major push on getting the whole layout looking at least presentable.
Wayne
Friends,
The above is the last item in Dr. Wayne's initial response here (3rd entry). I'm left scratching my head, wondering how many of us would like to ferret out his address and come up with a flimsy excuse to visit a nearby natural wonder. All the while having real designs to arrive in town, pick up a box of doughnuts, drop by his house, knock on the door, and introduce ourselves as long lost cousins. If he doesn't consider his pike "presentable", I'd be more than happy to take it off his hands. Oh, and I'd be glad to take with it anything with wheels.
Good on ya, Wayne.
John
I'm not sure what the lifespan of my first layout creation will be except to say the creation process itself may well outdistance my own life span! It may just be the perfectionist in my, but with every step of bench construction and with the reading of every article and forum post, I'm faced with more and more conundrums and questions. Things are going painfully slow and I'm about to ask my wife if I can lay a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood across out dining room table just so that I can lay down some track and watch a train go 'round. Anyway, it's back to the basement to do some more carpentry benchwork...the real issues lie ahead in creating the layout itself. In times like these, I almost wish I had stuck with restoring vintage tractors! Doc
Thanks for your very kind words, John, but the partial upper level doesn't have all of the trackwork finished, and not much else there has even been started.On the original part of the layout, there are several areas that haven't been touched since the original plaster landforms were done, like here, where I hope to re-create (sorta) the neighbourhood of my early childhood...
...or this area, where the only progress has been the accumulation of more junk (at least it's junk related to the layout )...
In this area, the aisle-side of the track is pretty-well done, but most of the temporary structures seen here on the other side of the tracks have been removed, so most of the town has yet to be built...
...and here, which was planned to be a lushly forested area, ideal for taking photos of trains, remains a barren wasteland...
I can "operate" the layout, but seldom have time for even that. It's said that no layout is ever finished, so my hope is that I'll get it to a point where it all at least looks presentable before it's time to tear it out.
BRAKIEKevin,I hit a hole in one with my first ISL
.
I don't doubt that a first layout can easily be a good layout, and even an enjoyable and reliable layout. My first layout was a blast that I loved for three good years.
I only observe, and the main point is, the first layout is extremely likely not to be the last layout.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
My first layout was old HO equipment from my dad on a 4'x8' in the garage. The EZ track rusted out and grimed over, so the table eventually ended as storage. The board is still somewhere and has the paintings my little brother (he was 5 at the time) put on as scenery.
The second layout was the most complete. I bought an N-Scale Prairie for a mislabeled $10 at Hobby Lobby, thanks to some clueless/apathetic employees, and built the Woodland Scenics starter kit with an oval. I eventually scrapped that table as I wanted something bigger (and the table was falling apart).
The third never got off the ground, metaphorically. Much of the mountainwork was done when I realized that I had done no planning and the layout was nonsensical and infeasible, so I tore it up and scrapped a lot of the material. My girlfriend was appalled; she saw something pretty in it, I guess.
My fourth and current layout is a modular Nn3 layout that lives in my master bedroom thanks to my awesome wife (the aforementioned girlfriend). I built the table as a Christmas display with my N-Scale Prairie (the aforementioned Prairie) and she supported the idea of turning it into a full layout.
My Lionel layout was set up every Christmas for about fifteen years until my youngest sibling outgrew it. My HO layout, the PSSM line, for my kids was a 4 x 8 set up in the basement and remained operable for about ten years although use declined as kids got older. My first N layout, the P & M, was based on the Atlas Gulf Summit Lines and remained in operation for over 10 years until we renovated the basement so my son could live there while going to law school. I took off several years but when we moved to our new house in 2006 I started over with another 4 x 8 N layout, the East Penn, which is currently operational. Recycled almost all of the structures, locomotives, rolling stock, and electrical components from the P & M. For the past 5 years I've been working on an L shaped N layout about 15 feet on each side of the L. Hoping to get it operational by next year.
riogrande5761 NWP SWP My layout will most definitely not be a throw away... even when I have a bigger layout the first will still be used as a display layout for shows and stuff... Nothing is definite except death and taxes; it is a truism you will learn in time.
NWP SWP My layout will most definitely not be a throw away... even when I have a bigger layout the first will still be used as a display layout for shows and stuff...
My layout will most definitely not be a throw away... even when I have a bigger layout the first will still be used as a display layout for shows and stuff...
Nothing is definite except death and taxes; it is a truism you will learn in time.
And people are working on eradicating death.
Paul
My first layout was on a 4x8' sheet of plywood HO scale. No benchwork, the plywood sheet was just on top of an old antique dining table. Built in 1981, dismantled 1988. My dad helped me build it, it was primarily an oval with an inside passing siding and a smaller oval inside that. It had a mismatch of brass and nickel silver sectional track (18" radius curves because I didn't know any better), manual and remote-controlled turnouts. My second layout (1988-2006) was a 4x12' HO pike, built on benchwork in three combined sections, with the end sections 4x4' and the middle section 2x4'. It had Atlas Code 100 track in the mainline and Atlas/Walthers Code 83 track in yard and sidings. It was a folded dogbone arrangement with a grade. It also had 18" radius minimum curves because I didn't know any better, though there were curved sections with larger curves built with flextrack. I was in my teens when I built it, all by myself, and continued into my young adult years. It was mainly abandoned in the mid-1990s due to college, jobs, and other pursuits, but the biggest thing that killed my enjoyement of the hobby was those 18" radius curves. There were some rolling stock I wanted to run that I realized couldn't run on my layout until it was all assembled. Manufacturers, at least then, never talked about minimum radius so I never thought it was an issue. Then I looked at all those pretty layouts in Model Railroader and RMC magazines and they all have a minimum radius of AT LEAST 30". FML.
I'm on my 3rd layout (2006-present), 4x8' built on benchwork, but this time in N scale. I finally decided to get rid of the 4x12 layout gathering dust, sell my HO trains and structures and reboot my hobby interest in a new scale. I do have 18" radius curves, but now they are an asset instead of a liability. I can run anything on my layout now. I'm used to N and love it, the quality is much better than it was in the '70s and '80s, it's practically just a smaller version of HO now. Glad to be in N scale, I'm used to the size now, HO feels like O scale to my eyes and hands now. I've never looked back.