I have had a few posts over the last year or so… some of them you may remember “ahhh…the helix!!” to name one. i have learned tremendous amounts of information from alot of you and for that i am very thankful and appreciative of. some of it has been fed to me roughly…and now i see why! my family and i live in a small 800 square foot house which we are proud to call our own. no basment, no spare room, just me and the wifey’s bedroom for a small layout. i was planning on using our small shed for a 8 x8 layout space, and finishing it off completly i soon realized that filling in this space with a the prototype iam obsessed with since a child was very hard to replicate with those space constrictions regardless of scale. I spent a few months trying to make it fit using every off the wall brain storming idea i could come up with. the end result…the shed is still holding wood for the winter!! i then moved my attempts to our small 10 x 10 bedroom. my wife gave me a 7’ wall to build the layout…with awindow in the middle!!! so of course i whipped a track plan and within 3 months had a nice small switching layout. it was a free lanced version of my favorite railroad in a what if scenerio. it was alot of fun and i learned alot. at that point i started attending operating sessions on a club sized layout and was HOOKED on operations, still am!! of course i quickly got sick of my small layout and wanted bigger and better like most do. so i cam up with 3 level track plan going around our bedroom being no more than 6" wide (n scale) 2 seperate helixs…hence the “ahh the helix” post!! i had a decent track plan, basically pure point to point mainline yard to yard desing with a few switching spots here or there. pretty solid plan and excellent true operations for switching and mainline running. so i made the mistake of tearing down the old layout and got started on building the new “big one”…
This drawing board stuff is fun. A “coming full circle” is perfect follow up title for the helix discussion!
You are working out things in a similar fashion to my own situation. However, since I am renting, I have the “luxury” (forced upon me) of staying in the extended planning stage. I am swallowed up in research, always having something related to railroads to read, more resources to find, old maps to poor over, and good practices to learn, weigh, and factor in to my layout design.
Meanwhile, there are kits to build, a test track to design and build, a small shelf layout to complete, a DCC system to select, trips to university libraries, automation software to learn, and so on. It has taken me over a year to decide on an era, and I will continue to study that era in reading histories as well as fiction from that time.
My point in this is that your next layout can be even more enjoyable if you can accept that it is not your last layout. Keep dreaming, keep planning at that drawing board.
Sometimes, when your reach exceeds your grasp, you discover how much you can hold - and just what you want to hold.
I, too, have had grandiose dreams - only to have reality intrude itself on my dream world. My under-construction layout reflects the dream, but has been distilled down into something one person can build and operate in something less than a younger person’s lifetime.
The nicest part is that I no longer feel frustrated about my inability to reach my dream. I simply scaled the dream back to something I can reach.
Good luck with your layout building. Above all, have fun.
I would love to have a warehouse in which to build my grandios vision of “the” layout for me.
Space is an issue for me as well. I’d be tickled pink with blue and purple polka dots to have an 8’ x8’ space all for my trains and me!
As a kid/teen I had o/o27. As a teen I also had N. Recently I got back into the hobby and got quickly tired of my old (and new) N stuff. (2.5 x4’ layout space)
Why? Because I had always always always always wanted HO. So I have forced the space issue and built a 3.5 x5’ HO layout. Can’t do much with that, and I want to add another 6" to the 3.5 side, forcing more space issue. I can do it, I think.
Had I stuck with N, I could have quite the little layout, bigger than I had (N).
I learned the/my limitiations currently with HO, but am rather happy with my dinky layout. I have one and it’s HO!
Leastways I have one now. The hobby is about having fun!!!, not (grandios) plans that may never come to fruition. We’d all like bigger and better I think if given a chance!
Someday in the next 5 years I hope to have more space for my layout, Till then, all I can do is enjoy what I DO have!
Layouts and planning- Maybe you could build switching modules (one at a time) that could be used for the towns on your “dream” layout. Build one, complete it, operate it until you are bored with it. Then select and build another, etc. Put the previous one in storage.
Space for a layout- Last year we bought a pre-made shed. It was 12 x 24. If you could get or build something like that, it could be insulated, heated & cooled. It would provide a place for your layout and small work shop.
Time to build- I used to travel some with my job. I put a tool kit together so I could take some projects to work on when I was on travel. Could this be an option for you?
Ringo Starr did an interview recently where he talked about how a lot of his (and other musician’s) “styles” often were as much the result of their weaknesses as of their strengths…someone can’t do some particular lick, so they come up with a way to work around it in a way that still makes sense musically.
Kinda like how Chopin couldn’t use two fingers on one of his hand due to an accident. For a generation piano pieces were written to use only eight fingers because they were copying his ‘style’.
haha!! i swear there was no pun intended there!! Thank you for the replies as always guys.
Galaxy…i would love to see some pics of your layout or a track plan. its funny as i sit here trying to fit what i “want” in this space, i realize im doing it again…trying to cram as much in as i can!!! LOL!! trying to get the most out of this small space is proving quite tough!! but i am finding it highly enjoyable!! thanks again
I hope I get to your position soon. My father had collected some trains while I was growing up. We never played with them, other than around the christmas tree, but my 2 brothers and I would always get him some sort of RR cars or buildings. I now understand what he was really looking for, and the stuff I got him… well…wasn’t quite it. When he passed away several years ago he planted the HO bug in me. I have decided to build what he dreamed of. The problem I have is a fair size house with only me me the wife and the dogs. I am having some difficulties deciding exactly how big to make the layout and how “busy” to make it also. I started out planning a 12x16 layout with 3 levels. That would be great if I had a small army to construct it. I am now looking at a slightly larger single level layout, with the option of multiple levels down the road. This would be a bit easier, but will still take quite some time to complete.
Sounds like you’re just like me! I don’t have a lot of room, and it would make more sense for me to do an N scale layout. I was in fact an N scaler for 15+ years, then about 5 years ago decided I wanted to give HO a try. I love painting and superdetailing diesels, and while I did a decent job in N it’s so much easier and fun in HO!
I’ve got a spare room about 9x13 that I can use “most” of. I could have a small empire in N, or a meandering shortline in HO. I’m drawing track plans for both, but really want to stick with HO.
I would love to see a photo or two of your little HO layout!