Okay. So, my current layout is about four years old, still a pinkboard paradise. It’s running and running well, but the decision was recently made to undertake a major renovation in a year or two. The space the layout currently occupies will become a bedroom. I’ve got another larger space picked out for the next layout (score!) but it won’t be available for trainification until the renos are done. There aren’t any clubs within a feasible distance either; I’m a lone wolf by the circumstances, I’m afraid.
So what to do in the meantime? I’m honestly interested in how people scratch the train itch when working on a layout isn’t an option. Hang out by the tracks?
Work on the new plan/plans , then look at the electrical side that will be needed, detail rolling stock, just 3 things to keep the mind & fingers active.
Hey, you are not alone. Many of us have been in a similar situation.
In example, I spent three years in Dallas w/o a layout, and a dozen years here in the Houston area without one as well. So what did I do?
I collected and built an awful lot of car kits - ranging from Athearn BB to Silver Streak and Ulrich and Red Caboose, etc. I would build them, lightly weather, and wrap them in white tissue paper and store them.
When I moved here in '81, I realized it wouldn’t be too long before a room would be available for a layout. So I spent a lot of time scale drawing layouts. It really was a great pasttime, especially if you use quadrille paper, and adhere to scale.
As I got closer to having an empty room to use, I began building structures that I new I would use. This can really take up time and give you something that will be used when the time comes.
Lastly, I started to gather “stuff”…stuff that I knew I would use like ballast, ground foam, trees, and so on. I also picked up flex track if it was a good buy.
Anyway, while I lusted for that layout, the above kept me sane until that time.
This is something I have to put up with constantly. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis that intermittently totally dings my ability to work on my layout, often for weeks at a time.
We have a bedroom (our hobby room) located just off the door into the garage where my layout is located. I have a corner computer workstation with a 4’ x 2½’ desk next to it. While I wait for the pain to subside I work at the workbench on anything that will fit the working space.
Just make do with what ever will work with your Train Addiction.
1.) Collect freight cars and locomotives for my era. Mostly 1980/90s-06 making sure that removing cars aren’t necessarily. Easier to add new ones but older ones do get removed.
Seeing the types of containers on a train, since most railroads carry different kinds.
2.) Researching my favorite railroads. Looking at locomotive units to see which ones pull particular freights, so easier later on to mix and match.
3.) Designing track plans, structural plans for industries, streets, parking and landscape so it will fit like the real world.
4.) Working on my fictional railroad the Georgia, North Carolina, and Ohio Railway. I love modeling details of my line. I created a railway with over 75 years of history with reporting marks and past freight slogans. Including people, faculties, paint schemes, MW, vehicles, etc.
Example back in the day it was Georgia, No. Carolina Railroad Company G.N.R.C. Then a name change adding the line to Ohio. (As above to G.N.O.R.) I also have a trailer G.N.O.Z., container G.N.O.U., additional more cars G.N.O.F…
I had G.N.O.X. but it’s been taken by a real leasing company. The weird thing was it was going to be my line of tank cars.
What timespan ere we talking about? Months? Years? Decades?
If we talk months, maybe up to a year, re-think your plan, make changes, detail the pln and build a couple of structures, if the time permits and you are not to busy renovating your future train room.
If we talk years, well, than may be it pays off to shelve your plans for the moment and build a micro layout, perhaps in N scale, just to keep the interest going.
If we talk decades, look for a different, less space demanding hobby or become a collector.
Lots of interesting suggestions. I’ve been leaning in the ‘buy more rolling stock and do stuff with it’ direction, so it’s good to have that reinforced. The 1:1 cardboard layout cutouts idea is an interesting one; are we talking yard setups? Curve templates? Both?
I agree with the suggestions to build stuff, buy stuff, plan stuff, detail/weather/repair/tune stuff, post stuff, and photograph real stuff.
To that I would add that if you have a sizeable collection, maybe it’s a good time to examine and pare back the stuff you don’t want. Trading and dealing can be a fun activity in itself.
I’m trying kevin, but I can’t get url and /url, in brackets, to show up in my post. [%-)]
Copy the link, open a new window and paste. With the link in the address bar, add the url in brackets to the front, and /url in brackets to the end. Copy that, go back to your post, and paste where you want it, and DON’T use the “link” thingy, just paste right into the post.
I’ve been designing track plans, and working on electronics. The contractor is starting today to demo my basement and start making it layotu-ready (and I’m not there to see it…)
If you know the space you will have, you can plan and maybe even build a complicated scene that you want on the new layout. Complicated scenes take time and now you have the time, make something you can box up or hang on a wall.
