lION build railroad himself. Him cannot afford to haire a man to hold a Kneenx for me.
Fortunately I enjoy puttering with it. I do not know what I’ll do when (if) it is finsihed.
LION is just finishing rewiring the ENTIRE beast. Some wires are abandoned in place, and others will be fished out because I will need to reuse them.
Carpenter? What is this carpenter you speak of? What is an electrician???
ROAR
It’s like so many other expensive toys. If you have to ask how much, you can’t afford it.
Hi,
Well, I’m apparently “old school” and figure if I can’t build the layout myself, I should pick up another hobby. Said another way, the satisfaction from building it yourself is immeasurable.
HOWEVER, there are folks out there that have lots of spendable income and not so much time, and want to run trains. So if they have one built for them, that is just fine.
The ONLY way I see “cheating” coming into play is if they present the purchased layout as something they built.
Let me throw a rock in this pond.
Back when I started modeling to scale the only RTR stock was designed as, and meant to be used as, toys. So, are you cheating if you model to scale using all RTR rolling stock?
Likewise, track was something put together with raw materials, spiked every fifth tie or so. Again, do you cheat by using flex track and prefabricated specialwork (or, heaven forfend, sectional track on plastic roadbed?)
To answer both questions - Of Course Not!!
The object is to have a model of a railroad. Does it matter to you who built someone’s railroad, and how. Maybe he inherited a fortune. Maybe he has five left thumbs on each hand and finds holding a screwdriver challenging. Maybe he prefers operating to construction (Foam Flats and Plywood Pacific, anyone?) Whatever the reason, it’s the owner’s business - and we don’t need to mind it for him (her, YX, it.)
Now if somebody had their layout built by a commercial firm, equipped it with RTR rolling stock fine-tuned by a master modeler, then had the Chief Geek wire it for all-automatic operation starting when his weight hit the seat of the La-Z-Boy on the observation deck, I might suspect that he was more a model railfan than a model railroader. That doesn’t diminish him in my eyes - as long as he’s having fun.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
If you have the money but not the time,I see nothing wrong with it.Do you think Rod Stewart built all of his layout
I second that. Most admirably said
[quote user=“tomikawaTT”]
Let me throw a rock in this pond.
Back when I started modeling to scale the only RTR stock was designed as, and meant to be used as, toys. So, are you cheating if you model to scale using all RTR rolling stock?
Likewise, track was something put together with raw materials, spiked every fifth tie or so. Again, do you cheat by using flex track and prefabricated specialwork (or, heaven f
Is it cheating to buy a ready-to-run freight car when you could scratchbuild it yourself?
Steve S
It’s only cheating if you pass it off as your own work. Otherwise you have to weigh your time, money, and layout size to determine what makes the most sense for you.
Personally, I use a lot of RTR, but can’t afford custom built anything. For my basement layout that is expected to exceed 500 sq ft, maybe a lot more, I buy RTR freight cars, locomotives, flex track, even some buildings. I build the rest - benchwork, roadbed, laying track, wiring, scenery, whatever I need.
At some point, I’ll have the layout in a basic operable state with some basic scenery. Then I’ll probably do more model building - I have a stash of kits and parts.
This is a hobby after all.
Paul
It’s like any other contract work. Get references. See what other work they have done. Hold them to the terms of the contract. And above all, don’t give them full payment up front. Pay them in installments as milestones are met.
Yup, its cheating to have somebody else build your model railroad for you. The penalty for this cheating shall be 20 laps.
I started my layout in 2009, its a around the wall with 2 islands 1 is 25 x 6 and the other is 6 x 12 its taken about 22 sheets of plywood and 8 sheets of homasote. It is all Dcc with Digitrax Radio and over 800 sections of Atlas code 83 track and over 100 turnouts with tortoise machines, all completed by mostly by me, my oldest son also helped when he could. I go downstairs and forget everything else, time goes by quickly when you’re having fun. I like running trains, but I like the building of the layout and building of the structures and doing the scenery most, sometimes the trains don’t run until my son gets here LOL. It’s nice to be able to run long trains with 60 to 80 rolling stock with just 2 Kato loco’s doing the work, It took a lot of planning and time to do what we have done and sometimes redone a few times but its mine and I’m proud of what I and others have helped build. I might add that I’m retired and take care of my wife who for the last 14 years is handicapped and still have time for the greatest hobby. Cheating is not a part of something you get to enjoy and show folks what you have done and see the amazment when they see the little world you built. When you share it with with your grand kids and see the eyes shine and get all the questions on how you did this and that. I am going to be 60 years old this year, 30 of those years I worked and owned my own carpet installation company, I worked for 5 differant stores 5 - 6 days a week. If I had a bad day putting up with the general public the train layout soon erased the whole day. The old hands and knees complain and sometimes just dont want to do what I want. I don’t think I cheated anywhere on my hobby. Sometimes it gets difficult to do some things, but I manage to do everything including home repair, and 2 acres of property to take care of. My wife of 29 years never gave me any trouble with my buying or building my dream layout. Our kids ( 2 boys 1 girl )learned alot from &q
[:)]I assume the laps are in scale. That means 1:87, or a touch over 5 feet, per each, in my case. Z scale guys ought to be able to do theirs in the blink of an eye.
Cheating? No! There are people who just enjoy running trains. Or, they don’t have that much time due to work, family, etc. and they want to run trains this year. It is one of the only way they can be in the hobby.
Cost, when we think about the grand total of supplies if you do it yourself will be high as well. Though half a mil…[^o)]. [I]Forget model railroading, I would get myself a real 1:1 scale locomotive, a caboose, and maybe a passanger converted into a “mobile home”[wink&grin]
I did not go into this contract as blind as you might think, I did pay in installments. But the entire cost had to be met before the layout could be delivered. For references, I did. But I could only go by work done previously that was posted on You Tube. I don’t know why your coming down on me. I just didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday. In all of your experiences, you never felt you were done wrong. Wow, you must have a perfect life. God bless ya.
Joe C
It is not cheating to have someone else build your layout. I don’t think that it would be as fun if someone did this for you. I like building my own “world”. I am VERY good at building structures and scenery. But not that good with the electrical aspects such as wiring control panels for turnouts or adding a signalling system. To this point in time, I have built everything myself to date. But, if I got wiring help or had someone else build a structure and placed it on the layout. I would not view that as cheating.[2c]
It is crazy to me that people like the OP and others on this thread seem to have time to worry about how other people spend their own money.
Do any of you fell your own trees (grown from seeds you sowed of course) to saw into lumber for builiding benchwork? No? Then maybe you are cheating! Do you mine your own metal to forge your rail in your backyard? No? Then maybe you are cheating!
Silly topic IMHO.
Cheating? Your having a laugh aren’t you? Rich people cheat all the time if that is your definition of cheating.
It seems like there are an aweful lot of bored people just trolling these forums. sigh Where has the common sense in the world gone?