The MESS expansion is suffering from major labour issues these “daze” as I seem to be spending more time looking then doing! I put it down to a form of “writers block”. Though the main lines were done on a computer program it’s the spurs and industries that are the issue. To further complicate matters I’m dealing with multiple elevations on one level, while trying to maintain a “nothing greater than 3% grade” rule (Oh Joy to that!) And of course there’s the realism issue. Want to make the geography semi realistic as opposed to fairyland and once upon a time idealistic. And frankly it’s not working.
I know I should prioritize and get one thing finished before I start the next but as I’ve found in the hobby it’s all interconnected and a giant domino like puzzle. To finish one thing requires other things to get figured out and fitted in. If not you’ll land up ripping one thing to get acces to another and I have plenty of scars to show for it!
Nah! Nothing unusual. Sometimes it’s just time for a break, sometimes it is an item that should get done, BUT…, there are probably as many reasons for a “block” as there are blocks. At the moment I’m trying to finish up a couple of test scenes for my portable layout so I can get to work on the room and put a new around the room shelf in. In a way it seems fruitless to finish the little layout as it will be sidelined/sold/given away when I get the new one going. Unfortunately it is too big to go in our current modes of transportation, except my open pick up, so can’t even readily take it to shows. If that aspect had more hope, maybe it would be more appealiing to work on.
Sometimes priortizing can get in the way. Number one on the list has some hang up, there are other things that can be worked on until the hang up passes. If you wait for the hang up to clear, you may never get done. Suddenly in the middle of something else the solution will come along. I figure if I keep plugging away, I will come to a point where things will open up and it will be off to the races with rapid progress (I hope, I hope).
Keep your chin up, there’s always someone willing to take a poke at it.
I agree, I must have just thought about my rebuild of the Greenvale part of my layout for 8 or 9 months before I even took actual measurments and photos of that was there. It did not ‘feel’ right, but it took a bit for my mind to get around cutting off about 1/3 of the existing benchwork and removing the original high line track. Once I got beyond that, the planning started falling into place, and the result is a much better traffic flow into the Dragon Cement plant as well as a better main line connection to the rest of the layout.
It’s still a work in progress, but I now am working on a couple more rail served businesses and a village area that use some buildings from previous layouts that have been on the shelf for yesrs.
I am still thinking about how to wrap the benchwork around a support post and to get some staging for this end of the layout. Maybe by next year…[swg]
BTDT. Maybe switch to building some structures or rolling stock? Perhaps build some scenery to a finished pointb in one tiny spot where you’re sure of what goes there?
In any case, you’re at the point in building a layout where it’s like driving west cross-country and you’re in Kansas now. It’s pretty boring looking out the windshield and seems like it’s taking forever. But you start thinking of those Colorado mountains…and you’re back on track. That’s what worked for me after stepping back and doing something else for a little while.
I had the same “analysis paralysis” when I started my layout. I spent a lot of time creating a plan in Atlas RTS, and then revising and tweaking it.
The best solution for me is a full-sized mockup. For Phase 1 of my layout, I took a bunch of old brass track and laid it out on the floor. This proved to be the key for me. It was a step off the computer screen and into the real, physical world, but at the same time I still wasn’t committed to wood, foam and glue. Once I actually had a layout to work on, I continued by cutting out carstock “footprints” of buildings to get the right placement.
I’ve made 2 more full-sized mockups for Phase 2 - one for the carfloat terminal area, and another for the tannery. This time, I again used old track, but also cardstock models of the structures, so I could visualize the scene in three dimensions, and better locate the track and buildings.
As you can see, nothing fancy. But, it gives me that “gestalt” view that tells me it’s OK to proceed.
This “Block” thing must be contagious- I have an L shaped space 11 ft the long way and 8 ft the short way width depth varying from 3ft to 2.5 ft. I take a weekend to lay down some track temporarily and then run a bit and study and then pick up the track and try again- I am on my 7th or 8th attempt and still can’t get it to feel right. Every time I get the track down and run it a bit then it sits for 2-3 months while I figure out the next plan of attack- gets frustrating. The car float may be part of it too- not easy to fit it in. So my sympathies to the OP- been there; doing that.
Fergie,I stay ahead of the game by planing as I go… I lay the track in place and work it around until I’m happy…Even with the plan I drew up I still ended up planing as I went.
Thankfully one of my great ideas on paper did not work in reality…That saved me rework.
Fergie, it appears you have been watching too much Homer Simpson. Remember when Bart promissed to try and Homer told him “Trying is the first step on the road to failure”
Mike Lehman has the right idea- vary your focus over time; do some car-building/bashing, build a structure or two that you need for your railroad or just “chair engineer” things and fine-tune your overall layout plan on the computer or on the real thing (if framework is built). By doing so, you will return with a fresh perspective to your main construction focus and above all, don’t think you have to punch a clock about any one aspect of the hobby. I built my physical support table and pinned down track only after carefully drawing it first, then switched to converting my rolling stock to metal wheels and other improvements- then, in another direction, I acquired and built the primary set of structures for the better part of a year and concurrently, rewired, remotored and repainted some engines. Now, I am returning to the layout itself this summer (after clearing the workbench) and will lay the track down permanently, wire things up and move on to being able to operate and- in doing so- fine-tune the structure locations I have planned out. Relax, shift around…it’s a hobby (but a great one!)![:D]
Well~ After I posted this and a trip to Cdn Tire I went down to the basement and started to contemplate my next move, before I knew it a piece fell into place, then I had lunch, then I went back at it and before I knew it I had several back drop struts in place and then the masonite along 12 feet of the wall was loosely in place…
Now it’s starting to make sense! withonly another 22’ of masonite to be erected! [banghead] (yah it’s going to be a big layout and one I hope to finish before I die [:-^] some day.
Mike I normally save the car and structure building to when I go to sea, kills the long hours holed up in my cabin! Unfortunately I have one of those jobs which is heavy on the admin and operational awareness, which I find causes the “creative” side to atrophy.
As for some of the other comments… Whew! Here I thought I was loosing it! I just find you can only plan so much before the plan changes or collapses. Too much planning makes it too much like work! Hopefully I can keep the momentum going and have something to show before I go back to sea!!
Sometimes its good to step back and take in what you’ve done so far. Is everything you’ve done to that point up to your personal standards or do you really need to go back and clean up a few things before continuing? When you think about it, we rarely stare in a fog but are picturing our layouts in different ways and attempting to visualize the end results. I find that it is best to imagine and/or picture the project in my mind, plan thoroughly, then execute. If I change that order for some reason (“I just have to get something done.”), I sometimes find myself redoing a portion of the layout.
I’ve been dead in the water for the last few months and am considering a restart! It’s frustrating. Oh, I’ll keep the same theme and idea, but await blessed retirement in 7 more working days when I can have the time to devote in a more serious fashion. Yes, the more I look, I can see all sorts of better ways to go. I’ll have to plan a lot deeper on a re-start. So I’ll join the club of lookers and re-thinkers for a month or two more.
My layout is based on a rather specific prototype area and a rather specific operating pattern, but detailed planning is set in un-hardened Jell-o - until I actually produce a 1:1 scale mockup. In the meantime the backroom boys (and girls) in my subconscious are working out and polishing individual puzzle pieces. Somehow or other, when I need to work something out, they already have!
Of course my actual construction progress has been compared to that of a snail (the snail won[:-^] ) mostly because I absolutely refuse to set rigid time goals. Also, I spend too much time running trains on what I do have, and not as much time as I should expanding the empire. What, me worry? Not as long as I’m still having fun.
My layout has been in a funk since last summer. There have been many reasons, weather, family, sick dog, but mostly due to shear inaccessability due to pile of junk that got moved into the garage last summer when A: my wife moved a bunch of stuff out of the house and B: a friend moved away bequething me a bunch of train related stuff. I have been slowly working my way through it all so most of my work has been limited to the workbench (locos, rolling stock, etc) but I really need to get away from that, because I have too much of it, and get back onto building the layout itself, I know what I want to do, I just have to get off my duff and do it, I just need a machette to reach it.
I will at times, just go in to the train room and spend up to 15 minutes looking at the layout.
Other times I will go in just to look, and spend an hour + doing operations.
Now I know that I’m not alone! I can identify with you, as I am still there in many aspects of my layout. I can thankfully say that I am past the painful part of the track planning. Last March, in less than an hour I tore up a considerable amount of hard earned trackwork, and spent many months improving it. Mostly.
A couple months ago I revised some of what I had redone, and now I really like how the layout is shaping up and operates. Track planning is the one aspect of this hobby I don’t enjoy. I had a 4% grade going up to an ore bunker and didn’t like how it looked, or how the trains ran on it. Plus, it’s spur switch created congestion in a tight spot. OUT it came! That was preceded by some amount of time of what a friend calls “Giving it a fierce staring at” Oh, I left the 4% grade as a much needed automobile road into the area. Huge improvement all around.
I still have a lot of developement in regards to buildings and scenery, but I enjoy the challenge and look forward to this without the dread that comes with track planning. But yeah, I do a lot of staring at it trying to figure it all out. Dan
Glad the funk is passing. Hoping it holds steady on course for you.
I know what you mean there. Been struggling with my diss (it’s finally nearing the end with a little luck and lots more work), so working on the layout helps when I get stuck for inspiration in writing and editing. When things get really bad, at least I can say I accomplished something along the way.It’s definitely kept my morale up when nothing else would.
Richard,
Looking forward to retirement that far away must be sweet after all those years. Just make sure you make a commitment to at least staring at the layout for 15 minutes a day. I’ve known folks who retired and ended up busier than before. That’s NOT going to be me.[;)]
First Off! Misterbeasley what a simple yet excellent idea! I’ll be using that to set up my industries!
Mike and company (have to include everyone here as everyone’s input has been excellent!) I think what really bothers me is the different directions I get pulled into. I get a month off and yes I have high hopes thinking I can get this, this and this done and low and behold NADA! too many distractions and such. I come up with a plan and then get hauled away onto other pressing issue around the house. and when I get back it’s “Now where was I?” I’m going to have to start jotting down my plans so I don’t forget them!
I’m just 2-1/4 years into my layout. I try to remind myself that it’s a hobby so I can (should) do what I feel like doing so I jump around quite a bit. I probably did the most prioritizing when getting the basics in…framework and track / turnouts / control panel. Now running, it goes from car kits to scenery to structures to loco troubleshooting. For me a big component is learning new things, so this week it’s been focused on a loco truck/gearing issue and getting into a used loco purchase for a first decoder install. I also like to keep ahead of things on supplies I will be needing, so i have on hand what I will need when tackling something (but I’m not compelled to do it because it arrives).
At times I feared getting done with the layout too soon, reducing the fun to just operating and building another car kit. I now realize that the getting done part is eons away, as my pace is ok but not fast, and the amount of detail I’d like to eventually install will take lots of work. Plus, people re-do things to change or better them. The photos folks show are inspiring and also keep me aware of how much can be done. Theres switch details, signals, etc…
I’ve always been a big “prioritizer”, at work and home. I do use that with modeling, by keeping current lists of “To Do” items and supplies to purchase or explore. The list removes 90% of any self imposed pressure to “make progress”. No timing, just pick things off the list or do what fits my mood.
And, today’s the 1st day of spring, and the yard is calling!
UPDATE: Two mowers, weedwacker and blower all maintained (and they all work…yeah!).
