Is it just me or is there anybody else out there that stands at your layout and just stares at it for long periods of time, trying to figure out what the heck to do next?? This is my first layout, so I’m pretty much clueless, except for the good tips I’ve received on these forums, but MAN…I feel like if I had some kind of plan, I could be twice as far as I am now!! I’ve laid WS risers where all the track is going, got a pretty good idea where the tunnel portals are going and built up mountains around them, made my river (that I think scale-wise is going to be more like a gorge and not a river!) but after that, I’m pretty much at a loss. Not sure what industries to install…not sure where to make my “town”…not sure what businesses to have in the town…where to put the roads…how WIDE to make the roads (is there an industry standard for a 2 lane road and/or a city street??)…etc…etc…etc…[%-)]
Is this the real reason why model RR takes years to build???
Please tell me I’m not alone and I haven’t just discovered that I’m ADHD at 44 years old[sigh]
Dreaming is part of the fun. It is also a safety valve that gives you pause to figure out if you are missing an important step that will be much harder to implement later on. Also, it could just be that you now realize, with the track laid out visibly, that you don’t like something about it. Something isn’t figured out yet in your mind…you keep ruminating, looking for the answer or for inspiration. These can be fun, but important times where you get really honest with yourself and either fish or cut bait.
FWIW, I use a to-do list with all discrete steps and processes itemized. It sits above the sink where I clean up and wash up before dinner. I stare at it, think about what is next, sometimes add something that I now understand will be required earlier rather than later…and so on. Strike through the completed steps as you accomplish them. It is a good way to keep on track, to keep focused, and to see that you are making progress. Or, so it worked for me.
Well I have had my moments just looking, and wondering what to do next. Sometimes I will run a train or two a few laps, and call it a day. Then other times, I’m working on the layout a couple of hours.
Plus with it starting to warm up, I won’t be working on it as much.
I guess one can justify our endless hours of sitting/standing and staring in to space as part of the creative artisitic process, in ohter words you’ve just drawn a blank! No biggie. I know I might get criticized by some here but I can’t build from a track plan. Yes I have a basic and a very basic track plan that I’m using but I have to do what moves me. put a siding here an industry there. Same goes with land forms etc. I am currently working on fitting a timber trestle into one of my branch lines. This is definitely not where I had envisioned it originally but it’s where it will work. So some times you are relegated by different factors, size of your layout, space you have to work in type of bench work and over all scenery your looking for.
I have found some times it’s best to get inspiration from others. I’ll look at my collection of Allen Keller Video’s, old copies of MR or RMC even search layouts on the internet.Inspiration comes from where ever you get it. Don’t stress it too much soone oer later you’ll be starign at your layout and an idea will pop into your head or worse you’ll be like me laying awake in bed one night and all of a suddne a GREAT IDEA comes to you like some sort of biblical inspriation and your up and out of bed listening to your wife grumble @&! trains! as your off to the basement.
I’m in the process of building a new HO layout, and find that planning is a most important part of the process. It is an ongoing thing, in that even the best of plans need adjustments and revisions and changes in “what to do next”.
If I were you, I would first look back to assure that what I have done so far is as good as I can do, and workable for going on to next steps. If you find that your benchwork, track laying, or wiring is not as good as it could be, I urge you to go back and fix it first - before going on. If you don’t, you will live with that shortcoming every day for the rest of the layout’s life. Ha, I can say this because I lived with about 4 shortcomings on my last layout for over 10 years!!!
Once you are satisfied with the “plywood central” and everything is tested and the trains are running, then its time to move on to the next steps. There are many ways to go about this - none “right” and none “wrong” - but some preferred over others. To state the extremes, one school of thought says to completely finish one are of the layout (while the rest is bare wood). Another says to do the entire layout in stages (i.e. ballast all track, set out all structures, do all groundcover, etc.). On my last layout, I did a combination of both methods and it worked ok for me.
However, on the new layout, I honestly don’t know what I’ll do next once the basic RR is done and working well. Ummm, I guess that puts me right where you are now!
Often, when not inspired as to what to do next,I use the time to tidy up in the layout room or the shop. While cleaning up I may come across a project that needs a few details,or a couple weeds to plant. I always have a piece of styrofoam with trees in various stages of finish,things like that help to complete a layout. Also don’t be afraid to tear out things that aren’t up to your standards. BILL
Large layout, under construction with all due deliberate speed (dead slow on the engine room telegraph [(-D])
Item on PERT chart says, “Install zone control panels for NN and TH zones in fascia above Mikasa staging yard.” So I walk into the layout space, past the temporary (in use for two years now [:-^]) Mikasa panel, and mentally place two glowing rectangles in mid-air along the main access aisle. Then I try to envision the vertical fascia brackets, wire runs, where to put the supports for the panels…[%-)]
Any resemblance to standing, staring into space while accomplishing zit is, I’m sure, purely coincidental…[:I]
While I was typing the above, my subconscious delivered a complete, detailed three-dimensional plan for that control panel installation. Looks like I’ll be converting some small steel studs into fascia supports. Now, where did I leave the tin snips…[:P]
It’s most certainly not just you. Several years ago there was a cartoon in Model Railroader magazine that depicted it very well. A man is running his train around a single loop of track on a bare piece of wood, but in his mind’s eye it is a fully finished basement empire
First you lay the track and get the trains to run. Running trains is half the fun, so you want to get the layout runnable first thing. In the software business we had the concept of a “minimum working set” i.e. the smallest number of absolutely critical program modules needed to run the program at all. Get the “minimum working set” coded and running before adding all the extra “features” (frills) that marketing demanded.
For a layout, the minimum working set is enough track to run a train, even just the main line will do. Once you see a train running, all sorts of inspiration will follow. Track laying ought to start with turnouts. It’s easier to position the turnout, and the under table switch machine, and the necessary holes in the table and then get the flex track to marry up with the turnout, rather than the other way, and wind up having to move the turnout, and the holes, to match the track. You want to drill BEFORE laying the turnout.
Then you want to run the trains for a while and fix anything that needs fixing 'cause it’s easier to work on the track before the scenery goes down.
Then consider painting the entire surface of the layout with an earth tone and sprinkling “grass” in the wet paint. Sprinkle some dark green and light green accents over the medium grass green for looks. The grass look is a vast improvement over unpainted fir plywood or blue foamboard. You can lay roads and more scenery over the grass green should you change you mind about where things go.
You want industries served by rail to give a purpose to all those industrial spurs. Paper mills, lumber yards, factories, oil dealers, coal dealers, creameries, and mines. Find some rail served industries in your area, drive out and photograph them. Then find a reasonable looking kit or scratch build.
When I would get this way, I would usually turn on a train and watch it run for a while.
Are you looking for advice on things to do next? Perhaps you could post a crude track plan, or picture of the overall layout, or area you are thinking about doing some work on. You will find some dedicated individuals here likely to have good advice.
I stand, stare and think. Looking at things from different angles. Trying to figure out how things will look from different camera angles. It pays off when I come with a better to do things than the original plan.
I save a lot of photos from the forum that have ideas I want to incorperate into my layout. It’s getting to the point where I’m going to open a Grampy’s and Jacon12 photo folders on my computer![:D]
You’re not alone. I’m still at the “Plywood Central” stage. In fact, I just un-mothballed the layout the other night. It had been “abandoned” since I moved 2 years ago. Anyway, most of the main line is now open–there are still some wires to re-solder, and at least one switch to replace. Oh, and I’ll have to mount those couplers on the E8, dust off the buildings, then there are the P70 coaches to weather…
See? It never ends. There’s always something to do!
Skip, from the layout we have in our heads to the one we actually build there are big differences. No matter how advanced you may be in this hobby, our minds always plan bigger than the space we have. Even once we put it to paper we still will modify it over and over once we statr to build.
Oh, yeah! Am there, doing that. I just decided to install working semaphore signals on my layout. I’ve got all the signals, all I have to do is move myself out to the garage and start installing them. So what do I do? I take them out there, kinda/sorta figure out which signal will go where, bring them back in and watch a movie on TV. I’ve been doing this for over a week, now. One of these days I’ll take the signals out there, come to a DECISION, and start installing them.
In the seven years I’ve had this layout, if I counted the time that I just stared at it thinking, instead of getting the lead out and DOING, I’d have the darned thing finished by now.
I have already found some dedicated individuals on here…that’s probably the only reason I am as far as I am NOW! [:)] I will post some this evening when I get home and get into the garage then let you guys work your magic.
David Starr, that may part of my problem…(“Then you want to run the trains for a while and fix anything that needs fixing 'cause it’s easier to work on the track before the scenery goes down.”) I’ve got half of the layout covered in plaster cloth and realized last week that I should have mounted the Tortoise switches before I got that far. 6 of the 10 switches are already covered, but the “glass half full” part of me says that 4 are going to be easier to do! I’ve been wanting to avoid the tempatation to “hurry up and get the train running”, even though I’m REALLY looking forward to that part[:D].
Thanks for all the input so far and I look forward to more after I post the pix tonight.
For all the years I have been in this hobby those periods of contemplation have been consistent occurrences - from the first benchwork of my first layout (1969) to this minute. Sometimes they are planning/problem solving sessions, but more often they are introspective and reminiscent. My current layout spans the past 8 years of my life; its different stages and components correspond with relationships and events in my 1:1 existence, for example:
I built the benchwork soon after my wife and I moved into our new home; we were hopeful and happy. The more recent construction of 's “Norms Landing” and “Gran’ma’s House” correspond with me working through the transition to divorce.
Various figures were painted by Cathey - a recent love interest who decided that she and I don’t have enough in common to continue our relationship - she painted better than I do, so I’ll always know her mark on my layout like I know the scar on my heart.
On my layout there are all of the projects that were built prior to July 31, 2008 and those bui
I agree with those who say get a train running. If you’re going to stare at the layout, you minus well have a train to watch while doing it. You have to reward yourself now and then and having at least a running main will help and also prevent you from becoming bored and quitting. Another thing it does is allow you to learn some lessons as you go. Nothing like finding out the hard way after your’e finished that there was an oops along the way. Put some track right on the WS risers and see how it runs.