Does anyone ever actually fini***heir layout ?...

[Anonymous]

I'm not what you would call a true "gung ho" model railroader because unlike a lot of people that don't really ever want the layout work to end, I couldn't wait to get my layout finished and behind me. From start to finish it took about six months, and there is absolutely nothing else left on it for me to do.
I have no plans of building another one-not any time soon at least. All I want to do now is kick back, run my trains and chill out...
I did however think far enough ahead that I'm able to change out structures, cars and so forth to go from the 1930s, 1950s, 1970s to modern times.
Is there anyone else out there that just wants to get the ---- thing done ?.

trainluver1

[MisterBeasley]

Sure. My wife wants to get the thing done. I've taken over the family room, and it's clear that it will be many months before all the excess boxes disappear and most of the stuff lying around the room actually becomes part of the layout.

But for me, well, once the basic 12x5 foot layout is done, then it will be time to begin planning the extensions that will connect to the already-planned not-so-dead-end sidings on the main layout.

[cheese3]

I don't think any layout is ever finished. There are always improvements and changes you can make.

[selector]

I understand the sentiment of those who say that a layout is never complete, but I believe that a small percentage of us do actually call it a 'layout' at some point when there is nothing left to do IN OUR OWN TERMS. Of course, you can always re-arrange a few grains of ballast, or use a toothpick to clean the accumulated dried and whitish glue off some structures, but that, to me, would be like picking fly-poop out of pepper.

For me, once the weathering is done to my satisfaction, and the backdrop painted and in place, I don't plan on doing anything more for this first kick at the 'cat'. I'll enjoy it until I get tired or restless, and then begin to contemplate layout #2. Please, God, let that be after my birthday in 2010.

[SpaceMouse]

For me the question is:

When do you get to start your layout? I'm working towards a basement layout by learning form a 4 x 8. Then I'm going to build a shelf layout and experment with switching. I'm not going to make the mistakes I did with the first layout by rushing in too soon. But if it takes a weekend to build one structure, I may never fini***he 4 x 8. [:D}

But I am looking forward to starting for me what will be the grand project.

[Pruitt]

Well, for me, even getting to the point where I could pretend my layout is finished is a distant dream.....

[Roadtrp]

I think I would love to have my layout finished, but I doubt I ever will. It's pretty tough to finish a layout when you only seriously work on it a couple of times a month. My favorite part of MR is running my trains, and unfortunately (at least when it comes to finishing) I can do that just fine as my layout presently exists.

I know part of my problem is fear of the unknown. I'm pretty new to the hobby and I get rather apprehensive every time I start doing something that I haven't done before. I really shouldn't worry about it so much. Most of the time I end up doing better than I expected even though I rarely achieve exactly what I had hoped for.

So... in the end I guess it doesn't make me a huge amount of difference whether I ever fini***he layout or not. As long as I enjoy tinkering and playing with it, I'm happy.

I'm not out to impress anyone else with my layout and realize I don't have a whole lot of talent in the areas that are needed for a truly great layout. But I enjoy running my trains virtually every day, and that is good enough for me!

[:P]

[Anonymous]

I am a man of grand ambitions and even grander dreams. Should I ever finish my model railroad, there is always adding to the the containing structure, (Be it a basement with a house attatched, an abandoned warehouse, Steel structure that holds indoor soccer field, ect) and adding on.

James.

[Anonymous]

i would be happy to move faster on my layout. its was the start of winter when i tore out my old layout and started this one. it has been in the track planning stage for awile now . i got the main line run pland out now i just need to get the industral switching part and the staging yard done so i can lay track [:D]

[twhite]

Nah. Model railroading is like learning a new piece of music. Every time you go back to it, there's something new you discover. Something you can improve. I don't think mine will ever be finished. It's up and running, and I'm enjoying that facet of it, but finished? Nah.
Tom[:D]

[oleirish]

[:D]I don't think I have ever finshed an layout,Would like to some day[:)]My problem is I'am never satisfied,allways something new in a mag to think about(maybe that will look good on my layout) kind of thing[:-^][2c]

OLE'IRISH

[Anonymous]

I "finished " my first layout after "picking" at it on and off for three years. Ran it for two years and then that familiar feeling SOME RR modelers get, set in. Techniques and materials had advanced so much that if I kept "improving " my scenery and structures I'd end up rebuilding the whole thing! So with anticipatory reluctance I tore up the old layout. Coincidentally the CFO made new funds AND space availible IF i included space for the rugrats. I am now trying to come up with a new trackplan (the benchwork is up) and look forward to starting and finishing my second RR. I have the theme and scale for the 3rd RR already at the back of my mind.

[Seamonster]

Nah, it's never finished. I think that half the fun of model railroading is in the building of a layout, and the other half is in the running of it. According to a very good friend (not a model railroader), my layout is permanently in the construction stage and will never have trains running on it. Maybe if we both live to be 150 years old I might be able to prove him wrong. [:D] There's always something to add, some detail to improve, something to change, and since acquiring a larger area for the layout .......... I leave the rest to your imagination. [^]

[cacole]

I've been helping a friend wire and learn how to use DCC on a home layout he has been working on for nearly 10 years, now. He is hand-laying the track, and will probably not live long enough to finish it.

[mondotrains]

Who would ever want to really "finish" their layout. For me, I've noticed that it's never the finish line that I've enjoyed....it is the journey. I always tell newcomers to the hobby that they should enjoy the process and not worry about the finish. Yes, we all want to make progress and certainly get trains up and running sooner than later. But, once you've put that last siding in, it's so disappointing to realize that the track is complete and that phase of the process is over. I think that is why most of us are constantly envisioning that "next" layout....the one we're going to build when we acquire the Foxboro, Massachusetts Football Stadium's space when they stop playing football there.

Of course, we all have to be careful what we wish for. My current layout is in an area about 18' by 16' and there is plenty to keep be busy for the rest of my years (I'm 57 years old). However, when my wife and I consider building a new home with a 1,700 square foot basement, I get a "rush" thinking about the dream layout I could build in that space. I also get a little apprehensive thinking about how many years from now I'll be running trains again and if I'll live long enough to get much scenery and detail completed.

I guess if we could have it our way, we'd like to plan our layouts so that the last detail would be added the last day of our lives....but I don't think it will ever work out that way.

Happy Railroading.
Mondo

[Anonymous]

I consider my layout "finished" when I can run trains on the entire mainline under the following conditions:

1) NO derailments;
2) NO accidental de-couplings;
3) NO electrical 'dead' spots.

In my view, structure building and scenery-laying are part of the fun, in addition to running the trains. I get plenty of enjoyment once the benchwork, tracklaying and wiring tasks are behind me!

[Jetrock]

The thing about "finished" is that "finished" would include "finished playing with it." Part of the reason why I prefer a sectional/modular approach is that I can finish each section in turn, play with it, and still have room for expansion. Thus I can enjoy construction, detailing and operation depending on my mood and inclination at the moment.

[davekelly]

I wonder how many folks say "OK it's finished." But then a month later see a new structure or detail piece or whatever, buy it, build it and place it on the layout. Then they say "OK, now it's finished." Then a month later they read an article about a lineside industry that can be easily be added to an existing town. Add a turnout, put a short piece of track for a new siding and then say "OK, now it's really finished." Then a month later . . . . . . . .

[selector]

Ken, I think you and Randy have a lot in common. [:D]

[bluepuma]

I think I've designed my layout so I don't have to "set it all in stone" on the first pass, so that once I've reached a point, with the first part of the L done enough, that I can start placing buildings as I build them. I want to have a finished look on the empty lots, fields of weeds, grass, like before the buildings were built. This means I don't want everything to have to be done to look finished, just track, ballast, roads, parts of the scenery, want to get it that far, then add in the long run along the opposite wall to the turn-around loop, staging. I think it's too impossible a goal to *finish* so I want to strive for getting things to where the rest can be done a little at a time. I want to see my great buildings in a realistic setting, my trains running by real looking fields of grass, not plywood. Some projects demand finishing, loudspeaker building, completing a electronic project, finishing a program to a state looking complete, others should look finished, but not be, not requiring tear down. It's a hobby, not a race.

Did you ever see the ATSF tracks in Atwater, California?

[n2mopac]

Finished?!? What's the fun in that? [;)] My first layout reached a place where there was scenery and structures in place to a point of near "completion," but I was constantly adding detail, changing this or that little thing, and I had bigger dreams for it right up to the day I abandoned it in favore of my presently under construction new layout. I figure this one is a good 5 year project to reach a similar place of "completion," but I hope I am never truly finished with a layout. Building and detailing are too much fun for me.

Ron

[willy6]

My layout will be finished the day after I learn how my wife thinks, I rest my case.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by willy6

My layout will be finished the day after I learn how my wife thinks, I rest my case.

For those of you who are not married, or have a significant other, let me translate...NEVER[:p]

Trevor[:)]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by selector

Ken, I think you and Randy have a lot in common. [:D]

Philosophies, maybe... but I definitely do NOT share Randy's DCC expertise![swg][(-D]

[Anonymous]

Finished???

I did pretty much finish my last layout. But as everyone else has said, it is never really finished. I think that maybe it is done when you quit dreaming about what you can do for the current layout and start thinking about the next one...

I think there are stages to completion:

1. room preparation

2. Benchwork

3. Loop around the main.

4. All track work in and running....

5. Basic scenery

6. Detailed scenery

For me it is very hard to get past the "layout slave" mode up until the basic scenery stage. Since I love to run trains and operation is one of the big reasons for me to have a layout, I do feel pressure to get the basics functioning. Since the current layout is a double deck layout, i fgure I have at least another six months (optimistically speaking) or so, of "slave " mode to go. Because my current layout is so much larger than ones I have built in the past, it is taking longer than expected. Time seems to expand from my point of view, but everyone else seems to think that I am making good progress....

On my last layout I reached the point where I decided to build a new one I stopped working on the layout and I concentrated on building rolling stock and detailed structures for a couple of years waiting to build the new layout room. This was a very enjoyable aspect that I had not explored as much in the past. I am hoping to get back to that stage sooner with this layout. Some people can do both at once...I find that to be difficult until I have the main in and running...

[howmus]

Finished? Define finished......... I guess I would have to say at some point in the future my sons will have the task of tearing it all out and either selling it or sending it to the dump. I won't really care at that point because I will have run my last train here on Earth and will be at the great train meet in the sky (then I will be finished). Never will I get (in this life, at least) to the point where I will say, "There! Done!" That would just be too sad....

[Adelie]

Layouts are never finished. Work just pauses for a while.

[jfugate]

In all my almost 40 some years in the hobby, I 've only seen one layout that I would call "finished".

Knowing, of course, you can always find more to improve, this layout *looked funished* in that all the scenery was in, all the rolling stock and structures were weathered ... it looked complete.

I found it to be a bit of "sensory overload" for me to walk around the 25' x 25' layout and every nook and cranie looked DONE! That's the first and only layout I ever saw that looked like that, and it was done by a 91 year old retired modeler who' d been in the hobby for eons. He had lots of time on his hands, had lots of leftovers in rolling stock and structures from previous layouts, and he was a pretty good modeler.

Although the layout looked *great* my understanding from other local modelers that operationally the layout only ran so-so. The locos were older Athearn BB locos mostly, and although they were weathered nicely and had a bit of extra detail, they didn't run great. I also understand some of the turnouts (handlaid) were derailment prone, which was an aggravation.

So even this layout wasn't perfect. One of the closest to complete I saw was Tony Koester's A&M, which I got to visit just before he tore it out. The sad truth is it seems once the layout really is done, it's life-expectancy can often be measured in weeks before it gets yanked out for the next project. Not always, but more often than you might think.

I can't resist making one other comment. As much as I love great layout beauty shots, I think the hobby press does people a dis-service by rarely showing incomplete areas of a layout. This gives the impression there are a lot more "fiinshed" layouts out there than there really are, and it sets the bar so high that people get discouraged once they find out how long it really takes to build a larger home layout to a high level of completion.

[Anonymous]

I have noticed that many of the great layouts that were finished and actually operated for several years get torn down and the guy starts over with better ideas. Several of the great ones are gone after many articles were written about them.

It is very sad to stop running for several years to start over, but it must be worth it to those persons that rebuild from scratch. I used to run on a club layout that is gone and those times can never happen again.

[Anonymous]

The basic concept of a layout may, at some point see an end, but once you get to that point then evolution takes over. Now is there an end to evolution?

I dare say NOT....

That is one of the reasons this is the "Greatest Hobby in the World".

Happy MRRing