Summer is killing my progress on the addition to my layout. Just got back from a 11 day stay at the cabin and was looking at the layout last night and wished I was a little closer to running trains. All the track is in place but not secured and not wired. I figure I’m about a month to 6 weeks from having this done but who knows if that will happen since I’m also remodeling our laundry room and adding a 3/4 bath in the basement, and the work that always needs to be done at the cabin (endless list). Not to mention it gets a little warm in the layout room this time of year even though it is in a tuckunder garage.Morning is the best time to work on it since its usually cooler. My initial plan was to have the trackwork running by June but that didn’t happen. Anyhow at least I try to putz around at least for an hour or so each night but I usually get too hot and quit.
I hear you. Remember that this hobby got its start during the depression when suddenly lots of talented and clever people had time on their hands - which is why the early emphasis was on how much you could build based on stuff that was found or being thrown away.
I envied a friend of mine who each week would show tremendous progress on his layout. He was a very self disciplined guy and his "secret’ was to literally schedule time to work on the layout and he’d adhere to that schedule as if it was a job. This in addition to the usual yard work, home repair, time with his wife, church, etc.
Naturally being gone on vacation would interfere with that idea but even so there is plenty that can be done with a sketchbook, instructional books and catalogs etc. so that when you return you can jump right back into it. I am still not that self disciplined as my freind was but I am convinced that is the secret to real progress.
Summer is not the time for me to accomplish anything on the railroad as well. I’m at the point in the beginning where I need two to three hour blocks of time to work. This involves pulling out the power tools to build the bench work. When I get the bench work done, I can work in smaller time blocks. It’s alright though, this is not a race. I just need to get the garage work out of the way before winter!
I guess I failed to mention that all I did was work on the cabin and yard. I fixed two boat motors and put in a 6x 24 sidewalk, reshingled the fish cleaning house,fixed the steps leading down to the dock, built a new fire pit out of brick pavers,cleaned out the garage,put some new gravel on the driveway,cut the grass twice,oh I did go fishing for a total of five hours and I spent at least four hours cleaning over 200 sunfish the kids caught, not to mention I am the cook too. I am glad to be home so I can go back to work.
Our one-and-only little girl is 17 now, and demands far less of our time and attention. When she goes off to college next year, I’m told that I can expand my layout and take up more of “her” space in the family room.
Enjoy the kids while they’re young. Work on the trains when you can. Once the kids are grown, you’ll have more time for the trains, and you won’t regret not spending more time with the kids.
I would recommend teaching them to throw back some of those sunfish, though.
No…I learn years ago to click off the TV and do modeling work…I also found “sleeping in” on the weekends was and remains a great time waster…In the heat of July and August you would have found me modeling in the early AM while the wife and kids slept…Even though I am retired I still wake up at 6:00AM.
Over the years I have heard every excuse in the book…And none holds water if a guy/gal really wants to model.
I don’k know what you’re complaining about. At least you have started your layout. I’m still in the cleaning the room out phase here. Adn boy is there alot of junk here. And once the room is cleaned, I’ve got electrical work to do, painting, carpeting and putting up the bench work. In the meantime I run my stuff at the club once or twice a week (when I get the car).
I have lots of time but not so much energy these days. My basement does get hot but lugging stuff around, carry it upstairs and out to the garage does tire my out, not to mention sweat.[swg] Still if I want run trains, it’s got to be done and sice no one wants to help much, I’m the one that has to do it.
On one night at the new firepit about 11:00 pm I could hear a train off in the distance, the BNSF mainline that passes through Aitkin MN on its way to Duluth.It was dead calm and I heard it rumbling along for about 20 minutes and it was awesome because I’ve never heard a train from the cabin before. The tracks are at least 10-12 miles away north of us. So it wasn’t all bad about the week.
I put a TV in my shop, so I can keep track of a ball game while I work on trains.
I find that my summer model building time is about 10% of my winter model building time. For me, caring for the house, yard, cars, etc. seem to take over in the summer; I accept this as a fact of life. I’m in no hurry to finish my layout, and I know it will be there as my refuge against the cold, loneliness, and darkness of winter.
I do a little bit of railfanning in the summer, and look hard at how prototype stuff ages and weathers. This is usually in conjunction with other trips, so it’s really just what I happen to find along the way to somewhere else. With no wife or kids, it’s easy to stop and really look at railroad stuff.
I also find that the competition for train stuff on ebay is less stiff, so bargains are better in the summer.
Yes, the layout work slows down in the summer, but my mind is always model railroading.
Don’t feel bad!!! It harvest time here and I don’t have the time either. But a couple of hour the last couple nights I’ve got my rail yard wired and operating. A couple of hours is better than no hours and a project thats moving forward and gets closer to being finished.[:D]
A good thing happened when I was on vacation. I was thinking about changing a couple of tracks and last night I did it. I now have a double track stretch of track about 14 feet long istead of just 8 feet and it looks good . These tracks are on seperate loops so now I have more side by side action and I reduced some of the crowded look.
If you’ve got an hour a night to ‘putz around’ in, you’re actually not doing too bad!! I try to break things down into bite-size chunks. If I can take even 15 minutes to get one thing done, I feel like I’m making progress.
Three nights a week where you can put in 10 or 15 minutes will result in noticible changes on the layout at the end of a month. For me the hard part is coming up out of the train room after being there for 15 minutes (but this is necessary of my CEO will revoke my railroad license ).
I spent an hour this morning and another 2 this afternoon shlepping stuff out of the train and putting them in the garage. Then I got sick of looking at the garage and spent another two hours taking stuff that could be thrown away out of the garage. Boy am I tired.
I could do that because the CEO was out earning a living. Now she’s home and making supper while I sit up in may air-conditioned office typing on my computer. Sometimes being retired isn’t so bad. [swg]
Ya know?, I felt the same way. I work about 91/2 hours a day,and I wonder where I’am I going to find the time to work on the layout?? Well it’s NOT finding the time, it’s making the time. If you just comit to an hour or two hours a day, you can get alot done!! JUST FOCUS!!! My problem is I wish I could get some help working on my layout, it seems I’am surounded be people that are not as intrerested in the hobby as much as I’am, so I feel left alone on an island sometimes!!! Like I said before JUST FOCUS[swg]