My current layout has been under construction for about 8 years. It has undergone some major upheavals and expansions during that time and, even though 99% of the trackwork and wiring is done, there are still areas of raw plaster and bare plywood. I will admit that I contribute to this because I go in streaks when very little gets done. Being summer in Michigan, I would rather spend time at the cottage than in the basement. (Maybe I should write a post about confession being good for the soul with that being one of them.)
Now until he went away to college, I had a young man who would come over and help me work on the layout and run trains. He is now starting his senior year in college and a few weeks ago he was home. He asked about the layout and when I said I was still building he said ‘that thing will never be finished.’
This got me to thinking - it is ever ‘finished?’ Do we ever finish or is there always some other tweek, structure, modification or similar item to do? And if it is ever finished, what do we do then? Do we just run trains, do we tear it all down and start over or just leave well enough alone and admire our work?
Now at my present completion rate I may never have to answer those questions. So if any of you have arrived at that spot, what have you done?
If small enough and built the first time around to the highest standards you are able to meet, yeah, I could see a layout being finished. But larger layouts usually aren’t. My layout reached the “appears complete” point within the last year.
Finished? Hardly. I built many structures using quick and dirty scratchbuilding methods. Replacing those with upgraded ones would be a years long project alone. I have several short sidings I’d like to add to give some more operational flexibility. My very early control panels are really crude and could stand updated faces. I’ve still got a stack of kits to build…
Naw, it’ll never be done…
But I think it’s worth getting to “appears complete” for the way it helps focus the minds on all the neat things you can do with a more patient approach once you find the satisfaction in being “done,” even if you know it’ll never really be done.
Harold,I have finished several ISLs and one N Scale door layout…I simply test the location of track and industries… The only plan I use is in my head and some times its plan as I build.
Contrary to popular belief a layout can be finished…
Its finished when the builder says " Enough…It’s finish".
I’m 70 yrs old,been in the Hobby for 62 yrs,had five layouts,none ever,‘‘finished’’,there is no deadline,It’s a hobby,I work on it when I feel like it,the wiring is finished,tracks laid,except for about 25 ft of double track main line,I’ll get to it ,if and when I feel like it,that’s what I believe hobby’s are,for your enjoyment,not for other’s…I won’t ever regret that it was never finished,if that be the case…
I’ve had 2 O gauge, 1 N gauge, and about 5 HO layouts. There was always something to add, change, maintain, etc., etc. “Finished” has never been a word in my MR vocabulary.
We have all seen layouts that appear to be “finished”, but I would bet the owner or intimate observers would come up with something that needs to change.
But its like I’ve always said… the fun is in the building!
You can “finish” a layout, there have been many which are in a completed state. But, since you raised the issue, I can remember reading many a Model Railroader magazine article and there is one mantra that is repeated over and over:
“a model railroad is never finished”
So there you have it. The question has been diffinitively answered in the pages of our hosts magazines. All you hae to do is read them to find it out for yourself.
I want to answer with a no. When you might think your finished, most surely a problem will occur that might make you in some sorts start all over. It could be one area or it can start in one area and move to the next because you think you can improve it in some way. Let’s say nothing goes wrong after you think your “finished”(LOL in a perfect world), How many times can you operate the trains without yawning. I mean how many times can you move a switcher from one end of a yard to the next. For laying track,wiring, and scenery, I surely understand the feeling of never finishing. But once all that is done, now what? One thing that keeps the excitement going for me is that I was able to amass a good quantity of engines. So after a few days I “change them up”. It sort of keeps things fresh. But on the down side of this, and since I am still working with my track work, a problem can probably arise with a new engine. Especially a steame
yes the layout can be finished, I did a 2’ x 4’ N scale layout. it took me a while but I finished it.
It’s a finite space there’s only so much one can do with the amount of square feet atop the layout board.
I’ve simplified my new layout by keeping it small easy to reach on the other side, 3 2’ x 4’ boards. From that point on it’s an operational/running trains thing.
There’s finished and then there’s completed, in my book. And it extends to everything in life.
For instance, I just moved into a new place. For a wide variety of reasons, I owned no living room furniture, except a TV and something to put the TV on. In the last month, I bought a couch, chair, coffee table, bookcase, end table, a lamp, and an area rug. Once the rug is delivered, I’ll consider furnishing my living room finished. It is completely operational and meets my requirements. That room will be finished. Is it complete? No. I’d like to replace the entertainment center, probably get another lamp, put curtains up (I prefer them over shades like I currently have), and maybe get a plant or two. It’ll probably never be completed. The bathroom, however, is complete. There’s nothing I can do to decorate or furnish that room any more than it already is.
Wel, in 46 years I have not finished one layout yet, started several and brought thom to various levels, but my goal with the current one is to finish it - that is why it is being built so that it can be moved.
I know of three ways that a layout can be finished. Listed, in order of probability:
Activity is stopped, either because the builder has reached a point of terminal dissatisfaction with the way things aren’t turning out or as a result of other life events such as change in employment or marital status requiring relocation. This is usually followed by immediate demolition.
The builder marks up on Saint Peter’s call board, and is immediately called to handle the Second Section of the Heavenly Express. (If you don’t like the Xtian symbology, substitute the paradise of your choice.)
Construction on the layout reaches the point where there absolutely, positively isn’t anything to complete, add or change. (Yeah, right…!)
My life has reached a point where (one) is unlikely - this is my last in this lifetime layout, and I’ll leave this house for a mortuary. I consider (three) to be in the same probability range as a tsunami (in the Dessicated Desert six hundred meters above MSL and three mountain ranges from the nearest salt water.) That leaves (two) with a probability of 99.99…%. I’m in no hurry to verify this.
Harold,I think we can finish a layout long before life simply because unlike a layout there is always one more thing we would like to do or see before we cash in our pay voucher.
It depends on one’s particular definition of “finish”.
Two descriptive words come to mind: (1) operational and (2) presentable. “Operational” to me, means the track has been laid [and tested] and wiring completed, with just enough locos and rolling stock to conduct operating sessions. “Presentable” would be having all the plywood at least painted in a base color for the type of scenery I eventually hope to apply, most [but not all] structures built, and at least ore or two small areas that look “complete” enough that I can photograph my trains.
Once my layout becomes operational and presentable, then adding new scenery, structures, rolling stock and other details becomes something I can look forward to doing at my leisure over the rest of my life.
I’m almost done with Phase 2 of my layout, but, well, Phase 1 is not really “finished.”
Back on Page 1, Mike used the term “appears complete.” I like that a lot. Phase 1 of my layout appears complete to the casual observer. I’d still like to add fascia, do something about the loose, dangling wires and put wood frames around my control panels, and perhaps add some grade crossing flashers and railroad signals.
Once the tannery is done on Phase 2, though, I have no plans for more track or scenery, other than what needs to be done to connect with…Phase 3. While some fill their available space with benchwork and track, I’ve taken a different approach. Phase 1 is a 5x12 foot table, and Phase 2 is a 19x2 1/2 foot shelf.
But, there’s something nobody has brought up yet. Most layouts don’t move intact from one home to another, and most model railroaders end up doing just that now and then. I plan to retire next year, and the high costs and high taxes of Massachusetts will have us looking for a new home. So, while I hope to re-assemble my layout somewhere else in a few years, it won’t be the “same” layout anymore.
Finished. What a concept! I suppose, in this hobby, one could declare a layout finished, but is it really? Maybe it gets finished to the point that it satisfies or dissatisfies the builder. At almost 70 I’m to the point that I could declare mine finished, but deep down I would always know it’s not. And when do you start over? For instance I built mine with 22 inch radii curves,but I would like to run much more modern equipment, with a smattering of steam on ‘tourist’ lines. By more modern I mean circa SD70’s. To look decent, to my eye… I need much larger curves. That would be a major under taking, but one, that if I were a younger man, I wouldn’t hesitate to do. Would I declare my present layout finished and proceed to dismantle huge sections of it? Maybe we don’t finish but simply keep going until life’s events changes our thinking.
I’m just passing on what I was brainwashed or indoctrinated with by reading MR between the early 1970’s and about 5 years ago, when I no longer had access to a library which carried MR. I’ve been traumatized enough over the years to the point where now I just do what I’m told!
Yes, the mantra is burned into my brain! I’m a victim of reading too many copies of MR. Just sayin…!!!