I’ve posted some progress photos of my layout beginning with the empty room to today. The link is at the bottom of this post. As you’ll see if you visit, I’m no expert for sure… but I’m having a heck of a lot of fun. I started building in July of this year, so have made quite a lot of progress in a short time.
I’m a “Railfan” not operations oriented guy, so as you’ll see I’ve crammed lots of track into the room at the expense of realism, and wide aisles, but with the benefit of lots of trains. Hope it’s fun for you to look at!
Amazing. I started my layout about 1 year ago also. It is my first one. I am humbled by looking at your layout. All that work. And great work I should add. Where did you get the time? Well I’ll keep your layout in mind as I continue on mine. Great work. Also it was a fantastic idea to photograph work as it progressed.
Wow, nice selection of photos. You’ve really been busy on this. I’ve been going for a year and a half now, and you’re way further along than I am.
Done too soon? Well, after I’m “finished” with my layout, I’m going to selectively substitute buildings, vehicles and trains to put my railroad back 30 or 40 years.
Hard to believe you did all that in such a short time !
In Photo 27, “Lit Control Panel”, you say that the yard area is very cluttered visually. I tend to agree and have this suggestion : Would you consider using bi-coloured LEDs instead ? You would halve the number of lights and clean up the look while having the same functionality of the red-green indicators. Instead of a red LED and a green LED for each turn-out, you’d have only one. That should make the yard area far less confusing for you.
Thanks, everyone for the nice comments. Lots of folks asking where I found the time: I’m a self-employed software developer (my main piece of software is a music scheduler for the the radio industry), and I work out of my home… so lately when the phone’s not ringing I’m in the layout room. Sometimes I’m even doing tech support on the headset while I’m working on the layout[:)]. Plus I’ve obviously been quite obsessed with the whole thing.
By the way, thanks too, that no one busted me for the un-proto-typical-ness of it (I already knew that). I’m just here for fun – not really that big on modeling a particular railroad name or era or industry… maybe sometime in the future that will matter more to me.
Mr. Beasley – when I say I’m “done too soon” I know I’m far from done… but I am kinda done with the parts that are most fun to me: design, benchwork, roadbed & track, wiring. The scenery stuff is less satisfying for me. I need to add some electronic projects, I guess.
Timothy – thanks for the thought on red/green LEDs. I may re-do the control panel at some point and that would clean up the yard section a lot. I built the control panel on a stand alone console with a 4-foot cable to it with the console on wheels so I could move it around. In actual use, that all turns out to be quite useless, so I may re-do it.
Model Railroading is Fun. Thats what its all about, and you’ve had (and will have) a ball. I’m another of the “unprototypical” crowd. With my kids now, I’m going to have different cars and engines from many railroads and eras and I’m not sure I really care. Great job!
Jack, First off thank you for the link to the "Yard Office’ shareware. Second, thanks for posting your photos of your layout.You have done a good job in a short time. Most off all you are having fun. And fun is what this hobby is all about.I hope when I start mine I remember to have fun, keep the stress away and enjoy the hobby. Unfortunately so many folks have set such high standards in this hobby I have high expectations of a museum quality layout with prototypical operation. I can hardly wait to see what develops for me. I must remember the “fun” thing…lol. Great layout and thanks again!-Michael
I am amazed at how much work you’ve put into your layout in only 3 months! But I can easily see how it could be done in that amount of time…that’s not the most amazing part of your acomplishment. The most amazing part of your accomplishment is the bucket loads of money you must have dropped to purchase ALL of that equipment and accessories in just 3 months. I have spent thousands of dollars on my layout, loco’s, tracks and accessories, coaches and freight, structures, electronics (DCC), et al. Have you got a dollar figure on your per day costs?
Keep on chugging along. And don’t worry about counting rivets as long as you’re having the most fun you possibly can. I look forward to seeing more updates.
You’re right. It’s a bucket load of money. And, of course, I do have it all catalogued in my Yard Office software so I do know how much I’ve spent, but I’m too embarrassed to mention the figure in public.
I didn’t spend it all in three months, though. The layout I’m showing is my new one. I started building in N scale two years ago, and quickly grew tired of its “smallness.” So I sold what I had on e-bay and built an HO Layout over the subsequent year and a half. For me, HO is much, much more satisfying.
As I built and spent time here at trains.com, I was learning so much that I finally got to the point that I wanted to start over and try to do a better job using what I’ve learned here. So this summer I bit the bullet and tore down my trains to begin what is pictured at the link below. I now have essentially no derailments.
From this forum, I’ve learned:
How to solder
Proper track laying methods
How to wire LEDS and toggles
The benefits of Tortoises compared to other choices
Pros and cons of various manufacturers of track and rolling stock
Bench-work techniques
Advantages of bus wiring
All kinds of stuff about DCC, auto reversing, radio throttles, decoders
very impressive i love the progressive pics i too model just for fun not extremely prototypical. but its loads of fun and very therapeutic. great job. dave