Observations, Comments, et al

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I have contemplated this post for some time and finally got around to doing it.

I have been doing the MR for some 12 years - I started from scratch and have said many times I wish I knew when I started what I know now, although my current knowledge is very limited compared to what I read other are doing. My learning came from mistakes I made as well as getting ideas from this forum. In any event I have plodded along over the years.

Over the time I have been in this hobby I have spent most of my time at the layout or at the workbench building the layout (tracks, buildings, landscaping, etc.). By far the majority of my time has been spent other than running the trains, although I have enjoyed working on the layout and making changes over the years.

My biggest current concern is that my interest in my layout is waning - I go days and days without going near the layout. Does anyone else have this problem or concern?

I have often said the biggest mistake I made was to keep a spreadsheet of costs - amazing how the dollars add up.

I have posted this comment before - with some help from a knowledgeable neighbor I kitbashed an Atlas turntable to a 90’ TT. The obvious disadvantage of this conversion is no indexing - you have to turn off the power when the TT is in line with the tracks. It has worked quite well for me and I justify the inconvenience by thinking of the cost savings over the Walthers TT. If I know how to post pictures I would send along the steps I used to do the kitbash.

Thanks for listening.

2

I too have periods when I don’t do much on the RR but then I get the urge and am back at it. IMO this is normal and I have thougt of good ideas to do during these idle periods.

There are also modlers I’ve seen start a layout and by the progress they made must have worked day and night. But you know what, they dissapear and are never heard from again. Bettee to strike the happy medium than to go to the extremem.

This might help with the pictures;

To upload pictures you must create a host such as PHOTOBUCKET www.photobucket.com It is free. After you create your account you merely click on the upload button and then select the picture you want to upload from your computer.

Now you are ready to post that picture to your thread.

There are two ways to insert the picture. The way I like to do it is to click on the direct link box under the picture on photobucket. This automatically copies the link. Then you go to the thread and there is a bar across the top. One of the icons is green and looks like film. Click on this and a window will open with a box to paste the URL that you got from photobucket.

When you click on insert the picture will show up on the thread wherever your cursor is.

I try to have the cursor placed so that I have space above and below the inserted picture.

3

I find my best work is after not seeing the layout for several days work… The small screw ups are forgotten, I get inspired for areas that need a building or scenery that I did not know what to put there before. Dont sweat it if you doing work on your layout for awhile, it is a hobby, not a job.

4

I would agree with the others. Don’t worry if you haven’t been working on your layout for a while. I haven’t worked on mine in a loooong time. It’s not that I don’t want to, but other things come up. I have a 5-yr old who started playing t-ball this summer, and we welcomed a new one this past spring. I also plan on starting a new layout in the future, so I figure why work on the current one when I know it will be coming down. Actually, I am working on finishing of the rest of the basement for the new layout, so maybe that counts? So if it’s only been a few days, no big deal.

Scott

5

I wouldn’t worry about it, you could be getting a little burned out. Happens to the best of us. Sometimes you just need to take a break, and step away from the layout for awhile. It’s similar to painters, they will work many hours on their painting, then step away from it for a few weeks or months, and come back to it. The drive will come back, and you’ll be motivated to get back to work again.

6
7

I think all modelers have some doldrums from time to time… it’s OK.

I think the real secret is to keep challenging yourself. You can only shake a box and make so many freight cars before the allure is gone. You can only afford so many craftsman structures before you check book is gone.

Consider this… start something from scratch. All materials that the kit manufacturers use are on line with few exceptions: castings they make themselves and often they are for sale on the side, specific materials they make themselves, roofing shingles or the like.

Northeastern makes all sorts of wood shapes, Tichy and Grandt Line make door and window castings and on and on and on.

Building from scratch is what this hobby can be all about. Whether it is rolling stock, locomotives or structures and scenery. Push yourself to greater things. No modeler started out as a John Allen nor did he. He pushed himself with imagination and lessons from the school of hard knocks.

Put yourself with other modelers and take a push from them also.

It’s a great hobby.

see ya

Bob

8

I haven’t touched my layout in months. However, I have been upgrading my rolling stock and doing some other projects.

Part of my lack of progress is that I’m nearly done with everythign but the scenery - and I’m just not big on scenery.

Part of is that I am nearly back tot he point where I can contemplate a new place to live, and a much bigger layout.

Part of it is I have another not so fun major projec I keep telling myself I need to do before workign on the layout proper again - namely, geting rid of my old issues of MR and getting my bookshelves and empty boxes (which are under the layout) all squared away. Since I now have the MR 75 year DVD, I don;t need all those old issues of MR, just the past couple of years. Some of the old ones I really just need to dump in the recycle bin, they’ve been read so many times they are fallign apart. Others though are in nearly perfect condition. I’ve made a coupel of half-hearted attempts to give them away with not much luck. I really don’t want to throw them out.

Part of it is, especially the past couple of months, is that the week around July 4 is a big show for the club, and I take the whole weke off from work to participate in this one, and as such I get my locos and ollign stock prepared - wheels cleaned, resistors tested, drives lubricated, etc. Each year I seem to do more - this year I pulled every truck and sprayed them grimy black, and also painted every coupler. I’m also switching to a new, betetr set of carrying cases, and also going through my computer inventory to make sure everythign is up to date.

–Randy

9

Just like a real turntable!! [;)]

I suspect that means you’ve hit a place where your layout at some level isn’t what you really want. Either it’s gotten to be a maintenance problem, or operating it isn’t interesting enough, or you really want to model a different time or place or, well SOMETHING isn’t right.

I’d look at doing something else for a while to see if it’s what you want to do. Maybe you’ve always wanted to try narrow gauge - try an On30 diorama. Maybe check out a club layout in a different scale. Build an O scale kit. A lot of really nice “scale” layouts are being built by three-rail O scalers - a lot of folks who started with Lionel end up there!!

Don’t rebuild the layout or tear it down, just dabble in something else for a while til you find what you really want.

10

I get the same way every summer. Kids are running us around and work driving you crazy it just seems to slow the modeling down. When it starts to get cold outside and I don’t have as many outside projects going on then the modeling comes back. I can’t wait for fall!!

Sam

11

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

However, there is one more thing that I do. If I get stuck trying to find something to do that I want to do, I make a list of projects and the steps for those projects. If I do want to do some work, I find something small on the list and start that. Usually after I get started, I want to continue.

12

To the OP,

Just remember, the hobby serves you, not the other way around. There is nothing wrong with losing interest. We all go through phases. Just set it aside and then when you get interested again, pick it back up. No big deal.

Now folks might need to understand whether Model Railroading is a life long interest or one of many interests which come and go. Thats for you to decide. For me, in my 53 years, I started loving trains as a little boy, and the fascination has always been there. I have gone through periods where I phased out for a while and but I always return to it.

If you have alot of things you like, don’t be too quick to sell it off as you will still have it when you return to interest. Now I have sold off a fair amount of my trains over the past 15 years, but not because I lost interest, it was more because my interests became more focused and I wanted to sell the things that didn’t “fit” and replace them (naturally at a higher cost) with trains that fit my interest, were closer to the prototype etc.

13

What you experience is normal FOR YOU. You define and set the limits for your own pursuit of any hobby or interest, let alone MRR. When you realize that you have gone weeks away from your layout, it may be a good time to take another run at it, but the lost time was what ought to have happened in my view. You had other priorities.

I have moved beyond several intense interests in my life, and when I look back and wonder why, I think the answer lies in my degree of accomplishment or ‘mastery’. In the words of that East Indian world traveller, “Binder dundat.” When you feel certain that you still enjoy MRR, but can’t seem to bring yourself to enjoy a full hour playing with the trains, I think the message is that you have moved beyond what you can get from what you have. Said another way, it just doesn’t do it for you anymore. Not the way you have been doing it. In my case, I hadn’t touched my layout in six months when my wife and son-in-law both said almost simultaneously one day just after last Christmas, “Why don’t you build another layout, but in the loft above the garage this time?” I did the Tim Allen "hhuuuHHHHH!?? and was out the door to buy some lumber within the hour.

I agree with the others…don’t get your shirt in a not. It is precisely the way it should be for you, and your only task is to figure out where to go from here.

Crandell

14

Gidday Butlerhawk, Just reiterating what the other guys have put so well, It just a hobby, for me an escape from work, the hobby should work for me, not “thurher” way round.

Sorry to say I agree with you regarding the expense spreadsheet, what’s done is done, so relax , have fun, and hopefully the creative juices will start flowing again.

Stay [8D]

Cheers, the Bear.

15

Butlerhawk

I tend to work on my layout a lot!

I built my latest layout for OPERATIONS as its only purpose - not some well sceniced Roundy-Round for me to enjoy .

Although scenery is coming along (I have been building this 2500 sq ft layout myself for over 10 years) I am in no hurry to think I will finish this project.

I host OPs every 2 weeks so this keeps me focused on making improvements and continuing the scenery construction.

I have waited my whole life for the time I could spend as much time as I wanted to working on the layout.

It has finally come and I do spend a LOT of time working on it (on the order of 40 hours a week)!

My wife is still working (2013) and when she goes to work I go down to the layout room and putter around!

And having a Scheduled OPs Session every 2 weeks helps me keep on schedule.

Yes it is a hobby and I really do NOT HAVE to do this - but as I stated above - I have waited a LONG time so I could do this and I AM going to have fun!

I have seen others lose interest in their layouts and when talking with them as to WHY

I find that they don’t do OPERATIONS and have found they have no goals NOW that their layout is almost finished as they say watching the trains run in CIRCLES gets a little boring!

NOW - those that host OPs Sessions monthly always seem to be busy getting a few new details installed or another industry to switch

There is always something they can do - a little maintenance to the layout to be sure that operators have NO Derailments - Maintenance on the Rolling Stock - adjusting the DCC Decoders to better respond to the commands etc, etc!

I usually invite those that are losing interest in their layout over to partake in OPs and they usually find that it is actually FUN to try and run a layout prototypically!

They soon begin to reevaluate their layout and most begin some type of OPs!

Their interest has been rekindled and they finally figured out why

16

The hobby we are in is just that- a hobby, not requiring a punch clock or posting hours of operation on the front door. I reserve a lot of my railroad time for summer, because, as a teacher, that is when I can devote more time to the hobby. I have been building my layout for several years- that is, considering all activities from track laying to structure building to remotoring a flea market find as being covered by the same concept. One thing I have found useful is to work on one aspect, say car rebuilding, for several months- then shift to some other activity. (knowing full well I will be replacing the backlog with more BB kits and used locomotive flea market finds every few months at the next opportunity). By changing from one thing to another like that, I then approach each project a bit fresher. When I don’t have time for the hobby, I might be just “laying back”, researching future projects or learning new methods of doing something. Don’t beat yourself up about losing interest- it’s a normal cycle many go thru. Cedarwoodron

17

I have that problem all the time. MRing for me is a winter time hobby because I don’t have the time in the summer months. I have a program I use that tracks what I buy, ya over time it really adds up. A new Super Duty Ford Dually pickup would look nice sitting in my driveway, instead of my basement lol.

18

Hi! Been in the hobby for over fifty years and I know exactly what you are going through. While I’ve enjoyed operating the trains, my real joy comes from the building, and modifications to, the layout.

You say “waning”…Well, my “waning” usually comes when I realize that I have exhausted the usable space that I have for the layout. So, I leave it alone for awhile and go do something else…that is…until I get bit by the train bug again and re-enter the world of trains.

As far as tracking “costs”…It’s a good idea to have an idea of what you have spent in case you get to the point that you have to liquidate your items BUT, on the other hand, (my opinion) it is a hobby, not really an investment so it doesn’t really matter!!! (I guess)

19

Not at all uncommon…

I was working on the layout literally every day for months, and then had a slew of home / yard improvements to endure. During the 3 month time, I never ran a train, entering the layout room only to get a tool or the like.

I would suggest you make it a point to just look at the layout every other day or so.

20

Over the time I have been in this hobby I have spent most of my time at the layout or at the workbench building the layout (tracks, buildings, landscaping, etc.). By far the majority of my time has been spent other than running the trains, although I have enjoyed working on the layout and making changes over the years.

There lays the trap…If I spent the majority of the time at the work bench,working on scenery or just remodeling the layout I would have quit the hobby years ago.

I have often said the biggest mistake I made was to keep a spreadsheet of costs - amazing how the dollars add up.

Why invest all that money if your not going to use the end product? The reason I build a switching layout is to enjoy the investment I have in engines and locomotives…I call that a return of investment.

I realize the consensus is a layout is never finish but,that idea was push by magazine 'experts" in their infomercials for the advertisers…A layout can be finish and that point is reached when the builder says “done!”…

When you have the urge to do some work select improvement projects like removable loads for those empty flats,gons and open hoppers.Add detail to your structures,vehicles,weather your freight cars,structures etc.There is much to be done in this hobby other then building and rebuilding the layout.

Above all operate instead of watching your train run endless laps.

I apologize if this seems harsh …That was never my intent.