For me, model railroading is a seasonal hobby. Golf and outdoor projects take up so much time that I never can find time for MR during the warm weather months. As I have done every year for as long as I can remember, I vowed that this year I would spend at least a few hours a week on MR activities and as I have done every year for as long as I can remember, I broke that vow. Not a single train moved even one inch. Not a single minute was spent building a structure, adding scenery, or laying track. Zippo!!!
There's still a few months to go in our golf season here in Ohio and a few outdoor projects to wrap up. My appetite for MR got whetted a couple days ago when I received the flyer from Walthers announcing the new release of their 20th Century Limited. I had hoped this would be the next name train to be released and had a hunch it would be. They didn't disappoint. I especially can't wait for the release of the "Creek" series observation car. Haven't seen any manufacturer offer that ever unless it was in brass. I just went on line and reserved the whole set.
I made a lot of progress on the layout last year and hope to have the mainline fully scenicked this year. That's the goal. Can't wait to get started.
Definitely seasonal for me also, like you, I haven't modeled at all, but have run trains now and then. My boat starts yelling at me in April, I would rather be on the lake on a sunny day.
With that said, recently I have been looking forward to the oncoming Model Railroad season, I have a lot to do, and hope to get my scenery forms completed so I can start with the funner things, like details, trees, buildings, rocks, installing the mine, finishing the sawmill, etc. I also have a ton of kits I've collected from EBAY and the spring shows, ready to go!
I need new pics for WPF
GS
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
Yeah, I've been Googling up the train shows and open houses here in Massachusetts. We don't have much of that in the summer, and we spend a lot of our winter weekends on the ski slopes, so fall and spring are my MR "event" seasons.
I try to make steady progress on my layout all year long, though. Sometimes summer is better for that, because I can stay inside and hide in the air conditioning.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Yeah, seasonal for me too.
I've been mostly inactive until recently. I'm now in the process of ripping out most of the scenery on my layout so it can be redone better. It's something I've wanted to do for a couple of years now and I've finally started. This should keep me pretty busy for the upcoming MRR season...
It's hard sometimes to justify spending the day in the basement whether the day and weather is so nice outside. Only have so many of those days left in this life! Fall is beautiful in Virginia.
So late fall/winter is my most productive time, along with the 90 degree days of summer.
For the first time in many years, I actually made progress on the layout over the summer. I have been laying the track on the mainline. I haven't made a lot of progress but some is better than none. It helped that it has been very dry and I haven't had to cut the grass in over a month. LOL
John
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
I too was looking forward to winter to start building a small layout in the garage. But, alas, I will be going to Afganistan for a year. The good thing is that I will save a ton of cash and will be able to buy a couple more Atlas Chessie GP 40-2's. My LHS will be happy when I get back!!
Mike
Mike Kingsbury
I do a variety of activities year around of which model railroading is one. I usually do something with the layout each month.
Enjoy
Paul
Out here in SunnyCal, at least here in the Central Valley, model railroading is a fairly all-year-round proposition for me. I have a California Basement (garage) layout, so I can usually go out and tool around unless the temperature climbs above 100 during the summer, or we get a tub-thumper of a rainstorm during the winter. Actually, the rainy days are the worst, since my layout extends to the very front of the garage, and I have to keep the door down so that I don't soak the yards in Sierra City, LOL. Which means if I run a train down to that end of the layout, I pray a lot that my track's still holding up well. Nothing quite like re-railing a car during a monsoon.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
My 17-year-old has taken off to Germany for a semester of overseas study, which has set in motion a chain of events... some directly layout related, and some indirectly.
Step one has already taken place, which was moving my son out of the layout room. He's now occupying the other end of Gracie's room.
Step two - I have to finish stripping the old plaster out of a bedroom on the second floor, so I can insulate, wire and sheet rock it in preparation for Gracie's return in January...
Step three - I have to find a place for all the crap that is currently stored in that bedroom.
Step four - I have to convince She Who Must be Obeyed that building benchwork is an important part of creating a storage area for said crap.
Step five - I have start accumulating a pile of track and turnouts, as the next major chunk of the layout will be the permanent yard area, either that or another sizeable staging area.
Of course, before all of this starts, I have to make enough money to do it all!
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
Summers are usually busy for me - just my lawn/tree care takes about 10 hours per week and that time comes from my model railroading time. There are always repairs and home improvements to be done, so I usually don't even visit my train room in the summer. This was the worst summer of my 51 years (got divorced, my father died), so I made the time to take refuge in my hobby and that helped me get through it; I built a few craftsman kits and thus took vacation from my heartache by hanging out with my trains.
Now, the lawn is going dormant and the leaves are still green (got a few weeks before the leaf collecting/disposal exercise - I have 65 trees - this is not a minor event, but it usually only takes a couple of weekends); the Utah car show season ends tomorrow, so I'll soon have time to get out to the shop, clean the track and the wheels, and run a few trains. The club in Ogden has an auction coming up on 9/27 and the Salt Lake City club puts on a show in November. These annual events serve to get me energized for the winter.
A year ago I added about 15 square feet to my layout (including a turntable). It will get scenery this year, and I may finally get to painting the backdrop. I've got a coreless motor to install some lucky brass loco. There's also a couple of Campbell structure kits and a handful of Jordan vehicle models to build. I may not emerge from my shop until Christmas.
I love this hobby!
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
First off, Mike, thank you for what you are about to do. I really appreciate the sacrfies you make.
Summer for me is also outdoor time. Then fall is trying to keep up with the leaves. By the time that is over, it's close to Thanksgiving so it's off to visit family for a month between then and New Years. I reall don't get into the basement much until around January and then hit 'er hard until May when it starts to turn nice outside again. I have some kits stocked up along with a P2K GP-7 that needs some replacement gears. I'm also going to put in some more streets and finalize the structure locations in Mountain Gap. I have a busy winter lined up. Hope I can get it all done.
Life is simple - eat, drink, play with trains!
Go Big Red!
PA&ERR "If you think you are doing something stupid, you're probably right!"
R. T. POTEET got it exactly right. Out here in Vegas, I'd much rather spend the brutal summer days in the air conditioning working on the layout, and the beautiful 60 degree, crystal clear winter days doing outdoor activities!
Why is everyone else so backwards?? Oh, what's that? It's not 60 and sunny all winter in the rest of the country?
Add me to the list. I'll probably hit it hard about mid-October. Last November I moved my office into my home and with it office supplies, furniture, records and files for three rooms. All got stacked floor to ceiling in my train room.
My son and I made a concerted effort of the last month to get it cleared out and we created "Dad and Shane's Play Room." I get two layouts and a home theater. He gets his Brio layout, a Wii and Foosball.
The plan is done on the Rock Ridge and Train City II and trackage rights secured. Time to bend some nails.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
Normally the summer is too nice and too many things to do that MRR is not an option... this summer has been dismal (weather wise) to say the least and I was able to get a lot of MRR done. Kind of nice actually.
Peter
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout