Thanks for all the suggestions, pushes, nudges and all round support to those who read and replied to the above noted post.
It got me off my tail and got me moving right along. In the last 2 days, I finished assembling the last of the benchwork, got the bottom loop of the stacked loop installed and am pondering on using the inside of the loop as a off scene storage yard. Clearance to the upper loop is 4 inches not that that is a lot of space but with a little of my Son in Laws electronics expertise, it shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish. Have to consider what access will exist from above… The actual lower loop is 4 ft X 8 ft so there are lots of options.
Sounds like you just need a good old dose of motivation. When I am in the procrastination phase I wait for a day when I feel real rested and good and spend a great part of the day doing whatever it is I have been putting off. With a good deal of progress made that first day it usually gives me the motivation to keep on going in the future.
I do not think there is an age limit to starting a layout. Now, age, ability, money, and available layout space are factors to consider. I would also add health as another consideration. But, no matter the answer to each of the above questions, one can still be active in the model railroading hobby!![:D]
Build something relatively small with the ability to add more sections to it. As you get one section up and running, you can begin to plan the next one. Or go into the structure building and scenery route. HAVE FUN with the rest of your life. [<:o)] Remember, we only get one chance at life, so live it to its fullest.[2c]
I can identify with some of what you say. Especially the cost of living and fixed income.
You might try making a 3-D model of your “dream” layout. I used the free Atlas RTS software to make a track plan and then cut it up and glued it to thin cardboard “risers” and used some Sculptamold and ended up with a model that really helped me visualize the layout and work out some bugs.
Then I built the actual layout on some wood “modules” with blue foam for a base.
We did have to move and I was able to crate up the layout.
Now we have a new home and a spare room (not large) that I can use for a train room.
I hope to start reassembling the layout in the near future.
I also liked to “hack” at oil painting and I think that helped me with the layout scenery too.
But it is kind of hard to stay motivated with all the stuff that retirement age brings along.
I hope this might encourage you (or both of us) to make some progress.[:)]
I’m 64, took early retirement and still work part time. I am just starting a new layout. I haven’t had one since High School. The space available to me is in my home office. My layout will be approximately 2 1/2’ x 11 1/2’. I tried planning it on paper but couldn’t get anywhere. Finally I decided to build the bechwork and plan it full scale usung photocopies of turnouts. It is probably one of the most frustrating things I have done- I just couldn’t fit everything I wanted into it - I worked on it for weeks. Finally I think I have a workable plan but I’m sure it will morph as I build it - that seems to be the way I do things, plan it as I go along.
I live in Costa Rica. The limited Hobby supplies are double the cost of those in the States. I end up mail ordering a lot, but after shipping and customs charges it still ends up double. An expensive hobby times 2 here in Costa Rica. Currently, because of lack of funds, new purchases are on hold. The current status of my layout is: Benchwork, some loose unlaid track and turnouts, A Bachman Specrum 4-4-0, a couple of stock cars and three scratch built structures. Currently I am working on scratch building the structures because the cost is minimal and I really enjoy it. I can make progress on my layout without spending too much. Hopefully, soon, I will be able to purchase more track and begin laying track and building scenery.
I some ways, I have the opposite problem as you. Once I start into something, I become completely immersed and don’t want to stop until I have finished. Taking on a large project like a layout becomes frustrating because it is so endless - it takes a long time to see any fruition! It is also frustrating when I lay awake at night planning my next phase and can’t sleep. I am having to learn to discipline myself and stop mid-project and go do something else like pay
I appreciate your post and your phrase “analysis to paralysis.” I, too, have a tendency to over-analyze something before dipping my toe into it.
My son will be three years old on August 20. He’s been infatuated with Thomas and other trains since he was about a year old. We’ve bought him lots of Thomas stuff that fill our living room, dining room, and sitting room.
We also bought him an O-gauge Thomas set. That’s been the least entertaining for him because it goes in a simple oval and he’s not permitted to handle the engine in the same way he handles his battery-powered and wooden engines.
I want to build him a nice layout–nice for a three-year-old, which is not what a fifty-year model railroader would consider nice–and have created nearly three hundred files in RailModeller in developing a track plan. I’ve spent the majority of my free time in the past three months trying to develop a good plan for him.
I’ve just about finished paralyzing myself, though. Fortunately, this paralysis is reversible. I’m going to move forward knowing that every single facet of what I create is going to be flawed in some way, especially considering my gross ignorance of almost every skill involved in creating a model railroad.
My point is that nothing is perfect. My father-in-law often says about himself, “I make a lot of mistakes, but I get a lot done.” He’s the most productive man I’ve ever known, and I’m forty-one years old and have known him for twenty-one years.
So, you might try making a decision as to whether you want to build another railroad. Give yourself a time limit to make your decision, be it ten days or ten weeks. If you decide you want to build one, consider creating a flexible timetable for getting the project done. On the days when you don’t really want to work on your railroad but your timetable calls for action, go ahead and get busy on it. If after thirty minutes o
That is certainly part of the issue for me. Living in the “Great White North” one would think that the long cold winter would be motivation but it sure wasn’t for me this last winter and believe me it was really long and really cold/snowy. Took forever for spring to arrive and it’s been raining /cold all through June so I sort of makes me a real procrastinator. Thanks for the reply
l have been way down in the dumps for the last while due to a bunch of things. Sort of feeling like all the good stuff in my lifetime allocation is used up and there isn’t any reason to go on. Time to get back to on my horse so to speak and get going with life again! [bow] Thanks for pep talk, I needed it.
Costa Rica… my wife and I considered moving there when I retired for the 3rd time [:$] I think I’ve still not used to being “Retired”. Anyway, a couple of things caused us to reject moving down your way. 1) Family, 2 aging mothers and our one and only Grandson, (20 mts.)
The other problem is related to health care, given that I have some health issues. Isn’t maturity great!
For most of my life I was your typical Type A personalty go go go. No that I’ve finally learned to slow down, it seems like my go switch is broken. No happy mediums in life for me. I like your wife’s suggestion for a name for your rr.O&C. I think I could use LT&C (Long time Coming) [;)]
As for the planning issue, I really think your suggestion is a good one. Since I have the benchwork in, get started laying out the end loops and go from there. Maybe seeing a train actually run would keep me going.
“What are you going to do? You have to live or die. And if you’re not dying, then you might as well get busy living.” Great suggestion… and you are so right! Thanks for reminder. I watched my father sit in his chair and die and swore I’d never do that to myself. Time to get on with living, even if it has rained here for the last 20 days straight.
Prescription, Use SAD light daily & quit feeling sorry for self!
I just turned 70 last week and just started my dream layout 1 year ago. I retired 3 years ago and it took 2 years to come up with a track plan that I thought I would like. Well, I have changed it 2 or 3 times since I started bulding it. My layout is in a 24 x 26 addition that I build for the layout, before I had a track plan. I got frustrated too many times and realized that I am still getting older and must stop changing things and build them. I won’t/may not be able to get around and under the layout in a few years so I better go with what I have. Along the way, I decided to switch to code 83 track and had to replace all my track (not laid yet??) and then decided to go to DCC and had to start converting my locos with decoders. Now DCC has become a whole other hobby, but I love it. Now I feel that the layout I have built (still building) is nice but doesn’t allow for some of the things I had wanted in a layout. I am still forging ahead and will live with whatever shortcomings it has. I figure I only have so many years left and I want to have the scenery done and still have time to build all those building and rolling stock kits I have stockpiled over the past 5-6 years.
My advice: take the best layout design you now have and go with it. You can always change things later but get something on the benchwork so you can start to enjoy running some trains. Once I had some track down and ran some trains, I got excited and encouraged to do more. Now I can’t wait to get into the trainroom and do some little task to get me closer to my goal. I build structures that I don’t have a spot assigned to but I enjoy building, so I build. I add decoders to engines that are sitting on the shelf; I now have 18 DCC locos running. BUT, I AM HAVING FUN AND DOING WHAT I ALWAYS DREAMED OF. DON’T KEEP PUTTING IT OFF. ENJOY YOUR HOBBY.
I am 66 and I have been starting my new railroad for about three years and don’t have trains running yet. I expect this to be my last “big” layout and it is really spare bedroom sized rather than 30 x 40 foot train-palace dream layout sized.
But work keeps getting stalled, because I am trying to finish graduate school to start a career.
Thanks Bob, I appreciate your comments. Since I posted this earlier today other members such as yourself have kick started me to actually get something done on the rr. Finished the benchwork this afternoon. It’s raining out and cold to boot so at least I feel like I actually accomplished something positive for a change.
Get some trains running. Then you will want them to run through scenery, so you’ll start to add some, even a small area will make it look better. The ball is rolling.
I am semi retired and now have had a little time to work on a layout. While I was still working I started my alternative layout, (Dream layout room has been occupied by a variety ot things, since it was selected by spouse.) Had I done a little thinking, I would have reversed the door and done some around the room moveable modules to get me going, instead of a 4’x6’.
My suggestion is to take several of the modules you have make a loop and lay track. If you set some standards, like a modular group does, (track so far from the front edge at the joints) you can add more modules later and rearrange them if needed later. Get them set up and a train running. Scenic one module, while you think about your expansion. If you have a blank area on one side, while you are working on the other side, so be it. As long as you don’t attach your track too firmly, you should be able to make modifications and add turnouts when you decide what you are going to do in that area.
As you can see, age has little to do with starting/starting over. If you worry about getting old, you probably will do it faster than necessary.
Choo Choo, what’s wrong with you, man? What do you mean, “I’ve finally learned to slow down” ?
Therein lies your problem.
I retired three years ago and swapped a desk chair and an office for the things that I want to do. Golf, landscape management, model railroading, building a deck with my son, etc., etc., etc.
If you sit around waiting to become disabled, incapacitated, and ultimately die, your wishes will all come true.
Willie, just a suggestion? When you click on reply in the lower corner of each post, what appears at te top of the next page that opens is a lightly-grey-highlighted text of the post you just clicked reply to. In the lower corner, in blue font, is “Quote”. Click on that, and wait for the text of the person you are responding to to appear in your new reply text box, and then commence typing after the
[/quote]
. That way, your comments will contain the context so that all readers will understand to whom you have addressed yourself.
By way of a response from me for your circumstances, you have been in transition for a long time, and have been in a constat phase of adaptation to changing circumstances. When that happens, it is easy to become dejected, a bit fearful, and more than a little angry, perhaps feeling that it isn’t exactly fair that your dreams and plans are slipping by a beautiful ful day at a time. And you are not getting any better looking, so at least you should be having some ‘me’ time…right?
It is natural to despair a bit, and to feel PO’d that you can’t be allowed to find your rhythm. I have those days myself. I am trying desperately to get back into some semblance of physical condition so that a bunch of us can run the Victoria Half Marathon on the 9th of October. Trouble is, my last year was horrible with injuries and other impositions on my routine. I now have 10 pounds to shed, and am having a heck of a time trying to get a routine so that I can plan b
The reason you retire is because you are old and to get up early every day and work hard for eight hours plus drive time you can’t do it any more. I do work on my model railroad near daily but easily, not like being at work. Even before I retired I coulden’t work hard on my hobbies on weekends, you need some relaxing time. I am well along on my O gauge 3 rail and have framework and track plan for HO adjacent to it. I have just decided to expand the O gauge to the planned HO to make one big 3 rail. Then HO in a spare bedroom that I could use. I don’t have a problem analysing but I am a little worried that as I get older if I will get all this at least somewhat done. I am one who a good part of the fun is building, planning.
Graduate school at 66 to start a career??? So what the heck have you been doing for the last 40 years of so? Must mean “another career” or a “new career”. What the heck, they do say that 60 is the new 40 or something…[bow]
