My layout has been untouched for at least three months. The track has been laid and ballasted, plus it is totally operational. But I haven’t run any trains. There is some scenery completed on the half of the layout that isn’t mountains. But halfway across it just stops completely. I haven’t done anything to start on the hills yet. The reason: trees. [banghead] The entire mountain is to be covered with polyfiber balls with a dusting of ground foam over them. All the materials are there, the glue, the ground foam, the polyfiber. Some of them are already ‘poofed’ from a previous layout. Yet I kept putting it off and putting it off.
Today I finally did it. I started to paint the mountain a dark brown so that any holes in the trees won’t be too obvious, and may even look good. And you know something? It wasn’t all that hard either.[:O]
So, what motivates you to take the initative and just go on and finish that one thing you can’t stand to do?
The fact that it isn’t finished, and that I get bored after doing some simple stuff. But what really moves me to do something, is the errors. Last week I did some “testing” of my layout, and it didn’t run as well I though. The night after it I got depressed and didn’t want to do any thing on my layout, but the next day I siad that was enough. And I fixed it.
I am the king of the procrastinators so I know where your coming from. Just a couple months ago I made my first effort with the polyfiber trees in a back corner of the layout. It was a project I’d been putting off for a long time. In my case, it wasn’t making all the trees. This back corner required a liftout hatch and I knew that was going to be a little tricky but finally I just decided it was time to do it and I had a few days free that I could really go at it. Like you, I found the planting of the trees actually was pretty easy to get som very good results. I’m looking forward to doing some more.
The current layout has been largely the centre of my thoughts this past year, and now that the gardening season is coming and I am getting rid of my students for the summer, I am also leaving the layout to languish for a while. I need a break from it, and also to get some perspective on what troubles need fixing. It is generally rare that I go more than two or three days between firing up the DB150, but it is getting longer and I don’t feel the urge to run over to run trains.
There are other things worth thinking about, even if delayed.
The first true layout that I built was a 5x9. Had gotten the boy’o a lifelike train set for yule. Got all wrapped up in the “get it done” mode. As I was working on the pike I was also learning. Used the powerloc track and took some short cuts. As the layout progressed and my knowledge increased, and the will to finish the layout left. I wanted to have a “finished” layout but knowing all of the crap decisions and shortcuts that I took in the name of getting it done I just could not bring myself to finish my turd of a layout. So I ripped it out, salvaged what I could and chalked it up to a big learning experence. Now Im heck bent on getting the planning part right so that I can have a layout that Im proud of not just finished.
I finished the trackwork, a double track, twice around main, with several crossovers, and a branch line, except for a couple industrial spurs to generate traffic. Wiring and signals are in. Need to do the landscaping now. But I always seem to wind up running trains for three or four hours, and going to bed. Somehow the landscaping never gets done. The layout is all DCC. I like to start two trains going, at slow to moderate speed. One on each track. Then I take control of a third train, running it in and out of the branch, and sidings, as the others pass by. So lately, every session, turns into an operating session.
The engine terminal, fuel rack, caboose track, and yard lead, revealing numerous containers of unused scenic material in the background.[:D]
If I could make a suggestion, from one procrastinator to another, finish your trackwork. Then you can run trains. You can always landscape later, throw switches by hand, etc.
I am the King of Procrastination. I can even put off procrastinating. What usually happens with me, is one day I get tired of putting whatever off and just do it. After it’s either done or well on the way to getting done, I always wonder what took me so long, why did I put it off. Someone mentioned running trains instead of accomplishing something on the layout and I’m guilty of that also. Thing is, in this hobby there are so many things to do. Put Kadees on the new stuff, clean track, work on a structure, redo some problem over there. Yes sir, I can come up with a hundred things to do, sometimes… [:D]
I find I have to treat it like a job instead of a hobby when it comes to things that I don’t like to do. No smoke or drink breaks till I get a certain thing done. Just have to kick myself in the butt sometimes.
I deconstructed my previous layout, took the time to preserve and protect the “keeper” stuff, and then decided to take advantage of the opportunity put in a new floor. The tiles have been sitting there.
I havent touched the layout since Early march, infact the most I have been doing with MR is reading the magazines. My Spring and summer hobby took over which is fishing. My parents also bought a used boat and motor so we are working on the motor to get it fixed. And my brother is getting married in july and we have to get the yard all spruced up since the Reception is here.
I have the opposite problem. To much to do. Currently in the midst of finishing off the other half of the basement (which my wife calls the gentlemens club because of the level of finish,3pc crown,2pc chair rail,wainescotting around the kitchenette,Marble counters…) from there I have to finish a brick patio,finish the shed (only requires some siding now) repaint the ceiling upstairs…[banghead]mean while the railroad is gathering dust. Which as I crawl up the basement steps I wearily muster enough strenght to peak in on it as I go to crawl in bed. Maybe by the end of summer I will have enough time.[V]
I wouldn’t worry about it. This may be a little deep but, you know the whole thing about how a model is never done, and when it is done it’s time to start another one? It might have to do with that. My gp 38 is on the verge of done, all I have to do is add the front and number boards, lights, rear railings (smokey valley : ) ), drop steps and saftey chain. It’s been like that for 2 weeks. I have to be really fired up to do that work and if I’m not I usually find myself in a poker game instead. (to think… there might not be enough to model)
It’s OK to take a break from the hobby once in awhile. If you do it ALL the time it’s very easy to get burned out. I try to do it seasonally. In the fall and the winter you’ll find me very busy on the layout especially before the home tours adding final touches to the layout before the guests arrive.
In the spring and summer, I turn my attention to other things. The spring is spent getting the house in order like planting the garden, painting , patching, and all kinds of home repairs. The summer is spent running from one air conditioned building to the next or running from the latest tropical storm or hurricane in the gulf (I live in southeast Texas and A/C is a must) and it’s just too hot to do anything here. Usually I spend the summer planning my next cross country RV trip.
I then take a two or three week RV trip in early September and once i’m back, it’s time to start all over again and work on the layout until the next spring. It helps me keep a very balanced life without “burning out” I may add. …chuck
Since my layout is currently mothballed, actually, it’s in pieces right now–I was having some work done in the basement, and had to move it–I’ve had to keep busy with other projects. That’s not to say that those projects are finished either. For example, my N scale E7 has been repainted PRR tuscan, but is still unfinished. Not much left to do, other than apply the detail parts, the PC worm logos, and then weather it
Podna’, anyone who has ever gotten serious about this hobby and has lasted for longer than 48 hours has been through exactly what you are experiencing. I did know one guy in Germany many years ago who lived in the “maids” room in the basement of government quarters; one day his wife flew back to the states and the next thing he knew the mail carried a notice that he was going to have to learn how to spell divorce court. This is an extreme case, to be sure; most people I have known with that kind of model railroading enthusiasm don’t know how to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Since I retired from the Air Force twenty eight and a half years ago I have built two HO Scale and six N Scale layouts. Both of the HO Scale layouts - and a couple of the N Scale ones - were short-lived and did not get much beyond the benchwork and limited trackwork stage. There was one of my N
