With summer coming up quickly, and having many outdoor and household projects that need completed, I wonder how many (besides me), are feeling the toy train crunch? Lately I have been planting trees, and bushes, and need to lay some underground wiring. Not to mention a shed I should start building. In the meantime, my employer seems to think I should continue going to work. Seem to have little time for trains, but I still have a bunch of train projects I want to complete.
Two Intermountain kits I want to finish building.
Downtown portion of the layout needs to be completed.
Huge amount of wiring I need to finish. Mostly lights in buildings.
Walthers Walton & Sons Lumber Co. kit I need to finish.
Re-letter a Lionel Baby Mikado.
Pre-war passenger cars and freight cars I need to at least clean up and get working.
Three prewar engines needing various restoration procedures performed.
Not train-related, but some model airplane kits I want to build and paint.
On top of all this, I’m trying to lose a little weight. Time is not on my side at the moment. How many of you are also feeling the summer crunch, and dreaming of winter, when it seems it is easier to find more time for trains?
Spring, Summer and Fall are reserved for outdoor projects. I have to finish painting and trimming out the shed I built last summer, stain the deck, and I have a large patch of grass I am trying to reseed. Weather permitting (I don’t work outside during rainy periods) I will get to work on the layout. Oh and I also have a wife that seems to require attention at times too… [:-^] She’s been talking alot about a vacation this Summer… one question… WHAT IS A VACATION???
Our train work is nearly non existent during the summer UNLESS it gets to hot/humid to be outside. I remember clearly a few years ago on July 4 that we decided to do a complete inventory as it was absolutely miserable outside and in the air conditioned basement it was a perfect 68 – outside a blistering 97 with very high humidity.
What we will do this summer is detail work and move Artista people around replacing the D56 giants. Our summers are so short we try to take advantage of every moment we can by being outside.
Two other big projects this summer: a week of motorcycling in Colorado and five days in Wisconsin.
Trim and paint garage addition, and maybe a newel post and bannister up the stairs that has been waiting on me for longer than I care to remember, and a combo book case entertainment center.
Put soffit on underside of house, bend aluminun for facia boards, put new gutters up and top them off with gutter guards. Also all the yard work take care of ponds.
We decided to stay for a while. We were going to rent to our babbysitter, which would have worked, but was a little scary if she walked and I had to make double payments. Almost none of the houses we were looking at had full finished basements, and I didn’t want to give that up and start over. That, and I already finished my train benchwork…
not Me! I was unemployed for the last 8 weeks! now that I am back to work, I can start working on my railroad?!.. well at least I can afford too…
Lets see: Painted the house (called someone…) - check
stained the deck -check
landscaped the front of the house - check
repaired driveway - check
cut down and pruned trees - check
called the lawn mowing people - check (this will save 2 to 3 hours a week)
took the kids to see grandma - check and double check
cleaned out the garage - check
washed the wife’s car - check
so now … time to work on that railroad, wait… can’t until 5:00 pm, pick up the kids, cook dinner, visit with family, argh… when does the weekend get here?
My ‘Summer’ time is usually spent at the beach with my other hobby, ‘Metal Detecting’. On those rainy or non-beach days I’ll probably spend time really “cleaning” and “dusting” the layout (ie After I finish the Chief Engineer’s “Honey Do” list [;)]) and work on my plans for what will be my last next layout.
Between work, family obligations, outside projects, and remodeling two bathrooms, there is very little time left for summer train projects.
That said, I still hope to steal a couple of hours here and there, so that I can finish the new layout wiring for the track, switches, special track, and the accessories.
It sure would be nice to be able to run all of my trains!
Another thought: There is a guy in the neighborhood who says he thinks he has some old American Flyer stuff in a box in the closet that he wants to dispose of…?..
Summer Project: Convince him to let me help [;)] him get rid of the useless items. [}:)]
LOL… yeah seems those gold mines have been all played out. Even in the late 70’s stuff was either so abused you would have to use it for parts or people got wind of it being collectable and the price was too high…
Unfortunately w/current fuel oil prices, and the layout area although in an insulated area and on a seperate zone, construction is now reserved for the warmer months. As for summer projects: going to check out the 1:1 Railrunner and a few mile+ high cities in the SW.