What I am getting at is have you ever run out of ideas for your layout/things to do? (besides running trains, etc. I’m talking layout building, etc). I’m sort of to that point with my layout- I look at it and I’m not sure what to do to it anymore. I used to not have any problems with looking at a particular area and deciding what was going to go there/what I was going to model there and so forth, but now I’m running out of areas to put “stuff” without it looking cluttered. I don’t have the room to expand or I’d do that.
I’ve tried some small things here and there (like soldering joints in my track where there is a gap as well as cleaning up my ballasting effort from last year) but it doesn’t seem to be filling the void as well as I thought it might.
Well it depends on some things…if you’ve been working on this layout for twenty years, it could be it’s just gone stale and you need to start over with something different. If you’ve been working on it for one year, it could be the plan you had at the start wasn’t that great. Maybe you need to re-think things, make a list of your “givens and druthers” as John Armstrong used to have his clients do. Do you want to emphasize lots of operating possibilities, or is scenic beauty more important. Do you want to operate a triple track mainline with double stacks and unit coal trains, or does a branchline with a 4-6-0 and a few boxcars come closer to your desires?? Then take a look at your current layout and see how much it meets (or fails to meet) those needs.
According to Linn Westcott’s book on John Allen, Allen would photograph models and/or scenes and then examine the photos. Every place he found anything that tipped him off that it was not the prototype he considered that an opportunity for improvement. That approach might work for you - take a bunch of pictures and see what you think.
If you do this and you can’t tell your layout from the real world, be sure to post the pictures because I’d like to see.
Try weathering and detailing. That can be a never ending process.
I’ve put a hold on my purchasing because I looked around and realized it’s gonna take me 2 years to build what I have. I don’t see ever running out of little things to do.
On my layout I always have room for more people and trees. If you get the unpainted/unbuilt variety you’ll save money and have a way to spend a lot of creative hours. I always need more rolling stock, too. Kits are a good way to get more cars and expend some creative energy.
I’ve been thinking of connecting all of my building lights to micro-switches and setting them up with a clock motor/cam to turn them on and off in a sequence over a one-hour cycle. If you don’t have something like this already, it may be an interesting project to build.
Chances are that a poll of the folks on the forum would yeild dozens of ideas for “Finished Layout” projects, but it may be you, not your layout. If you are actually running out of steam - losing interest - that’s OK. I think it happens to a lot of us - even John Allen took a 3 month break and had doubts about returning to model railroading. Go do something else for a while. I think most of us who set our trains aside eventually return with renewed interest.
I run out of steam about every four months. It’s expected, especially if your layout is getting to the point where it might be considered ‘finished’ in your eyes. Then I find out something that I missed, or haven’t done yet and MISSED that I haven’t done yet, and I’m back out there doing whatever improvement needs to be done.
The whole idea of Model Railroading, at least the idea I grew up with way back when I started, is to have your layout finished and operating so that you can sit back and say, “Hey, I did THIS! Isn’t it TERRIFIC?”
But as we go along in the hobby and grow in it, eventually we realize that the original idea is a fallacy. Model Railroading has a lot in common with being a writer or a musician–there’s always something you can re-discover once you’ve worked on the technique for a while. For instance, ever since I started working on my present layout seven years ago, I have this big, long 6’ long by 2-3’ high glob of granite called the Sierra Buttes. This spring I took a look at them and said to myself, “I can do better than this.” So for the past six months, I’ve been busy re-facing them to LOOK like the Sierra Buttes. Messy, but I’m having a lot of fun, and I’ve learned a lot about rock-casting in the meantime.
There’s always something to do. Sometimes it has to hit you in the face, though. [:)]
So don’t worry about ‘running out of steam’–we all do. But something always happens to shovel more coal into that mental firebox.
I know where you are coming from, but a little different point of view. For me and maybe your self the quest is half the fun. 2 years ago when I walked in to K-10 model trains, I felt like a kid again looking at all the stuff I wanted. Now two years later I sort of look but I have not seen anything I have wanted for 6 months. In 3 years I have collected 300 rolling stock, 50 engines, 30 passenger cars, 50 plus buildings and 300 foot (apx) of main line. I have just got into serene and sicking a few months ago and do enjoy it. Problem is I really don’t like the bench and know it will all come down next year when I move so I lost the fire to do any more for now.
What do you miss, the collecting, the building and the quest? Or like me bored with knowing where the trains are going?
If it is the building, maybe remove a mountain, add a field, or make a bigger mountain? Remove a town or add to one. Just because it is built does not mean it needs to stay the same for ever. Maybe add a removable yard?
I wasn’t even running out of steam, but then I ran into steam. Specifically, I got the steam bug while working on my late Transition Era layout. I’m pretty well equipped with diesels and freight appropriate to the mid-1960’s, but I just had to have that Proto 0-6-0 with sound.
So, now everything I do has to be done considering either 1967 or 1937. I’m building up my collection of vehicles and earlier rolling stock. I’ve already bought one structure that will be swapped for the too-modern looking theater in town. I figure that if I do this right, I can switch my layout 3 decades in under an hour, and back again, anytime I feel like a change.
You could try something like what Dave Vollmer did. You could pick two different eras and adapt your layout to both, trading off occassionally.
Say, For example 1920’s- 1930’s and 1990s. Set up layout with its buildings for 1930’s (diners, small hotels, single stores, pre war houses) and change them out for ones of 1990’s (tract housing, fast food, chain motels, department stores). Of course you would have to adapt your running gear accordingly too.
I can think of a gagillion things to work on in this set up, then i look at all the stuff lurking in the corners and go 'AAAAAAGH!!!" . So there’s always something to do.
It could be that you might need to find what motivates you and give that a twirl…[:)]
I have gone through the same thing . My solution was to change time periods and to start detailing equipment , I have even gone back and even redid some buildings . Maybe try it ,
