So I’ve been busy with other things like graduations, vacations, summer cookouts, movies, cooking dinners for the better half and being with the family. The last time I worked on the layout was in April and I have not touched it since except to show it off once or twice to a few friends or family. It’s not that I planned to be away from the layout for so long, but life has a way of taking over and other things happen.
The burning desire to get into the train room has died too a bit, I was always eager to get in there and start up a new project, but that desire is not there as once before. Now I just miss getting in there and spending the day on making some progress.
I must confess that there are about a dozen unfinished projects that require my attention such as:
Installing ground throws on manual switches in yard
Installing Tortoise electrical switches (still have to figure out the wiring method) on the main
Add ties to staging yard track
Ballast the staging yard track
Add details to the roundhouse renovation
Clean the track
Build some of the kits for the details to add to the roundhouse renovation (see #5 above)
Finish backdrop behind staging yard
Sand the patch
Paint the backdrop
Add clouds to the backdrop
Finish the Allied Rail Rebuilders kit with details, painting, weathering, etc…
Finish the road details for the locomotive servicing facility
Add sanding tower and base
Add diesel fuel and oil tanks
The list goes on…oh my! I’ll just put them into a hat and pick one, see what I can accomplish on my next flex day off, which is this Friday! Yeah!
Yes, but my buckets are like the funnel shaped railroad fire buckets I found in an antique store in TN. If you put them down, they tip over and the water all spills out.
I have been thinking about my Model Railroad Bucket List. I have been getting some nice items at a good price on Ebay for later. A lot of these items are “unopened” kits, many over twenty years old from estate sales. While I am excited to get things I need want. It makes me wonder and a little sad about the previous owner’s unfinished dreams.
Maybe I should get some of the stuff I already have on the layout, before I get any more, so my stuff does not end up in a Ebay acution twenty years from now, with vintage 40 year old kits in unopended boxes!!!
I believe we all have a bucket list, but my list is more a 50 Gallon Drum list. Theres always something to do. Ballast needed put down, Kits need done, more weatherinf, and it goes on and on.
I didn’t see the movie, only the trailers; but my impression of a “bucket list” is “something you want to do before you die”. The earliest thing for me on such a list would be seeing the Palomar telescope. I saw a photo of it when I was maybe 7 and it just seemed like something I ought to see (do). I did see it about two years ago. Definitely worth it. Also on the list is to be taken up in a biplane. Not done yet.
But we’re talking about model trains here. Well, I saw UP 9000 when I was in Junior High. That’s the only (I think) remaining 4-12-2. I wanted one ever since. I got one a few years ago. It’s been sitting in a place of honor ever since. It should be noted that this locomotive is not appropriate for my “official” modeling plans.
I always have a projects list going. (Not really a Bucket list yet.) Right now it is for getting my layout modules setup in a new room. I write down the things that need to be done, then put them in the order that they need to be done by adding a number in front of each item. Then i work the items off in the numerical sequence.
I try to keep the active list under 15 items so I don’t look at a really big list and just give up.
I’m getting to an age (49) where I am starting to think about doing some things I’ve always wanted to do model-wise before it’s too late.
Actually in the last few months I’ve started doing one, a model of the c.1938 GN Empire Builder. I’m going to try to kitbash a “close enough” P-2 steam engine, and see how close I can come to the train itself using currently available cars without needing to do too many modifications. Since I’ll be using cars from different manufacturers, I’ll used undecs and paint/decal them myself so they all match, and do interiors and paint figures to ride in them.
Right now, my Bucket List consists of turning my Sierra Buttes from just stained sheer cliffs into something that resembles the actual Buttes themselves. So, armed with Cripplebush Rubber Rocks, Sculptamold, Rock castings, Weldwood Contact Cement and some spray gray latex paint for a base coat, I’m turning this:
Into this (still in progress, BTW):
It’s going to be a HUGE project, but I think it’ll be worth it.
Just last night I realized it was time to get cracking on my model rr again. Not because I plan on going anywhere, just because it’s time to stop being lazy.
Ed, you hit the nail on the head buddy! I hope to finish my layout before I die! And maybe I should have made the title of this post something like "Is finishing your layout on your Bucket List?"
Tom, your progress on the Buttes is looking great! I bet the Topside Creeper helps with that project too! [:-^]
Well, I can check that one off. I would like to have a layout where you can’t see any pink foam, though.
Now, I’d like to finish the scenery on my current layout before I start the extension. That gives me about a year and a half. It’s probably do-able, but the unfinished area on the original layout contains stuff which I plan to move to the new section, so I have to give some thought to whether I really want to finish the scenery, or wait until I remove those buildings.
I now have a rather large list of things to do on purpose. I enjoy bouncing around doing different things. On my past two layouts, I concentrated on only one project at a time and felt either overwhelmed or bored, therefore I never even came close to completing the layouts.
My layout itself is a big item on my “bucket list” drempt of for more than 50 years before I got to start it. Just to look at it each day is a “bucket” experience. I now get to do some things that weren’t even part of the original list. I am just this week debating a little engine that costs WAAAY too much, but then???
WHICH little engine that costs WAAAY too much?? Inquiring minds want to know![:P]. For instance, I’m saving my sheckles for a GN Z-6 that costs WAAAAY too much and I need like ANOTHER hole in my head. But hey–I’ve always wanted a Z-series, and besides, the guy that dies with the most toys WINS, LOL! [8D]
Tom, I don’t need anyone else bidding against me, BUT, its on Ebay, and I searched HO PFM and found a shay that I had never seen before. I am guessing that it will pass my budget by 5 times or more. But I will dream for 4 days, mourn for one and then get on with the layout.
