Just need to vent out a little bit here. I’ve been in such a slump lately, I don’t know if it’s the weather in the North East here or what but I haven’t done anything new to my layout in weeks. I just haven’t had the interest. Even the other night I just went down and ran a train around for a while, got board and just gave up.
BUT!!! Never fear. It’s really weird how it just hits you all of a sudden. I came in to work today and just like every morning, I hit the MRR site and then the forums. Well something happened this morning and it wasn’t anything anyone said or any particular inspiration but man, now I can’t wait to get home and do something. Flooded with idea’s and ambition to work on a few things. And I’ve got to box up a few cars I don’t want and get over the LHS tonight to trade up or sell them. Ebay is too much of a PIA if you’re not a regular seller.
Want to work on my fuel/coal depot
Continue work on my elevation fiasco
Create a Rail-fan scene on the front long straight side of my layout with a road and guard rails.
Finish ballasting my transfer yard
Ahhhhhh, idea’s just a-brewin!!! Wish me luck, I should have something to contribute to this weekend’s WPF. Oh, and to top it all off there’s a mini train show near my house on Sunday. It’s at the Pinecroft Firehall for anyone local to the Altoona Area. HAVE A GOOD TRAIN WEEKEND EVERYONE!!!
That happens to people all the time. I was working on a DPM building two weeks ago and still haven’t finished it and to be honest I don’t really have much interest in finishing it, lol. It will get done though, its going to snow all day Saturday up here so I’ll be in the basement drinking beer and working on the layout.
I know the feeling, I have not touched the new 9 X 5 section for 4 months. Selling on E-bay did take up a lot of the free time. Last night I got the new section cleared off, seems it became the spot to sit all the engines and cars I am not running. Maybe today I will lay some road bed and get going again.
Just don’t glue yourself to the track LOL,I had been in a “funk” as far as working on teh layout as well,but your right with dumping of weather were supposed to get I think I’ll be up in the attic as well. I had pulled off all the track work a month or so ago and just haven’t been in the mood. You know it bad when your wife offers to lay the track cause she’s tried of not seeing anything run.
Yeah that sounds like a tough time TA462. [(-D] But a good idea at the same time. We’re gonna get crap weather here too so I think I’ll take your lead and grab a case before it gets bad.
I’ve got a bunch of guys coming over tomorrow to run trains… Nothing like a deadline to get you motivated to finish up some odds and ends!
I think some of us get into a rut when we build boredom into our track plans. I like to wind down by turning a train loose on the main, too. But to keep things interesting I also have a lot of switching opportunities, a yard to sort, and a nice staging yard so I don’t have to watch the same train all the time. I can make my train time as simple or as complex as I’m in the mood for at any given moment.
My slump has more to do with slow progress rather than not having the desire to start anything new. My problem is that my ideas look good on paper but when I put them onto the layout, something won’t fit or doesn’t look right and I have to make adjustments which forces other adjustments. I usually end up with something I like but is seems like it takes 3 times as long to get there as it should.
As one example, I decided to build a larger passenger station than I originally intended and unable to find something that fit, I built my own using Walther’s modulars. OK so far but when I got it finished and put it down where it was planned, I realized it completely blocked the view of the hotel across the street which is a South River craftsman kit and the center piece of the scene. So I moved the station about 15 inches to the left which moved the platforms as well and now see that the #6 turnout to a spur track cuts across the end of the platform and there isn’t room to move that turnout farther up the line. So I figured with a #4 turnout, I could fudge everything else enough to get it to fit but I have no #4s on hand so that means a trip to the LHS, an hour drive and I rarely make that drive just for a trip to the LHS. That means waiting until Monday when I will next have business in town. It’s always something.
Mired in a project that’s no longer fun (like lettering a PRR X31a in N scale - “kitbashing” the dimensional data - ack!).
Usually I get a sudden flash of inspiration that sends me running back to the layout room after a few weeks. Often times that inspiration comes from something in a forum.
Life has its ups and downs, whether it’s hobby interest or foam-block incline ramps.
So how did those ramps end up working for you?
I had to lay off railroading for a little while, in order to get my home rewire complete. Inspector came yesterday, everything passed, so now I can clean all the accumulated junk off the table. [:(]
(I swear the guy checked a GFCI by sticking a key in the hot slot. Some people trust technology a lot more than I do.)
As for boredom, I find that having something clattering around the main loop while I’m tinkering with other stuff actually makes it more fun…helps me remember I’m working on the railroad, not just another far-from-finished project. Often this is a track cleaning train, or something I’m trying to break in after repairs - the other day it was a $3 Tyco Silver Streak C430 with matching caboose from the train show. I asked the seller if it came with a miniature Richard Pryor and after a bad joke like that I had to make amends…and the cheese value is undeniable…
That happened to me a few weeks ago, I didn’t do anything on the layout for a few weeks, then I decided to do something about the cement plant siding…without the cement plant. I’d gotten tired of shoving cars on an empty siding… The silos still need work…
I think it happens to everyone. My EL-1 project has been sitting, idly, for a week, and taunting me to come up with a way to make a smokebox front. Most likely this weekend (crummy weather, y’all know the drill) i will try to work on it some more. We have a large regional train show coming up next weekend, im sure if nothing else ill find something there to motivate myself with.
In Linn Westcott’s book, Model Railroading With John Allen, Linn documents a slump that John Allen experienced - it lasted for months. The chapter includes letters that John wrote to friends in which he indicated that he has lost interest in the hobby and suspected that it may not return. This is John Allen I’m talking about! If it can happen to him, it can happen to any of us. John Allen’s interest returned, and I think it does for the rest of us. I think it’s unwise to try to force it - time away can do wonders for your creativity.
I keep model railroading seasonal. From September through March it’s my thing, but my yard and house take priority when the weather warms up. I do watch ebay pretty closely in the off season, because the sale prices seem better (lower). The seasonal approach seems to keep things fresh for me in both seasons. Lately, my thoughts are more about my yard than my trains, so I’m moving my train work toward stopping places so I can comfortably set it aside for a few months. Come September, I’ll be tired of riding my mower, painting, planting, and building - I’ll be aching for my trains.
I think we have all been through it, it always comes back just as strong. I think it makes the hobby more interesting by putting it aside until you feel like working on it again therefore reducing burnout. I am in the “set it aside” stage right now but that will change.
My slump began shortly after Christmas in 2006. It isn’t a bad slump, but I haven’t done anything substantial to the layout since then…not a single tree made or planted, no new buildings, no details. I did have to repair some track, but that was strictly utilitarian so that I could watch the odd train run around the layout.
I’m not worried. Life goes on. Maybe I’m out, maybe I’m distracted…it’ll all work out in the end.
Thanks everyone, it’s good to hear that this is also a part of the hobby and that “It happens to everybody” LOL. And that even though I will hit slumps from time to time, it’s also good to know that if you have it within you to be a MRR, the passion will return at some point.
Ahhhh, HAHAHAHA!!! You’re a funny guy ABP!!! LOL, seriously, that made me chuckle. I’ve made some progress on it here and there, (hence the slump) I got the fascia boards put up around to the other side and will probably do some more work this weekend and get some updated photo’s. I’m SERIOUSLY re-considering what I"m attempting to do with the foam blocks for the beginning of the incline with the curve and all. I may just go to the WS foam incline. At least to get me started and up and around that curve. But then again, I’ve been working on it and why kill all that progress. Besides, you can take pride in doing something the wrong way as long as the end result comes out the same. [swg]
Thanks for asking, I’ll post pic’s in WPF later this weekend.
I read an interview with Linn Westcott after he retired from MR. He commented that his private model railroading fell by the wayside over the span of his career. It seems that working in the model railroading business had diminished his interest in it as a pastime. I hypothesize that there is a saturation point and that’s what we experience when we are in a slump. Perhaps Linn’s role in Model Railroader was satisfying his interest, so there was no need to work on his own layout. Selector, I know you are a forums moderator; could this be happening to you?
Shayfan84325, it could very well have exacerbated or accelerated the effect, but the truth is that I was in the slump for some time before becoming a moderator. Good point, though,…it probably isn’t exactly speeding my “healing”.
As I said earlier, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I have had two abiding interests in my life, and now both of them are on the wane. It must be natural. It’s like eating a Coffe Crisp chocolate bar every day for lunch for six months…suddenly you can’t bear the thought of eating another one. Six months later, the zeal and yearning has returned. I expect it will be the same. I still enjoy running the trains a couple of times a week, but I really would like to get some interest in developing the layout once more.
AltoonaRailroader, don’t think it has anything to do with your posting! But, laided another 6 feet of rails, hooked up some feeders and now with in 3 feet of a complete loop! That will be the easy part, then comes the inter section where the B-line will run thought the C-Line (new section) but I hope to have the cork laid Sunday and rails laied Monday.
Then comes the hard part! Hooking the main bench to the section.
Just to give you a little how fired up I have became? 2 new Athearns engines, SD 50 and a Dash 9 still in there boxes I bought Friday. Will not open till I have the loop done!
