My current financial situation does not allow me to take a more active part in MRRing, so I am condemned to armchairing.
After a period of drawing up track plans for layouts I won´t most likely in a position to build, I have found a new craze for me - drawing silhouettes of my favorite locos.
This is my roster of virtual locos:
Lacking a professional graphics tool, I am using RTS to prepare the drawings, which has some limitations, though. The above K-27 consists of close to 1,000 different shapes prepared in RTS, grouped and assembled to look like the real thing.
It has become some kind of an addiction by now - a K-36 and K-37 will follow soon.
What do you do when you can´t work on your layout?
Ulrich… your virtural locomotive silhouettes are really nice work ! There is virtural layout software available… that might be another alternative for you (they can be pretty entertaining…)
During my 20 plus years in the military with all the deployments, model railroading was pretty difficult. I always read MR magazine monthly, and any other RR related publication I came across, and I also sketched a blue-million fanatsy layouts for every size space I could think of. Every now and then I would really get restless to take it one step further, and I would build a car kit that I had mail ordered and would end up giving it to some little kid that looked like he needed a toy.
I’ve been in tough financial stress before. But, are you at the point where you can do something as simple (and cheap) as laying some track on a narrow shelf board 12" to 18" wide, have several turnouts with flex track, a cheap DC powerpack, and basically have a simple yard module? I did this years ago with a small pile of Atlas code 100 track and a few cheap turnouts. Not my dream layout but at least I still got to play “yard crew” as I switched freight cars and made up short trains with a Blue Box SD-9.
Research. Very, very cheap and takes lots of time.
Old school cars. Buy a sheet of Strathmore board (high quality drawing/bristol board) and scratch build cars. Buy one pair of trucks and couplers. Use them on every car you build, then take them off and use them on the next car you build.
Old school buildings. Learn to build structures from cheap materials, cardboard, balsa styrene sheet, paper, etc.
Learn to handlay rail. Buy a couple sticks of rail, a package of ties and some spikes and practice handlaying track.
Practice weathering cars. Go to a train show and buy some old cars, cheaper the better, and practice weathering them.
If you do have your dream layout drawn up, you could make a scale model of it for visualization and play around with scenic features and building/road/stream and river locations. I do not have space for a layout in the house we are renting so I work on my rolling stock. Not a lot of money in the budget either, so I make do.
There have been times when I was being transferred from one part of the country to another and had to put my layout into storage or give it up completely. I did many of the things Dave suggests. I scratchbuilt and kitbashed several freight cars, most of which remain on my rolling stock roster to this day. I also scratchbuilt buildings, and painted and detailed others. In more recent times, I’ve had the Internet to allow me to do research on layout design and future projects.
With another pending move somewhere in the relatively near future, I plan to learn how to use an airbrush, and although I have hand-laid track, I have never tackled building a turnout, so I am gathering the necessary tools and jigs beforehand.
I like to take pictures - from my layout or modules.
I sit in front of the computer and look at rr sites / forum. Or I make some drawings for future rr projects or work for the FREMO (I’m responsible for the membership office).
Unfortunately, when I “can’t” work on my layout, it’s usually because I have something else going on. Accompanying kids to activities, coaching soccer, Cub Scouts, work, etc.
When I feel like doing trains but don’t have the energy, I peruse old copies of MR or come here!
The layout is in a friend’s basement. I visit twice per month for a tota of 6 hours. Most of the time, my model railroading activities includes kitbashing, scracthbuilding and doing researches to support my bashes. I probably put more than 95% of my MRR time on these activities. I never had a place for a good layout at home, my best home layout being a twice around on a 4’ x 4’ plywood (main line, what do you mean???). So I’ve reoriented my interest into building and improving models since my teen years. My best friend is a set of boxes containing everything I chopped from models and parts from kits I saved since 15 years.
This year, I got tired of waiting for costly detailing parts, so I try to make them by myself in the old way. And honestly, I feel prouder of the results. Who would have thought a ink pen and a used paintbrush could be turned into an elesco feedwater! And cheap cars and locomotives are a good place to hunt down parts.à
And sometimes, I open AutoCAD, mesures a shell I have on hands and try some cyberbashing to test my idea…
Since my operating plan solidified into stone a long time ago, I was able to do things which would eventually become useful. In addition to making paper designs for unlikely locomotives (762mm gauge 2-6-6-2+2-6-6-2 Garratt, anyone) and some kit-building and kitbashing, I spent one tour in a combat zone making waybills for my ‘someday’ layout. There were also some buildings that started life as card stock and strip wood, with Scotch tape windows (not a brilliant idea!)
Now that I’ve finally got both space and financial security, those things are beginning to find a home.
My current financial situation is tough but My son and I are the one who do the modeling in the house. We do little things around the layout . buying a couple of thing ones a mouth . We have cats so that means clean the layout a lot . but when we are not work on are layout we a work ,school , dog walking ,help the wife/mom keep the house clean and some other things. Also just watch the train just go around the layout.
Take heart! Part of what makes this a special hobby is simply no matter where you are in the process of creating a railroad, if you need to take a break , the railroad will still be there waiting for you. As long as you are learning and enjoying, you can be a part of the hobby without spending anything but time. Worthwhile activities include , but are not limited to rail fanning, any time you are at a crossing; time spent wandering around observing how land forms blend into each other in the real world; camping out at the local library- reading and studying the history of any place serviced by rail; looking at buildings and seeing how weather and architecture affect how the any given structure fits in with its neighbors. I could extend this list, but note what all of these thoughts have in common…little or no cost, and doing these things will ultimately allow you to be a better modeler once circumstances permit you to again get back to active construction and operation!
Well some would say I start pointless internet surveys…
The reality is that when I can’t work on the layout it’s usually due to some other commitment: family gatherings, chores, work etc.
But there are occasions when I have time to play with trains but have restrictions like noise levels or some such that prevent actual layout construction, in those instances I’ll work on tuning up my fleet of Tyco and Bachman trainset cars ( wieght, Kadee’s, metal wheels)
Planning the next section of the layout is always an option as is reading/researching. So too is scratchbuilding structures. Get a copy of Evan designs Model Builder program and some old cereal boxes, you can populate an entire city for just the price of some ink and paper.
I’m fortunate that I have a large stockpile of stuff to fool with so when money is tight I can still partake in the hobby and work towards my end goal, even if it’s just a little at a time.
Since I retired 3 years ago I have had to watch my HO budget and now rely on my Ebay sales to fund my rr. When my funds are low or gone, I have at least 50 kits to build and my layout isn’t completed in the track laying area, so I can always do something wiith them. I am short about 4-5 turnouts and will have to wait to buy them. With the holiday taking so much of my time, I relish any time I get to go into the trainroom and even just look at what I have and have to do. I also enjoy searching the internet for other modelers layout photo and videos. I didn’t realize how much model railroad video footage is on You-Tube. Sometimes I just get lost in that, going from one video to another. And sometimes I just sit down with some old MR magazines and reread articles that interest me. Always gives a renewed interest in different aspects of the hobby. I don’t think I will ever run out of thngs to do pertaining to model railroading.
Keep your interests going in what ever way satisfies you.
My good friend AntonioFP45 knows that I look forward to regular model railroad flea markets that we have in our area every 3 months. I start making a list of things I might want or need and then go to these flea markets with the idea that I might get some of the things on the list- or find an unexpected bargain or two. In the end, I rarely spend more than $30-$40 when I go, and if I find the right table, I might get three or four cars to add to my inventory for $9 or less. I recently picked up a Plymouth yard switcher (yes, I know it came from a " Life-Like Hustler train set) for $4 and an old Athearn Baldwin S12 switcher (highly improveable) than runs just fine for $10. That’s 2 nice little running engines that will enhance my roster nicely. In fact, much of my recent (last 5 years) motive power comes second hand! Again, I refer to my list and work off that, but there is a satisfaction in the hunt and in obtaining a bargain, as well.
Antonio’s idea of a small switching board layout is an excellent one- there is always a cheap piece of cut-off plywood available at Home Depot or Loews on their discard cart. Throw some screw-on rubber cushion feet ($3.00/ 6) on the bottom and you have a portable shelf layout. Some inexpensive flex track and a few Atlas switches, a $3 used power pack (think: Flea Market) and you’re on your way to an empire! We work in a small-scaled hobby (most of us), and there is great art in working on details to one’s satisfaction.
Being the poor soul I am, I have made it a mission to substitute inexpensive and economical alternatives for hobby supplier’s more costly products where possible. If you start thinking like that and looking around, you will become adept fairly quickly at doing this on your own.
As another poster on this thread stated- the layout is forgiving, it’s always there ready for your return whenever that is- and no one faults anyone else in these difficult times for not being able to have the “MR layout of the month”
For many years I could not begin work on my own model railroad, but I did work on friends layouts. I like scenery construction so helping on other layouts that let me hone my scenery building skills. During this time I drew many layout designs and gathering information on structures I wanted to build for my own future layout. Also collected car kits and diesel models.
About ten years ago my two year old son spent months of his life in the I.C.U. at Vancouver Childrens Hospital. Shortly after he had been admitted my mother had a massive heart attack and was in the I.C.U. of our local Hospital. We did not know if either were going to live. I spent weeks and weeks going back and forth between the two hospitals trying to spend most of my time with my son. My wife did not leave his side which meant I had to leave a lot for the long drive home to look after things there and visit dear old mom.
Just before all this happened I was wanting to get back into trains in the worse way. Of course all that was forgotten when these family health issues suddenly appeared. Then one day I saw an article in the paper while at the Hospital that said a long time Vancouver train store was going out of business. A few days later on the way to the hospital I stopped in and bought three boxes of Shinohara track and my very first HO car. It was an Atlas 33000 GAL B/A tank car. I got home at about midnight and took one piece of track out of the box, put it on the mantle over the fireplace in what is now my trainroom and set the tank car on it. I pushed it back and forth a couple of times and that made me feel a whole lot better that day.
Everything worked out in the end. After months in Hospital that included lots of major surgeries my son is a healthy little tenacious son of a … And mom did okay with a quintuple bypass.
If you love to do something, try and keep your finger in it, even if in a small way. It can make the tough times a little easier by giving you something to look forward to down the road. I pushed that car back and forth a lot over a two year period.[:)]
