How many more layouts are you good for?

[FJ and G]

The Reaganesque phrase: "Mr. Gorbachav, tear down this wall," has somehow gotten stuck in my brain and I guess it is used to define his presidency (Clinton had a defining phrase too, which I won't repeat here but starts out with, "I did not have s...).

Anyway, the question is: How do you know when the right time to tear down your layout is?

It goes without saying that tearing it down occurs during a move. But, what about at other times? Is it possible to get sick of your scenery or track plan; perhaps because you have become envious of a nice layout in a magazine and wi***o do a Martha Stewart remake?

Or, did you get tired of the Pennsylvania Railroad and decide to rip out all of the trees and put nice Santa Fe or SP desert scenery?

And lastly, how many more layouts are you good for in your lifetime? There's actually a formula to compute the number of layouts you have left before you expire.

Simply add up the number of layouts you've constructed and compute the number of years you have left to live based on the average life expectancy (add or subtract years based on your lifestyle) and you will be able to come up with a reasonably close number, assuming you change layouts at a consistent pace.

[Eriediamond]

Gezzz, by the time I get done doing all that math and my age factor, probably won't get the math done much less another layout!!!! [(-D][(-D][sigh][sigh]. Of course, if I wanted to model the SP, I could set up a lionel train set in my grandkids sand box. That wouldn't take long.[(-D][(-D] Sorry i just couldn't resist. Seriously, I just don't know because the Bubba (>^..^<) factor is figured in your formula.

[Anonymous]

As many as i can get. I hope to someday have enough room for entire roster of CNW SD40-2s and SD45s.

[Anonymous]

I hope to get at least two more after this one. I can't wait to go more realistic (code 83 and 70, 30" rad curves, long uninterrupted mainlines, etc.)That's in the future, well after college.
Reed

[egmurphy]

That formula is scary if you plug in zero for the number of layouts built to-date. Given my age and the speed at which I'm progressing (or not progressing) on the current layout, I'll be lucky to fini***his one. Maybe I've bitten off too much, I mean I am trying to fill an entire 3' x 6'-8" hollow core wood door! I suppose I could scale back and settle for a loop of Z on a tv tray! [:D]

Regards

Ed

[mondotrains]

Hi,
I think I'm pretty typical of most model railroaders. My dad and I set up an American Flyer trainset on a 4x8' piece of plywood back in 1953, when I was at the ripe old age of 5. I got tired of watching the train run in circles after several years and then only set it up around the Christmas tree once in a while over the next 35 years.

In 1993, the train wouldn't run around anymore so my wife suggested I go to Border's Books and find a magazine that might help me locate someone to fix it. Lo and behold, I discovered "Moder Railroader" magazine and a shop to fix the engine. The guy at the shop mentioned a large train show coming up in Massachusetts (the Amherst Train Show) and suggested I attend it if I was interested in "really" getting into the hobby. Well, I came home from that show with my first HO engine and a few pieces of rolling stock. I remember telling my wife that I would probably spend a few hundred dollars building another 4x8' layout and give it to some deserving kid.

That layout was the starting point for a layout that grew to about 4 times that size and cost a lot more than a few hundred dollars. I had gotten "downsized" from my company after 22 years and took early retirement. Thus, I had all the time I needed to work on my layout. After a few years, I began to realize that the layout was nice but not "ideal". My buddy and I looked at it and decided our time would be better spent starting over than completing a layout the has so many limiatations (snap switches, single control panel with Atlas block controllers, surface-mounted switch motors, etc.).

Now, I have a layout that has a double-track mainline, plenty of staging and lots of industrial switching. I graduated to Shinohara track, Walther's turnouts, and Tortoise switch machines. I also have built 5 control panels, complete with LED's, placed strategically around the layout and am using walk-around trottles from Aristocraft. (haven't made the leap to DCC yet). I'm scenicking it now and only have about 4 more structures to complete all my industries. I have an elevated city scene, similar to the one in John Pryke's book and a great looking warf.

Now, as far as the next layout. I've held off moving to a new house. Sure, we look now and then but then I tell my wife that I need a few more years to complete the layout. Deep inside, having already torn up a couple of layouts, I know that the next one will be so magnificent that I shouldn't mind starting over. I'll probably go DCC next time also. But then again, there's so much to be done on this one.

I guess I'll have to move eventually because the wife wants to move close to the Connecticut shoreline and I do have plans in my head for the next layout. This time, the aisles will be wider, the staging won't be squeezed under my city but rather more accessible, and there will be NO track that isn't easily reached. Of course the new layout will have all of the best aspects of my current one and it will probably me my last.

Hope my story isn't too boring.
Mondo

[MAbruce]

My current layout will come down when I have enough time, space, and money for my next one – or when MRR prices take a dramatic dive.

Until then, I will continue to tinker/experiment/enjoy my present layout.

[orsonroy]

I'm hoping that I don't build more than one layout per house! So far so good (four layouts, four houses, since I was ten!)

[cmrproducts]

I am on my last on now! With it being as big as it is, it is my retirement project. With 56 months to go I have the majority of the track in and operating. Having built a layout representing an actual section of western Pennsylvania, I will have to scratch build just about every structure on it. The big problem is that the area I am doing is fast being eliminated. So I am going to have to get busy taking pictures!

I have no plans on moving but you never know!

Bob H Clarion, PA

[Nieuweboer]

My present layout (shelf with a peninsula in a 13x13' spare room) was started in 1986 when we moved in our present home. It is for all practicall puposes finished: trains never derail except when visitors are in teh room ( Murphy's law),I like my scenery , controlling couldn't be better. So, I think it is time to start thinking about a new layout with new challenges and hopefully a better track plan. The trouble is however each time I look at the present track plan and at the blank drawing paper before me I cannot come up with a track plan that is signicantly better than the actual one. So I'm frustrated. I'm happy with my present layout but I'm unhappy because it is finished. I realize it is a luxury problem but still.........I have not yet reached a decision but I guess that in the end I will tear down my layout and happily start another one that eventually probably will not be much different from the present one.

[AggroJones]

Incase you missed the memo, I am dying. I sort of suspected this when I was younger and got confirmation recently. [:(]

This is the final layout right now. If I didn't tear the old one down and begin again right now, when the hell else am I gonna do it?
The old layout had a few issues. My 3751 keep derailing over track which everything else runs over perfectly. Some of the track got warped and narrowed in gauge. There was a layer of dust embeded into some parts of scenery that wouldn't come out. Plus, I wanted to model a different location's scenery.

To anwser your question, I'm good for one more layout.

[ClinchValleySD40]

None. This is it. I'm very close to retirement, this is my retirement home. This is the dream of a lifetime layout, so there will be no more.

[johncolley]

'till I get it right!

[Noah Hofrichter]

I figure three or four more layouts. One shelf layout in collage and in apartments ect. till I settle down, and one more when I find my dream home, and I may redo the last layout when I retire, as by that time I'll have learned new techniques to use, and better design of a layout.

Noah

[IRONROOSTER]

If I get more space, at least one more. If I move, who knows.
Enjoy
Paul

[Anonymous]

I have two small ho layouts I am working on. It took me 3 months to come up with a track plan I designed that fits what I want one of the layouts to do. After these two I will take a break I hope from layout building for awhile and just run trains!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G
[Anyway, the question is: How do you know when the right time to tear down your layout is?

Excellent question. I asked myself this for a year before I had a clear answer. I got tired of the trackplan and the system (Marklin) and the space (unfinished garage) No move, no great catastrophe....

The old pike was an L shaped 16' X 9' Marklin layout built in an unfinished garage. It was pretty much complete. It featured scratchbuilt catenary, a 5 foot deep canyon featuring handcarved plaster rocks.. It was beautiful.

Building the layout against the garage door in an unfinished garage was a big mistake. Things rusted, cool air caused things to warp and all sorts of other grief. On the operational side... I got tired of the 5% grades and the track plan that did not allow for operation. I built the layout after being out of the hobby for many years. It was a huge improvement over the layouts I had when I was a kid, but ultimately I decided to tear it out. It was a difficult decision to make.

It took several weeks of photographing and generally messing around before I actually attacked it with a sawz all. Didn't take long to completely tear it apart. I tried to save scenery sections for later use....I ended up shuffling them around for months before throwing all but one small section away. I did save and plan to re-use structures, details, trees, rolling stock that wasn't Marklin (it's a long story), wood etc...All the rolling stock and Marklin gear went on Ebay for a massive past life clearance.

The new layout is just now at the track laying stage in an insulated, room built inside the garage. Modeled after US prototype using DCC. Trackplan is double deck with an operation plan already worked out. It has taken one year to get to this point after tearing out the old one.

One thing that made it easier to tear out the old set-up was the excitement about the new layout. It was still pretty dififcult at times. Good luck to anyone taking out a layout for reasons other than a move.

Guy

[Anonymous]

Hi all
With a bit of luck the answer is two the one in the garden stage one is allmost complete so in a few years it will look diferent and be larger
and the indoor HO layout.
Which if I get it planned right this time will last the rest of my life and again over the years will change and grow.
I dosen't work but in theory the answer should always only be 1 for any given layout in a given scale and when you depart the world you shuld only have built one per chosen scale.
The fact that it started as a project layout from a model magazine or your own limetid simple design should be apparent if you look in the right place.
The fact that it now fills a hobbie room floor to ceiling and the grieving relatives are wondering what on earth to do with the now 3 sub division railroad empire that is literaly floor to ceiling empire is how it should end but that first one should still be there some where.
these thought are some what inspired by the the late John Allen if you knew where to look the orriginal 6'x4' G&D was there'
regards John

[douginut]

I am only good for the layout I am working on.
whichever one that will be when that Permission to Abandon comes along for me.
Model Railroading (the hobby that is) is a present tense thing that recreats a past, and tries to preserve rose colored memory for the future. My grandchildren, one and five years old will learn of a way of life that their parents never saw except in fan trips and museums. Because I had fun with my "train set" and love to share it.

Thanks
Doug, in Utah

[BRAKIE]

I will not just tear out a layout for no good reason or because it is finished as far as I want to go with it..Now,I will at times rearrange the track work at a given location or perhaps add or remove a industry.Thankfully I been bless(curse?) with small layouts usually a branch line type or more then likely a industrial switching layout of which many has been on the smaller then normal size over the years..[:(] So,you see that is the reason I seldom tear a layout completely out just to build a new one.Should I remodel the whole layout I use the existing bench work.[:D] BTW I avoid time savers and switching puzzles [}:)] when I design a industrial switching layout preferring to use advanced layout designs for such layouts.[:D]

[Yampa2003]

About 2 to 3 years, but then they are only smallish layouts.
Since going over to US modeling back in 1998, I've built 3 layouts, now on my 4th!! Each one I learn something from the previous ones.

Brian W.