Am I alone at this, seems I have the mental thoughs of working on the layout…I walk in there with great expectations…and its like…I cant get with it. Look at things and sip a cup of coffee. I use to go in there with a cup of hot coffee and when I would get back to it it was stone cold
Seems the past few weeks every time I go into the train room, look at the stuff that needs to be done…other stuff that has to be done, havent ran a train in weeks. Need a longer yard, mountain scenery that has to be compleated before a long bridge makes it impossable to reach or get to, fini***he other half of the track cleaning and check out a few malfunctional cars in the bad order drawer. Not to mention a double span bridge thats still in the box.Then there that darn river I will redo, have that wired as a I made a moc-up on a piece of plywood, now just have to apply the techniques to the layout.
Nah–sounds like me, this week. Picked up a couple of Walther’s pullmans today, then weathered a Northern, took it out and put it on the Bullard’s Bar Bridge with the intention of running it–that was three hours ago. Went back in, watched an episode of Law and Order SVU because I have the hots for Mariska Hargitay, came in here to see what the threads were–the Northern’s still sitting on Bullard’s Bar Bridge, the cars are still in their boxes–that’s as close as I’ve gotten to anything on the train so far this week. Happens to all of us, occasionally. I just ride out the storm and maybe I’ll hook up the cars tomorrow. Northern looks pretty good. Oh well–time for my evening granola bar.
Tom [sigh]
Jwar, you are definitely not alone. I went through a similar routine this week. Last week it was full speed ahead - brought the me mainline around to the south side of the room. Only about 12 feet to go. The weather truned cold and work has been extremely busy this week. My wife goes to bed by 8 so you’d think I would be really set to head for the basement. Nah, sat and played a game on the computer, watched part of a movie, talked to my son on the phone, and decided to check in here.
It’s something we all go through at times. For me it occurs most frequently when I am trying to make a decision on what to do next. I will go to the basement, stare at the trains, maybe run an engine back an forth a little, turn the lights off, and head back upstairs.
Don’t get concerned about it. I see from your profile that you are retired. Do you have any other hobbies or activities? I’m in the process of rebuilding an old Fiat, like to play golf (weather permitting), I enjoy photography, etc.
This was a rather long and rambling reply but I guess the short version is: hang in there!
Sometimes it is procrastination, at other times other priorities take over. I haven’t done much modeling lately, partially because I just started school again and it’s one of those classes that takes a lot of attention. I still managed to do a little operating over the weekend but my kit boxes are starting to get dusty again…
Sometimes it’s okay to just hang it up for a ltitle while, and go back to doing a project when you WANT to. Seven years planning a layout without starting might be a bit much, though…
It’s a very common problem. I think it happens to all of us. The total amount of work involved in building a model railroad can be overwhelming and visible progress can come very slowly. One approach that I’ve found that helps is to break things to be done down into a list of small, easily accomplished tasks.Things that I can get done in a few hours, that will be visible and will make a difference in how the railroad looks or runs. When I have the time, I’ll go do one or two of them. I find that writing them down as I think of them and crossing them off the list when they’re done helps me to have a sense of accomplishment.
Hope this Helps,
Tom Watkins
I think almost anyone who’s had a hobby such as model railroading or any other hobby which occurs over a span of years vs hours, gets a little burnt out from time to time. I find that stepping back and doing something completely different for a couple of days helps. I play computer games and enjoy my DVD collection. As well, I mostly only work on my layout on the weekends, only tinkering on week nights. So, by the time Saturday morning rolls around I’m full of energy, and eager to get back at it.
Enjoy your “step back” time and when the fever hits again, go back down to your train room and tackle those projects with renewed energy.
You’re just being overwhelmed by the scope of the project. You see in your mind the finished product, but see in front of you a mass of unfinishedness, and you lock up.
Dive in and complete ONE thing. Lay some track, sand some roadbed, solder some feeders, sculpt some scenery. Whatever you do, get trains running as fast as possible! Once the critters are running around on the mainline, it’ll be a whole lot easier to work on other things like scenery and buildings. I’ve found that taking one hour a day or every other day (or whatever time you can REGULARLY afford to spend on the layout) makes the whole layout building process go MUCH faster.
I was loaded with alot of inertia because i could not decide what to do. So I plan small things leaving the big things in seperate projects. Days go by that I dont touch the workbench or even look at a single train. But I know there is one small unfinshed project waiting.
That one small project suddenly needs something else to fini***he scene and now the scene needs a train and so forth. But pick a small task and get moving. Dont be in a hurry with it. You will feel much better before long.
I think all of you guys are on target, have been thinking along those lines. Just did want to accept it I guess. I should get back to pre-retirement work ethics. Setting short, medium and long range goals and the same for tasks.
Set up a task board, future parts want list , need now or soon shopping list ( this is in the wallet so that I will be on target purchising things I need now instead on on down the line, when brousing my LHS ) and setting prioritys…Gads…Its like a real railroad…Hmmmmmm…just when I was really getting into my retirement…found a job…Oh well beats playing dominoes at the park…and I really hate feeding pigions LOL.
Darn right. I should be in my room right now making more trees or finishing weathering my Challenger’s tender. But instead I’m sitting on my *** reading stuff on zee internet. [|)]