So, I haven’t touched my layout since early June. With the onset of summer in all its magnificient glory, my garden work (I guess you could call it my other hobby) has had me outdoors a lot. I just have no interest in being down in the icy cold basement when it’s Sunny and hot outside. Am I alone here or is this common?
Trevor
I hate the hot weather and the bugs, so I spend as much time in the air-conditioned train room as possible. In the winter, we get out on the ski slopes, so I have less time then.
Icy cold basements aren’t enough. I love my Tuesday night ice hockey game, particularly in the summer months.
I’m with Trevor on this one. I would much rather be outside in the summer. Golf, cycling, photography, cruisin’ with the top down. I love warm weather! The trains will be thee in the fall.
Tom
Hey TGG - [#welcome] to the MR forum!
I like to balance both outdoors and indoors activities. While it is hot outside I like to get my yard work done early in the morning before it gets too hot. Then go inside for the noon to 6 o’clock hours, then me and the CFO go on our early evening walk. Then it’s back to the trian room.
Cheers,
Ryan
My train time had been minimal through the cold months due to lack of funds. Now it’s dead as spring through summer is my house repair/projects period. If I’m not working on something around the house in my spare time, I’m at a soccer game watching my son play. If I’m real lucky I’m on vacation.
I’m starting to think about fall now and I’m not seeing any up-tick in MRR activity. As I’ll likely spend my time on pursuits I can actually afford, I honestly think MRR’ing is going to go dormant for a while to come. I’ve actually entertained thoughts of dismantling my layout! Yikes! Is there a cure (besides hitting the lottery)?
I have nearly stalled on my layout building. Like most of us, gardening, gatherings, visitors, and other things have gotten in the way for me. We just sold our Tundra and our travel trailer because of the loss of their value as time goes on and the rise in the cost of fuel. It seemed prudent to get as much value from them as possible while there is still a demand for them. We got a Corolla, instead. Anyway, that took up much of last week.
Also, I am teaching two courses online, and will not have much free time until I have graded the last of the essays near 20 Aug.
I haven’t even been able run my trains either… just too much to do around the house and things to do outdoors. Alaska summers are far to short to waste indoors. On the otherhand, you have almost unlimitied modeling time in the winter!
Peter
Same here on the household repairs, too much to do right now fixing things up before another brutal winter here in northern PA. I want to do some track re-work but just no time right now. Of course the “normal” stuff fills the extra time, like mowing, etc etc…
When the temps get into the high 80s to mid 90s I prefer being under the AC modeling…I also railfan a lot in the summer in the cool of the morning…[:)]
I just wish I had time for it ALL !! Make the days longer someone …please!
If I had an icy cold basement, not only would I be down there working on the layout during every free minute, my friends would probably be over to visit too…my layout is in my utterly un-air-conditioned garage, and considering we have been having 110-115 degree days out here, working on the layout is literally an invitation to heatstroke. I keep a small workbench and toolbox in the living room (stored in a pretty wooden case acceptable to the wife’s sense of living room aesthetics) so I can work on rolling stock or small structures in the house on days when going out to the layout could result in spontaneous human combustion…although a basement, even a moderately tepid basement, would be a darn nice improvement!
My wifes cousin and I just finished a 12x16 foot concrete covered patio area in my backyard so that has taken a lot of my time recently. I had a guy come run a buried electric line out to it, install a ceiling fan, lights etc. this past Saturaday and you know how it is, you can never find all the dirt the trencher machine dug out so this morning. I’ve been getting more dirt to fill it in. I also loaded the pickup with things that shoulda been taken care of years ago…i.e., old dilapidated picnic table and chairs, pieces of broken lumber and the like, and took it all to the dump. On the way back I stoppd off and bought a truck load of pine bark mulch so now I have it to spread. We have about an acre and a half that I cut in the grass growing season. Thank God for riding mowers. I’ve been able to get a little wiring done on the layout but still have a ways to go. I keep telling myself that when winter comes I’m gonna make some REAL progress in there.
As stated above, there is plenty to take advantage of outdoors. Went and rafted the Royal Gorge last weekend, and may go again this weekend. Also a lot of hiking and biking to get in before winter hits. It is really hard for me to stay indoors long enough to get any modeling done this time of the year.
I myself dont do much outside sorry 90 degrees with 60 to 100% humidity aint fun to be in. I find that I do more work o the laout during the hot days of summer than the cold days of winter. October I am usually busy setting up for halloween, November is Model Railroad month and trainfest is here in Milwaukee, WI. My Bday is Nov 19 and then I get the Tree ready with lights (yes I still wrap the lights on the tree 1300 of them on one and 12 on the other) I get ready for thanksgiving and then start to get ready for Christmas so the layout really slows down. Plus we have a layout around he mid section of the tree (HO scale) with Dept 56 items. I may get to working on the layout during this time but very very rare. By the time New Years rolls around I am dead tired. Plus I watch A lot of Football so that cuts into the available time lol. So to recap if its to hot or raining I work on the layout when its winter I am out having a good time working in the house etc.
For me, it’s a bit of the other way around. Because I’m of student age, this is the time of year I have most free time, and I like to take advantage of that. However, after spending eight or so hours each day working on the railroad (only surfacing for lunch or the laptop power cord), I’m losing steam and am spending more time doing other things.
I don’t get as much model work done in the summer as during fall, winter and spring. A bit warm in the attic, so I head to the cool basement garage to work on the other hobby equipment, stationary steam engines.
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for the hearty welcome, sadly I’m not new, just my login ID has changed. For some reason when the new forum started up I could not login using my old name “TrevorG”. As a result I had to either not come into the forum or create a new ID. So as you can see, I created a new ID and my post numbers show that I’m a total rookie. Think of it as a “forum facelift”![(-D]
Trevor
As for myself I have been doing a lot of work on the HO layout. I run a home based busisness and since busisness is way down due to lack of rain and 115 F+ temps. I find myself in the airconditioned train room most of the time, making trees, doing landscape etc… The biggest problem is that busisness is so slow I do not have $$$$$$ to do very much. Mike
Oh by the way, I spend a lot of time running the train.
I resemble that! I still operate about one fast-clock hour (or less) on my end-o-the-line module each time I go into the oven - er - garage. Even with some insulation, the (code mandated) ventilation openings mean that the air temp is outside ambient, which has been in the triple digits for some time now. Grabbing a steel stud to start work on my new layout’s framing results in nasty burning sensations - not conducive to a desire to press on with construction. Perspiration cascading into my eyes is another non-incentive. As a result, physical progress on the layout is on hold awaiting cooler weather. There’s a rumor we will actually see some after Labor Day.
In the meantime, I have the time to make more detailed plans for the new, improved version of The Chrysanthemum Empire. I have also been working on rolling stock, some of which has not been run for several years, and participating in the forums. That’s all very well - but I sure do want to get going on heavy construction!
Chuck
I try to do as much as possible in the summer, but the heat keeps me from making big leaps. Most of the time, I spend the daytime hours outside with a good book, magazine or (if the sun isn’t burning my flesh off) work on my mini-layout, which is small and portable.
After 9 PM, the trainroom has usually cooled off enough to do some work, so I try to do as much as possible then. Athough with the extreme heat we are having the last 2 months here in Holland, the room is still 35 Celsius around 9 PM (Living in an older house with wooden floors and a shallow roof doesn’t help either…), so no way I’m going to hang out in there.
In the fall and winter, thats when I usually make the leaps.