It’s a couple of days early but it seems appropriate. I saw this suggestion somewhere (I wish I remembered where) and now I’m going to take it to heart.
Spend 15 minutes a day working on the layout.
Finding 15 minutes should be easy. Just spend 15 fewer minutes on forums. At the end of the year, 15 minutes per day turns into 91 hours and 15 minutes, which is more time than I could spend if I cashed in a year’s worth of vacation time and spent it working on the layout (we all know how good those chances are–I’d stand a better chance of ending the longstanding war between cats and dogs).
Here are some 15-minute projects I’ve accomplished in the last couple of weeks.
Drill holes in the supports under my layout to run bus wires.
Run bus wires under the layout. I needed four, so it took multiple sessions.
Run one set of feeder wires from the track to the bus wires.
Wire one building.
Remove one building and add window glazing to it. Divide into multiple days if necessary.
Need other ideas? OK.
Assemble one Plasticville building.
Place a couple of figures on the layout to create a mini vignette. Every square inch that doesn’t have track on it can tell a story, and on the best layouts, they do.
Install one streetlight. Wiring it can be the next day’s project if necessary.
Make one tree.
After two weeks, my layout runs better (it still needs more feeder wires before it’ll run as well as I’d like, but that’s OK–I have time) and looks far better. I’ve also learned new things, or remembered things I’d forgotten long ago. I also managed to sneak in more than 15 minutes on Christmas Day and yesterday. I got a lot done, but I think the 15-minute sessions in the days leading up to those days really set the table and let me get even more done when I had bigger blocks of time to work with.
I like your idea. I have to get better organized. The train room is such a natural area to put stuff. It takes me 1/2 hour, to moves stuff to work 15 minutes. [banghead]
I like your idea. I have to get better organized. The train room is such a natural area to put stuff. It takes me 1/2 hour, to moves stuff to work 15 minutes. [banghead]
Well, if worse came to worse, spend your 15 minutes two days clearing an area, then a third day working. Or hopefully that area will give more than just a single 15-minute session. Better than nothing, right? [:)]
I definitely hear you about stuff accumulating there that doesn’t belong there. I resemble that remark too.
Dave–you hit the nail on the head, it’s all about time management, prioritizing and commitment. For me it’s about getting away from this computer, I’m addicted to it but I enjoy checking on about 3 forums that I never had time for 30+ years. My workshop is a prime example, once it turned cold this fall I spent 4-5 days a week down there just organizing, sometimes only 15 minutes or at other times 3 hours. When everyone was home for Christmas I thought I was going to have to call 911 because they were shocked beyond words. I now love being down there, it’s done. But this morning I spent about 30-45 minutes just picking up a few odd & ends.
It’s not about finding the time, it’s about making the time. It is that simple and it can apply to any part of your life, IMO.
I’m sure I have made reference to this in the past, but over the course of the past two years, I have pretty much built my layout 15 minutes at a time. Since my office in my home, I can take a 15 minute break whenever I want, but I will do a series of small tasks over the course of a day and will have accomplished as much as a couple of hours of work on the layout per day.
Some of these small items might include gluing down a couple of sections of road bed and by the time I return everything is set up. Ballasting is another easy thing to do in small chunks. Likewise, building structures. For example, I might lay down one coat of paint on a structure and go back to work. By the time I return, the coat is set up and I can apply more light coats until I get the color I want.
I think it is a sound strategy and if you can stick with it, you will be very surprised at how much progress you can make.
Bingo,I agree , I spend way too much time on the Train forums, as well as eBay and the various manufacturer’s websites…I do, however, consider my time spent on the computer as an important part of my hobby as a whole…
I am glad that I have been dragging my rear as far as building my new layout…I had planned on Gargraves track and switches, And the new, improved switches that Gargraves came out with have proven to be a disaster for allot of the folks running them…So due to dragging my rear, I now have the foresight of more info gained from the forums. I have chosen to go with Ross switches instead…And yikes, I was also looking at Atlas…So with the info gained on the forums, I feel that I saved myself a ton of potential grief…and wasted money and time…
But yes, the trains are getting restless, so I have to get that layout up and running in 08…
GREAT suggestion, I did this last year after new years. I spent about an hour a nite maybe 4 nites a week working on layout. I had to bring my old layout down because of plumping, but rebuilt a new one. The old one took 10 hours to dismantle for me and the wife. But building the new one was great, new life agian! We did this in the DOG DAYS O August, high humidity, hot, and we had the AC on. Great way to spend the summer day? Took about 2 days to rebuild, the bench work. Was probably the best thing I did for the hobby. Got to use bigger radi on the curves and use more of the space I was given. Now this year want to add more in the scenery part. Probably spend time in Jan and Feb doing this. Even with an hour a nite for 3-4 nites a week you do get burnt out. Just keep in mind when you feel the urge to do something, start, no matter what else is going on. Makes it easier.
I found time almost every day to work on our layout. Sometimes, after the kids were in bed, but mostly after dinner, they would help me out. By plodding along and making slow and steady progress, we went from not even being in the hobby, to being asked to write an article about it for CTT in a little over a year. And that was just by spending an hour or so almost, but not every day.
Thanks for the confirmation, everyone. I got much more than my 15 minutes in yesterday, and I’m seeing a big difference. I think I’m still at least a few sessions away from having something I’m comfortable showing people, but at least now I’m getting there.
Had it not been for those 15-minute mini-sessions, I doubt I would have even started on that long session. The long session started out as a 15-minute session, but then I liked the progress and I didn’t have anything else going on, so I kept going.
Yes, I can agree with much that has been said, that slow steady work will absolutely yield results. Maybe others won’t notice them as much as you will, but slow and steady always wins the race.
I too have wondered, especially on the other train forums, how some people who “seem” to live on the forums ever have any time to even run trains, much less work on a layout?
And yes, along with Dave, Don and Jim, I always have more stuff laying around than I’d like. But every time I take care of all the tools, then it seems I’m getting them right back out for some other project. I must have at least 3 full boxes of postwar trains that have been given to me that are awaiting new life to be brought to them. There’s a bunch of broken or mucked up operating cars like the cattle car, milk car, 145 gateman, and barrel car all waiting their turn… and several postwar steamers too. Got one of those running, and got the additional parts, so now it’s just when I get to it. There’s an Alco that I rebuilt from a mismash of odds and ends I have accumulated. The motor I had is a 3-position and all the extra e-units I have a 2-position, so there’s another project waiting completion. Loads of old Plasticville buildings and other odds and ends. Actually I’ve been working on the barrel car for weeks: I’ve got the mechanism back to perfect operating order and now have to finish getting the Norfolk Southern decals done on the shell.
Sometimes the rebuilding projects would seem to be more effort than they might otherwise be worth, especially on a financial/collector angle. But they’re all learning projects and this is the way I’ve learned what I have learned. And it’s such a cool feeling to have taken a piece of what was otherwise total junk, and bring it to life again!! That’s such a great feeling! I guess that’s just the artist in me.
I’ve got some big loco shells laying around waiting to be chopped down and meshed into new small 027 locos
My resolution for 2008 is to quit posting on on-line train forums for the year.
You get to meet a lot of great folks on the forums. You also end up running into more than a few less-than-great folks, as well as the usual assortment of agitators, instigators, pot stirrers and bozos who just aren’t worth the time. After a while the same old crap just gets tired and worn out.
I’ll put the time into working on my layout and getting my layout progress and projects posted on my website. Maybe I’ll add a blog or something like that. I’ll see how much I can get done in the next twelve months.
In any event, thanks to the really friendly people here for your fellowship and encouragement over the past couple of years.
I hope all of the good folks here enjoy a safe, healthy and happy New Year.