Electro:
It's very gratifying to see a layout begin to take shape when the benchwork starts going in. And your photos testify to that nicely. However ... benchwork goes in really fast.
In my experience, if you get some help, you can fill a room with benchwork in a couple weekends. I think the benchwork for my Siskiyou Line (1100 sq ft of layout) took us about 40 hours total.
Meanwhile, my layout is going on 16 years old and is what I would call about 60% done now. Obviously what comes after the benchwork takes much, much more effort, expense, and time to do.
Roadbed and trackwork goes a lot slower than benchwork, especially if you want your trains to run smoothly. Turnouts take the most time to test fit, install, wire, and ballast. Wiring the layout properly, even for DCC (with less wiring than will be needed for cab control), is tedious and time consuming.
Rough scenery also can go pretty fast, but detailed scenery can take months and years, especially once you factor in bridges and structures. A single tall curved trestle on my Siskiyou Line (scratchbuilt to fit the spot) took several months of spare time in evenings to plan, build, paint, weather, and install. That's ONE bridge, and my layout has over a dozen bridges.
In my experience some of the most time-consuming effort goes into what you put on the track. I can spend many weeks worth of evenings detailing, painting, and weathering just ONE loco. And I don't really detail it as much as I would like. With a large layout like mine, you have to cut corners in order to get it to a satisfying level of completion.
And with an operating layout, like the prototype, things break, wear out, or simply change over time. Couplers and details get damaged, wheels get knocked out of gauge, wheels and track need cleaned and tuned, and track shifts around with the seasons.
Yes sir, filling a room full of benchwork is (in my experience) less than 1% of the total effort of getting an operational layout. There's much, much more involved in building and maintaining a finished looking, well operating layout than just benchwork.
But with the benchwork, you've gotten out of the armchair and started construction -- and yay for that!
Joe Fugate Modeling the 1980s SP Siskiyou Line in southern Oregon
Looks great Electro!! Keep the momentum up!!
Ken.
Joe's right about the time, but it's still a rush to see all that benchwork, just waitig for track and scenery.
Keep at it, it's like eating an elephant. One bite at a time. Assembly line procedures, where you can get away with them, can make a huge difference in a short time. Then you're free to take as long as you want on the scenery and detailing.
Keep in mind that you can't, or probably shouldn't, cut off everything else till it's done, but there's nothing wrong with working in surge mode for a few days or weeks, as long as you remember to drop back and get the i's dotted and t's crossed in the rest of your life.
You're on a great adventure, and I hope you're enjoying all of it. The parts of out layout i've enjoyed the most, seemd to take the shortest time, and then you miss it later. Unless you've left (or found) room to expand.
Hang in there.
electrolove wrote:Hi guys!What do I mean by that?Often when people are talking about BIG layouts they say. This is going to take many years to just build the benchwork. It's a lot of work, yes, but not as much as you would think. Look at these pictures. I made this progress in just a few weeks. Instead of looking at TV I build benchwork. I took away everything in the construction that was not necessary and just takes a lot of time to build, for example the triangle plywood for the bracing. Everything in this benchwork construction is planned and tested so I know it works. Planned so I can build it fast. If you do something every day, you will see progress pretty soon. It takes me 1-2 days to build a benchwork like this. With that speed you can fill a hangar in one year. One of my biggest problems is that I'm thinking and thinking and thinking a lot before going to my layout room. I have started to learn that instead of thinking, just DO IT!
Agreed 100%. Especially agree with "quit thinking, and start trying". One doesn't need to put in hours per session. Few minutes every day even leads to great progress, including *after* the benchwork.
For that matter, think of all the time we spend on mrr forums that could be better used
Nice job !
Ya' know, the SAME thing can be said for scratch-building: Find a simple project, draw up a simple plan...and give it a try! Will it be perfect the first time? No...but it might turn out to better than you expect. It's really a lot easier than most people think it is.
Beautiful benchwork, Electro! I'm looking forward to seeing the progress.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.