3 Questions???
How many layouts have you started?
How many layouts have you completed?(lets say to 90% completion)
What scales have you modeled in?
PB&J Lines - We never get off the floor.
My layout is near “finished”.
One very crappy attempt at a layout was half finshed. This was a few years ago.
HO. But tried N scale, and went back to HO.
HO Colorado layout at age 16, hardly started
N 2x4’ Colorado layout built for friend’s kid, 1969,completed
N 27x34" West Berlin scene layout, 1971, 99% completed
N 2x4’ Southwestern desert layout commissioned as Christmas present for somebody’s kids, 1975, completed
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aao.jpg
N 2x3’ Southwestern desert layout built in 10 days for public display 1977 as example of N scale. (cheated and omitted any turnouts, for safer operation, I mean running)
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aak.jpg
N 2x4’ double-sided Port of Corpus Christi/farm town layout built for friend’s kid, completed,featured Model Railroader ca. 1980 as “Norton Bros. Connecting RR”
N 3x7’ East Texas Santa Fe layout with lots of switching. 90% completed and over 100 operating sessions.
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aad.jpg
N 2x3’ Navy blimp base layout, 95% completed
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aab.jpg
But now I seem to spend all my time putting pix on computers…Okay, now I think I have pix up.[;)]. previously missing due operator error[xx(]
Kenneth L. Anthony, Corpus Christi, TX
Rebuilding and making some changes to the first one in HO.
DT
Answer started 5 layouts.
only two reaching a reasonable state of presentation. Fifth one still in scenery stage.
Prevouse 4 succumved to changing mood with desire for more operation. with 4th one succumbing to dry wrot.
See my profile for full details.
Not sure just how many I’ve started over the years but currently I have:
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Permanent HO home layout, about 90% complete
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Several HO modules that are part of a largem portable, club layout, 100% complete and used several times a year for shows
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5x8 classic 1950’s Chirstmas-time O-gauge Lionel layout that gets stored year to year, 100% complete
JB
age 10: 4x8 HO double oval just tracks on wood to run trains.
age 15: 2x4 N layout double tracked over n under, got done in by the scenery. 75%
age 30: 18"x24" HOn30 layout, done in by extreme lack of room and angry wife. 75% .
( we were in a VERY small apartment, I had to go outside to change my mind. )
age 33: 2x4 HOn30, done in by frustration at time by lack of space and lack of items at that scale. 60%
age 38: 20’x30’ G garden RR, done in by wife who wouldnt let me dig up yard. 20%
age 39: 8 1/2’ x 20’ G indoor finescale masterpiece that will be the envy of all…
…all I have to do its FINI***his one, in my lifetime!!!
As of today at age 40, G guage is 40% complete, all benchwork finished all track is down, wiring 90% complete. I have 5 of 25 structures. and more cars and locos than I can find room for… Scenery (which I dislike) and structures next.
also have a 9"x12" ‘pizza’ micro-layout in HOn30 about 60% done. track, wiring, hill and buildings done, scenery (my achilles heal) still to tackle. I recently aquired some more track and am planning a larger layout. Hey i gotta do something with all that old stuff !
and a G gauge micro layout (yes, its under 4 square feet all you microheads out there, even Carl was impressed) thats about 40% done. I have to find a powerpack and begin the structures for it.
This time I am Mule-Headed determined to fini***hese, 30 years of this and I’m getting sick of being derailed by something each time.!
Updated 9/25/04 Need to revise this yet again…
8 x 20 indoor garage layout is now been Sliced-n-diced into 8 x 10, apparenty the wife expected to be able to park her car INSIDE the garage. Oh Well, all track completed, all structures at hand, just keep plugging away with what I have left…[B)]
I have started 7. 1 N with my son, 5 HO, 1 O and my current in S. Did some scenery on the second layout in HO. Haven’t reached that point on the others - for various reasons including moves, family, etc. My current layout is my largest at 11’ x 18’. I expect to do some scenery on stage 1 this year. The kids are grown and my bachelors degree is complete so I expect to fini***his one - I deliberately kept it simple so I would.
Enjoy
Paul
I have started 3 layouts.
age 5: 4’x8’ built with my dad. Didn’t get completed before we took it apart.
age 10: 4’x5’, nearly completed, but a move to a house with a bigger room for trains caused it to be dismantled.
age 12: began an around the walls layout in an oddly shaped room, [roughly 10’ x 12’, none of the walls were the same length.] All the track was laid and some scenery before it too had to be taken apart [4 years later] because of a move.
age 17: soon
edit: HO scale
I’ve started about 10 layouts in the past and completed about four. I have modeled in Three Rail O gauge, HO, Hon3, N, S narrow gauge, and On3. I currently model in On30 and HO.
Started: I worked on my dad’s layouts when I was a kid but didn’t do any on my own. My current layout had a couple of false starts so I guess a grand total of “one” is the answer, currently about 15-20% done (two out of a total of eight or nine modules, each of which is 80-90% complete.)
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Haven’t “completed” one yet.
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HO, although I have a little bit of N stuff due to one of my dad’s layout being N scale.
I have started 6 N-scale layouts over the years. All were to the point of being operational, while so far only two were taken to around a 90% level. My current one is at about 75% completion, but so much more involved than anything I had done previously.
—jps
1 4X8’ layout when I was a kid (3-rail O) – but my dad built most of it, so does that count? [:)]
Personally, I built a 4x8’ HO about 13 years ago, that I ran for about 5 years and then a new job and other things took me away from it.
About 2 -3 months ago I tore down the 4x8, and now I’m in the laying sub-roadbed phase of a U-shaped HO layout. In fact, I’m just taking a break from laying the sub-roadbed to sit for a bit and check in here…
Working on my second. The first was a garage layout with approximately the same footage–24’x24’, but I was going on my own thinking I knew EVERYTHING! Single track, with passing sidings all in the wrong places, helper yard MIDWAY up the pass(!). 28" radius which I thought would be fine for all of my big brass steamers (WRONG!), and a real mess, but it had some SPECTACULAR mountains! The benchwork looked as if it had been built by a 3-year old (I take that back, most 3-year olds I know could do a heck of a lot better). Tore the whole thing out, rented a dumpster and tossed it in, all except the trees and the buildings. Took three years off, did a lot of reading, learned to be patient–ageing helps–and started all over again. Same footage–24x24, much, MUCH better benchwork, went with extruded foam instead of plywood, used Woodland Scenics graduated risers, decided on double-track, 34" radius minimum. Much happier now, have spent two years getting the wiring and trackwork to where I like it–more importantly to where my LOCOMOTIVES like it–Sinohara turnouts (flawless!), block signalling, Maxx-Traxx sound system just for kicks and to wow the neighbors, and I’m just starting to put in the scenery. I like what I’m doing, my locos like what I’m doing, and if I ever decide to go to straight DCC, I’m ready. Well, I think so. I’m having a lot more fun with my second, because I’m taking my time and not rushing anything. My long-wheel based big steamers like the curves, and my brass articulateds don’t look as if they’re going to nose off into a canyon when they hit them. Everything seems to run much smoother on this one. Hope it lasts.
By the way, Aggrojones, in case you’re reading this–BEAUTIFUL weathering job on that AC-5! Just BEAUTIFUL! I’d place it about 1952 or so, right?
Somthing like that. Right near the end of steam. I don’t know exactly what year the AC-5s were scrapped, different sources note different years.
Started 4
Finshed 3 (to within 90% completion)
1 was N scale, 3 HO scale
BC
I started in modelrailroading in my mid 20’s. I collected HO locos and rolling stock for a year or so, had a loop, but never built a layout. I then switched to N scale and never looked back. I still have that HO equipment. I run it around my Christmas tree.
Started my first N scale layout, a 4’ X 4’ learning experience, but I build it to a high level of detail and fair completion (is one ever “complette”). I worked on it for 3 years total. I started my second layout in N scale a year ago, 17’ X 16’ (a small step up, lmho). I have basic benchwork done, am working on scenery forms, backdrops, and facia. I hope to get my DCC system for Christmas and to start laying track in January. I work on a limited budget and time restraints, but with any luck I will have atleast the main running by the time I’m 2 year in (next fall).
Ron
This is my second HO layout.
First one was when I was a kid and did with my dad. That was a '4 x '8.
Today the one I am doing with my son is a '16 x ‘16 HO scale, just begun and havin’ fun!!
Still on the first one as like everything else in life “It’s a work in progress”
Completed? I don’t know that I EVER ‘completed’ one even though I’ve had several that had structures, ground cover, ballast, etc. And of course track [:D]
I have old home movies of me at age 2 runnign HO trains around a 4x4 layout under the Christmas tree. That progressed several years later into the same 4x4 in HO, with a small N scale layout attached (overhanging to the Ho went into a tunnel under the corner of the N scale layout) after we bought my Dad an N scale set for his birthday one year. Eventuallt he N scale was not used and the HO expaneded to 4x8, and then an extension was added around all sides to allow for a 22" radius outer track. None of these were permanent layouts, they occupied the family room from November til February. On the last two largest iterations, although my dad did all of the tracklaying, I was the only one in the family who could run trains without derailing due to mis-thrown switches. I also got my start in electricity and wiring working on these layouts (and followed thorugh with a college degree in electrical engineering). At one point, I came down in the morning to find that my dad had complete all the track, so I tried running a train, it went part way and stopped, no power. So I started figuring things out and by the time he got home, I had most of the wiring completed (I was about 8 at the time).
After my dad died I went back to N scale for a while, and built a 2x4 layout that I kept up for about a year when I got the bug to run the HO again. So the next layout was one of the old sections (4x4) with the track reworked. Being only a 4x4 and basically a circle, I got bored real fast, so I built a new 4x8 table and created a new HO layout. For unknown reasons I decided to give N a try again, so after 2 years work on the HO I started fresh with a 3x6 N scale layout. This was probably my most completed layout to date, but about the time I started high school I got tired of the poor running and stopped working on it and running trains. Of course, about 6 month