In a few months, there is a good possibility that I will be taking down my 11x15 HO ATSF layout (we will need the room for other reasons) that I’ve had for about 15 years. I suspect it will be a year before I can be able to rebuild. I’m 64, and got to thinking that this next one could easily be the last layout I will build. So obviously, I want it to be all that it can be.
My questions to you all is fairly simple… If you thought your next layout would be your final one, what would you do - or not do different? Assuming you could sell all your existing track, trains, and structures, what gauge and railroad and era would you model?
I would plan carefully, and build methodically. Yet at the same time I would want to design the plan in such a manner that I would have a section where I could start running trains as soon as possible. So I would keep things simple at first, and concentrate getting my main line up and running. Where I planned for a yard or industry I would install the necessary turnouts, but not necessarily finish the trackage. I would wait until I had my main completed, wired, ballasted, and maybe even scenicked to some degree. Only then I would go back and in-fill the details.
Usually in real life the industry comes first and then the sidings. When I built this layout I did many of the sidings BEFORE the structures were built, thinking I had plenty of space and clearance and “road access” to the structure. On some it worked out, but others had to be rebuilt (a couple 2 times).
My present layout is almost certain to be my last…
Like all of my layouts since 1964, this one is 1:80 scale, based on JNR operations in the upper Kiso valley combined with a couple of other prototypes of interest to me.
I have a double garage, space enough to build a layout that will encompass the things I want, but not so big that I will need an army of friends (or paid labor) to handle construction.
Having learned patience, I am not rushing headlong to completion or setting arbitrary ‘finish by’ dates. I AM taking the time to build to specification and thoroughly operational check everything, and to fix less-than-perfect work before I move on to the next thing.
While progress seems glacial at times, things are moving forward - and I’m having fun.
At 68, I’m pretty sure that my Yuba River Sub is my last layout. I’m pretty satisfied with it so far, so anything I do to improve will be within the layout, not tearing it up and starting it over. What I want to do is extend one end via a lift-bridge to the other side of the garage so that I can put in a major staging yard with a large locomotive facility complete with turntable and roundhouse–luckily I have the room for that, all I have to do is move some stuff that I really don’t need in the first place. But as far as the general layout, I’m happy.
Exactly! My precise thought while reading all of the replies, Craig. Except I haven’t gone to the trouble yet to define “better” in utile terms. I suspect I’d take about twice as long with any one task or discrete type of work. For example, I’d do way better on the track, but I now know that my spline roadbed should have been planed smooth better to begin with…and on it goes.
I would never, ever, change the main theme from one of a railfanning loop…that will always be my preferred style, but I would improve my yard and build staging, lots of it, right from the get-go. I could go on, but that suffices.
I’m with you Tom. I am coming 68 this fall, so I think this is probably my last one.
It is 17’ x 13’ tri level with a helix. All the benchwork is done Mainline trackage is done, branchline partially done and some work left to do in the classification yards/ staging yards and the industrial section and docks.
The main structure and plastering of my mountain range is done and starting the gypso-lite covering on it now.
That leaves lots of work left to do, such as control panels and finish wiring, landscaping further and all the details of city building etc. etc… So I do not see me starting over at this time of my life. If I did do something other than this , it would be to build an “N” scale layout in a coffee table. YES, DAVE V. I did indeed say the “N” word. I bet that perked you up a bit. LOL…[:D][swg][(-D][:D]
So the Last Mountain & Eastern Div. of the Western Pacific Railroad is indeed the one that I’ll be remembered for. Ha, Ha, ha… John Allen, Tony Koester, watch out…
my current layout construction combines concepts from all of modeling experiences and try to mix in new ways of doing things, on a simpler but practical scale.
The work is designed that it would never have to be torn up IE modules so changes if I have to move would simply be adapting modules or making new modules to fit the new scheme.
So I doubt a full teardown would blow away a lot of work if that happens, I could save a lot of handiwork. Since I would be making some realish scenes, I never want them torn up.
I would do the Rock Island in the early 70’s in the Chicago area shortly after Amtrak was created. All my RI equipment would be dirty, I can run Amtrak with the “Rainbow Fleet” a large run down industiral area. I want something that will be visually interesting (very detailed scenes) as well as a trackplan that will allow for some good operating. I think that the Rock was even still running commuter trains with E units and old Harriman style coachs back then.
One scene I have always wanted to model was from a picture I saw of the Rock’s Peach Street yard in Ft. Worth. There were two tracks with a lot of F units (A&B) that were sitting there rusting away in storage.
Assuming my funds are unlimited, I’d use a big building and build a large industrail/rural layout that had a huge yard, dbl. track main, large industrial centers, and spaces between places with rural industries. I’d use atlas code 55 track, and buy mostly Atlas and Kato locomotives. I’d solder the rail joiners and do everything right, not temporary rigging.
Like some of you other respondents I am 68 years of age and, therefore, it is not a matter of
I know that my next layout will be my last. The only thing that might conceivably alter that would be were I to somehow or other come into some substantial assets (read: win the Powerball tomorrow evening) which would allow me to exercise a long standing dream regarding model railroading!
That dream is to build myself a 3700 plus square foot layout room and go into 2 rail O-Scale with 80 inch radius curves. My trackplan would be essentially a double track oval disguised with combination routing. It would be a late '40s-early '50s transition-era pike. My steamer fleet is standing on the edge of extinction - there are only a handful of Consols left and the once proud high-drivered Pacifics and stately Mountains as well as the ubiquitous Mikes are running out their final miles as road switchers. Mainline steam will mainly be Berks with a handful of Northerns and Texas-types thrown in. Steam is being crowded into oblivion by a growing fleet of EMD and ALCO Covered Wagons. There are a few RS3s on the roster and EMD Geeps are just beginning to make their appearance. Passenger traffic is still relatively heavy and are usually handled by ALCO Ps and EMD E-7s but one can still see an occasional Pacific and Northern lending a hand with the varnish. (Streamlined) passenger cars are mostly flute sided but there are a considerable number of modernized heavyweights, particularly head-end cars and diners.
The geographical setting of this pike would probably be the Midwest - Erie, Wabash, and St Louis; Chicago and Iowa Midland; Alton, Peoria, and St Paul, etc - but I frequently toy with names like Cincinnati and Cumberland Southern or Ohio, Atlanta, and Gulf or Alabama and Atlantic Coast which, of course, puts the railroad in the
Well being ready to retire in less than a year and just having begun building my latest layout in '99, this should be my last one as it has 1875 sq feet (25 x 75). I planned it this way as I wanted something that would take a few years to build and put my skills to the test.
I figured that I would get the costly stuff out of the way (as I am still working), track, turnouts, DCC and then take my time finishing the layout (if that can ever happen!)
The layout is a prototypical design doing the Conrail Lowgrade Line from Dubois to East Brady, PA. It is HO and I have almost 3000 ft of track down so far.
So this is not going to be a buy everything and make it run as I need to scratch build most all of the buildings on the layout to represent the local area so visitors can easily understand where they are just by recognizing the buildings.
I probably will be working on the layout until the day I die, or the plans are figured that way!
But I do have bimonthly OPs and this is where the fun is in building the layout and then seeing the layout come alive with the operators running the trains as I had envisioned!
And if this wasn’t enough I am now planning on two additions to the basement a 16 x 16 room off the back wall and also extending the layout into my office space (14x28 area). SO it will take me another few years to get these new areas up to speed!