As most here have noticed, I make no secret that I am on the autism spectrum. Diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome a couple years ago, but I have dealt with the difficulties of having this disorder since I was a child. While trains are my “go to” calming tool, they also can be a source of frustration. This really comes to the surface in trying to build a layout. It is so overwhelming and complex that I just keep getting false starts. I get one track plan somewhat done, then get frustrated trying to find odd pieces of needed track or my complete dislike doing scenery. I picked up that oddball preformed layout thinking it would be the ticket around the whole major scenery issue, just revamp it with some fresh grass and paint. But I cannot find who made it nor can I figure out what track radius to use. I tried some 18 and 22 inch radius track I had from my 2 rail days, nope. The track from my stater set is to tight of a radius and I have no local source of C track to experiment with to see what fits. To my autistic mind, the track needs to follow the road bed that is molded and not deviate from it much. So now I cant run trains as the molded thing is sitting on my 4x7 foot table and the track is in a pile at one end. Making track plans is just as frustrating. I may have to sell off some stuff so I can afford one of the newer Noch layouts that will fit on my table. I am kind of a lone wolf where I live, with nobody else to assist with scenery or helping make a layout from a flat table top, look less flat and more like Germany. So for now I am so overwhelmed and frustrated that nothing is going to happen for a bit, despite my desire to run some trains, and that is even more frustrating. Mike
Hi Mike:
I’m not very familiar with Asperger’s, but I hope you can hang in there. Its too bad that you don’t have somebody in your area who could help with your layout.
Wishing you all the best!
Dave
Hi, Mike
Of course it’s impossible for me anyone else to view the world through someone else’s eyes but I have read nearly all of John Elder Robison’s books after first reading some of Augusten Burrough’s, then figuring out they were brothers. This gave me some insight and understanding about AS and related conditions.
What fascinating lives they have! I feel that we all have varying degrees of idiosynchrasies and we learn to adapt to our behavior rather than try to modify it.
How often do I fume about the mess I’ve created, yet I forge ahead and begin new projects that only add to the mess without looking back and cleaning up after the earlier mess.
Human nature? Perhaps to some degree…
I hope model railroading can help you find balance and rewarding time for yourself.
Good Luck, Ed
Mike,
I am not sure what your problem is, but let me attempt to lend you a virtual helping hand.
If I am right, I think you are running Marklin HO scale 3-rail AC trains on C-Gleis track, that´s the track with the dark grey roadbed molded on. Forget any old 2-rail track you may have, it just won´t connect or do any good. You have to stay with that Marklin track.
Marklin track has much tighter radius curves, the sharpest being 360mm, that´s just a little over 14". Aside from looking a little strange, it´s not an issue, as all Marklin locos and cars will negotiate these curves without a problem - no derailing or uncoupling.
If you have a problem with developing a track plan, just tell me how much room you have for your layout and what you would like to see on it. I will try to develop a track plan for you.
As for you having a dislike for making scenery, but wanting something to resemble Germany - well, I live in Germany, up north, where the countryside is pretty flat. The flat part of Germany is about a third of the country, the balance being hills and mountains.
In my childhood days many moons ago, Marklin´s show layouts were built flat on a table top, with just a hint of scenery. Those layouts were a young boy´s dream. I could spent hours looking at the one displayed in our local toy store with my nose touching the window …
These layouts were pure fun and the still are. One of these days I am going to build a layout just like them, for reason´s of nostalgia! And, IMHO, they look much better than those awfully expensive Noch plastic scenery bases!
Remember that all these fancy scenic material you can buy nowadays were not around in those days. Marklin used oil paints and sawdust instead.
OK, this layout does not look like many of the fantastic layouts you see here or in the MR mag, but what the heck!
Having been just recentlly diagnosed with it myself after 40 some years, now they call it high functioning autism. I can be a pain in life. The other day i freeked out as i could can find a can of grey paint, Tonight at work i made a idiot of myself as i was not listining right to what some somebody was telling me. My seven year daughter is real bad on the autism scale, she is non verbal, she has to go to a special school half a state away from us. Will see her this weekend.
Ulrich, that is one kool looking M track layout. I know the 2 rail cannot hook to M’s track. I was using it to try and find the radius needed for this old, probably Noch, preformed layout. That didnt work so put the preformed thing in my storage shed. I used to have a whole box of M track, but let it go and regret it now. Maybe I can do a layout similar to that factory layout, but using the newer C track. One of my major problems is that I am very very easily frustrated. So I have to take baby steps when I do not want to do that. Ulrich, my table is 4 foot by 7 foot in size. My starter set is the first one to have the new class 24 with a branch line train and the mobile station 2. Mike
Mike, welcome to the club of impatient people… I get that feeling all the time. Here is how I manage it:
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if you can, work on many projects at a time. That way you can turn to something else for a few days. Do some scenary, build a kit, paint something, make trees, etc.
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for the same reason, i have other hobbies as well. I do some reading, gardening, etc.
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is there a club in your area? That’s a quick way to run your trains before you get your layout going.
Most important of all, learn to manage your expectations. Do it for fun and try to relax. Good luck!
Simon, from Canada.
No clubs that I know of that run Marklin 3 rail, I do try to run my outdoor G scale when I can this time of year. Its nice as mother nature does the scenery for me, I just have to trim and prune from time to time. I will see what Ulrich comes up with for a track plan. Also, I am not using the moble station the set came with Ulrich, I use an Unlenbrock Intellibox 2 and the seperate IB switch control box to handle digital duties. I plan to reinstall it on the layout now that I have clearned the table off bare and can start fresh. Mike
Mike,
I used to control my old Marklin layout with an Uhlenbrook DAISY control, the poor man´s alternative to the Intellibox.
Just two pics of that layout remain in my files:
Are your switches also equipped with a decoder?
I have not yet heard of a club in the US using the Marklin 3-rail AC. Here in Germany quite a few do, including the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg.
However, there is a Marklin Users Community with a specific forum, which could be of interest and also of help - take a look here:
Allow me a few days to draft up a track plan similar to the one shown for your 4 by 7 ft table. I think it´ll work out, but it does take a little while to put it on virtual paper!
I am with you on losing my patience and sometimes even my temper when things don´t work out the way I want it. My Swiss layout is my third attempt at a layout within the last two years and while it is quite OK, it´s not exactly what I had in mind. The key reason being the poor quality of that rather expensive Bemo stuff - it´s all show, but no stay! My Z scale layout is a different story - everything works out the way I have planned it - so far! It is intended to be the last layout I build, but that may change when I find the space to build my dream Marklin-Nostalgia layout - the one in the picture!
I cant say that I understand your condition but I do understand frustration. When it happens to me on the trains and I start to get aggrevated I have learned that it is time to stop and do something else.
I only got the Uhlenbrock stuff as the shop I go thru in Zionsville, Indiana has a bunch of it from a collection, several Intelleboxs and other bits of that system. I was selling off my USA 2 rail stuff and had plenty of shop credit to use. There is a chapter of the ETE club, but I dont think they are based close to me, wanna say up near Chicago possibly. I used to see them at the larger shows in Indianapolis, but haven’t for a couple years now. For those that do not know what its like to live with Asperger’s or high functioning autism, there are plenty of sites and blogs on what the condition is like, both from a clinical standpoint and thru the eyes of those that live with it. And like any spectrum disorder, no 2 people are alike, and how well I function each day, depends on that day itself. Mike
Mike,
I am making good progress planning the layout and I think that layout in the above picture can be made to fit to a 4 by 7 ft. table, using Marklin´s C-Gleis track.
Just as an alternative - which Noch plastic scenery base do you have? Maybe I can develop a track plan for it as well. Gives you an option.
We dont know what model it is actualy, or even if its a Noch. Here are 2 pics I took of it. The lake was partialy filled to make a spot for the depot by the previous owner. Mike
Here is the table with some of my C track laid out. Mike
Mike - I doubt it´s a Noch. The way it looks it should head for the dumpster, not worth bothering.
Sorry!
I´ll guess I have that plan ready by Sunday - a friend of mine is joining me tomorrow afternoon to help me complete the wiring on my Swiss layout. It´s only finishing touches, but they involve soldering, which I absolutely hate after having suffered severe burns decades ago when grabbing a hot soldering iron when it fell off the table. Stupid me! Believe me, I had choice words then!
I have 2 boxes of nice buildings, they are worth what I gave for it. I could restore the layout, if I know what it was and what it originaly looked like. Its off the table now, so I look forward to your design. That table folds up against the frame work on the wall, giving me a depth of 10 inches for anything perminant on the layout. So any tunnels and mountains need to be under that or have a removeable section. I do want a tunnel in one corner or even two, but I could use the removable Noch ones they sell. Mike
Mike–
I am very familiar with Aspergers, as my one son allegedly has it, and the other son after having his ears congested at age 2, through about age 4, was termed “developmentally delayed” and is allegedly also on the Autistic Spectrum.
The special education teacher at my local high school, whose son has played baseball with my oldest son for several years, states that just about everybody in the general population has about 10 traits that are associated with Autism/Aspergers, and for similar reasons, I believe it is somewhat “overdiagnosed” and “overlabeled” today. Many people (I’m not saying this is you or trying to minimze what you go through) just have to have a label or an 'ism to explain what is wrong…when in some cases they just learn differently and need help tailoring assignments to their particular learning style, or help staying focused and on task. My developmentally delayed son gets a special teaching assistant to make sure he understands the test instructions, and does the same material, but in a smaller class setting in his public school.
When I was a kid, we had longer recesses. The boys, in particular, need those recess periods or they have trouble focusing in school, as psychological studies have shown. Yet because our education is positively woeful in America, and we think good old memorization of facts is not education (when it should still be–you need to memorize stuff to be any good at all for some professions), we have taken away the recess time (in my state) and we somehow think it will help people focus more, when nothing could be further from the truth.
I’ve been told the very same things that make professional engineers and architects good at their job–designing–are the very same traits that most diagnosed as Aspergers or Autistic have. Most professional engineers allegedly have some form of ADD, ADHD, etc. yet at the same time may be very focused on mathemat
I agree with it being over diagnosed many times, but from my scores on several of the tests, there is no doubt about my diagnosis. On the AQ test, one of the initial ones, anything over 31 is considered autistic and further testing needed, I scored a 42. One the RAAD-S, anything in the 130 and above puts me in the HFA/Asperger’s area, I scored a 221 out of 227. The seperate Dr that saw me to get me into vocational rehab, only took 30 min to put me on the spectrum, it was that obvious he said! I just wish the support and diagnosis had been there when I was a child, so that I could have developed better coping skills much earlier in life. I just have to step away from anything that becomes to frustrating or I risk a meltdown. If I had the $$, I would have that table of mine professionaly built into a nice Marklin layout, then all I would have to do is enjoy the trains. Mike
Mike–
Thank you for sharing the information.
My wife wonders how our boys will cope as adults…others just say “oh, they’ll grow out of it”. Yes, maybe to a certain degree, but the sensitivity to textures and things not feeling “right” doesn’t go away, and can hamper my son a little when he pitches if the mound doesn’t feel right.
At the same time, he’s extremely focused on becoming a better baseball player, and in two years is out-pitching other kids who have been doing it for many more years.
Kindly let me know where you are located, at least privately…are you in Europe or over here?
John
P.S. I’m at work…will read anything else later.
News flash, you dont grow out of it once you turn 18. But with proper teaching and coaching, they can learn to cope with it. I turned my obsession with working on old lawn mowers and lawn tractors into a profession and now work for a large John Deere dealership. Probably the best pay I have had in many years. I managed to survive my teens, the bullying in school any many failed jobs. Didn’t get my diagnosis till I was almost 41 and in marriage counceling. The two of us learning to cope with my Asperger’s, has saved my mariage and probably my life. Autistics are very prone to suicide and I have considered it many times over the years. Thankfully I never attemped it. With that nasty preformed thing put away in my shed, I relaid the track plan in the picture. The pic was how my layout looked before I got the preformed thing. I still need to wire up my Uhlenbrock digital controlers. I am short a few curved track sections and 4 turnouts to complete the plan though. The track plan comes from page 62 in the booklet that comes with the digital Marklin sets(second pic is my set I got). Mike
Well from here it looks like a nice layout so far! Keep at it. Glad things are working out better for you than previously! The German trains have not really been my thing, though I did once own LGB stuff and run it outside. I don’t dislike European trains, but I simply prefer the look of American steam from mainly the 1930’s era (not so much some of the later designs).
My one good (local) train friend actually did himself in at 32. He was bipolar and off his meds. Left beautiful young wife and 2 boys behind. It’s taken me more than a decade to find another guy to attend shows with…though I live in one of the most historically significant railroad areas in the U.S., it seems most are just plain tired of hearing anything about trains or otherwise just apathetic to them.
John