Railroad Done..Now What?

F

Fred_M

A layout never gets done.

Only the owner.

( I can walk into any layout claimed to be done and find something to do to maker it better).
 

sumpter250

multiscale modelbuilder
Done??? Ive never heard the word used in any sentance having to do with Model railroading.

The sentence is: "What have you DONE!" :D :D :D

When my model railroad is done, there'll finally be time to build two whaleships, four schooners, a 1/87 scale model of USS Lowry DD 770, watch the extended version of Lord of the Rings from start to finish, and maybe read something! Let's see, thast should take me to my 300th birthday! :D :D
Pete
 

brakie

Active Member
cobra said:
After a long layoff , Ive been back into this just over a year . Of the layouts that I've seen , two LARGE ones had been finished by their owners ( indivuals , not clubs ) . They were 8 or 10 years in the making . Interestingly , after being finished , both guys tore out a sizeable section of the layout and redid it . Amazing but true ....we are never finished .

Neil
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LOL! :D Neil the best way to start a near riot :mad: at the club is to mention 2 things DCC and tearing out part of the layout.. :wave:
90% of the club members doesn't have a home layout and therefore depend on the club's layout for running trains..Now 97% of us would rather run trains then to build,3% would rip out the layout just to try the new layout building and scenery techniques.Now this 3% can't even get their layouts started or finish enough to run trains..So now ya know why the club's layout is finished.We took it as far as we wanted its completely scenic track is painted and ballast,etc.The layout was rebuilt between 91-93 and we started operating in January of 94 and been operating 2 days a week since.BTW our operations last 4-6 hours as the norm but,can and does last till 1-2 AM on some Friday nights. :eek:
 

cobra

Member
The DCC issue can be a touchy one . I remember being referred to a MRR Club in Michigan as to info on a specific question regarding a steel mill . I happened to mention something about Digitrax and it was like waving a red flag . Wow, what an attitude ...haven't heard from them since .
We don't have any big clubs around here except a modular ....odd for a city of 200k .Over in Detroit , yeah , but we have border crossing 'issues' so that's out .

Anyhow ,as far as never being done goes , I'm one year into a two year layout project . We'll see if and what I want to change when I'm supposedly finished . I hope I just work on little details for any 'changes'.

Neil
 
F

Fred_M

Our local club is the same. I went up there and their idea of a completed layout was green painted sawdust, lyken trees turning to dust, and paperbuildings. I got put down when I offered to fix it up a bit, not told no, talked down to, "hell sonny, the layouts done, what you talking about?!?!". So I didn't go no more and just laughed when I got my renewal notice and calls to as where I was and why I never came to meetings no more. Their membership is dropping and no new members join up anymore, so in a few years their club and layout will actually really be done. Does that count as being done?
 
LOL dash! Lemme guess.....they were all about drinking beer and just shootin it, and then sometimes running their trains on their "complete" layout when they found the time! :rolleyes: Just a guess:D

-doc
 
brakie said:
Now we all know most of the layouts I named has been torn down for many reasons but,still they was finish as far as the owners wanted to take them..So that old saying old" a layout is never finish" doesn't hold water with me. :D :thumb:

And that makes the case no matter whether it 'holds water' or not doesn't it. :)

In the mind of the builder, the railroad needed to take another direction and the only answer was to tear down and start over. IE. the railroad is not 'finished' until the builder is...

I will offer another example of oddity. A great railroad exists here. It was built in the 70s and was no longer operated by 1983. The modeler sold the house with the railroad still in the basement and moved away. The railroad was not dismantled by the new owner, it just sat there until a couple of years ago when the original owner bought the house again. The railroad is still there but falls into the 'turn the light on and look at it' category. It is still there but not operated.

So, I guess that I know two gentlemen who 'finished' their layouts and both have done exactly the same thing; just look at it.

If I tear mine out and start over, does that mean that I 'finished' my railroad? No... it means that the railroad needed to take another direction. :)
 

cobra

Member
It seems to me that one thing we can all do when ' finished ' is go back over everything and add details , change existing ones .
One 'fer instance' , if you have a road or highway , is to add a work crew or repair crew .Street scenes could have people moved all over the place , involved in various and changing activities. Looking after details could be a rebuild in itself and keep ones interest up .

NEIL
 

brakie

Active Member
Bear,A lot of the guys just don't want to install decoders,buy a throttle and they are well aware of the problems that DCC can cause including the need to keep the wheels and track clean.Then you have those that have removed the light board from their P2K locomotives plus,they feel why bother with DCC when DC is getting the job done? Now seven of use used DCC at one time..Two has convented back to DC on their home layouts for various reasons and that of course did not help the cause. Another thing when 36 of 47 members say no to DCC it best to let it go least we have another break up of the club like we did in 89..As it stands now I am afraid a snow ball has a better Chance of flying through the lower inferno regions and not melting then the club going DCC.
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Hey Roger :wave: You know those layouts was operated for years before they was torn out. :D Now look at my industrial switching layouts both are 11' 6" x24".How much more can I do to these layouts before its finished? See? The HO layout is finished as far as I am willing to take it or can take it in that limited space. :wave: :D Now if I tear this layout out(which I doubt) then I will be starting on a NEW layout that will have nothing to do with the current one. :D
So the old industrial layout was finished before I tore it out... :D :D
So,yes a layout can be finished..
 

theBear

Member
cobra said:
It seems to me that one thing we can all do when ' finished ' is go back over everything and add details , change existing ones .
One 'fer instance' , if you have a road or highway , is to add a work crew or repair crew .Street scenes could have people moved all over the place , involved in various and changing activities. Looking after details could be a rebuild in itself and keep ones interest up .

NEIL
Not to mention changing seasons, plenty of trees to replant, flowers to plant or pull, snow to clear, paving to do, leaf pickups, school in session (kids on playground)
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You also have ROW maint to do.

Don't forget mother nature throwing a curve, model the effects of a bad storm
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Add various sound effects to the layout, make tons of operating signals (this is one of the things I already have plans for, even in N you can have tons of signals thanks to fiber and low cost electronics
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I think those done folks were just out of ideas
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or steam
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That's my story for today and I'm sticking to it
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Now I've got to setup a new account on one of our servers and play script kiddie
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60103

Pooh Bah
Are there different concepts her? Can we call them "complete", "finished" and "done"?
Complete means that all the necessary bits are there -- yards, stations, main lines, industries and there's a basic uniform layer of scenery.
Finished means that all the industries and mini-scenes and trees (!) are installed.
Done means that you've gotten bored running it.
 

ausien

Active Member
I`m with just about eveyone here, I have only been in the hoby for about 9 yrs,(still a pup really). I havent seen a finnished layout yet, so dont know what one looks like.!!!!!!!
not even exabition lay outs, a friend took me to Adalaide to a modle RR exabition, where I saw a layout I had seen 2yrs before in sydney, I thought I had seen it before, but on a closer look I saw the a few buildings had been added/changed, a coulpe of sidings altered, yard changed, just to mention afew things. this layout has been around for a number of years, I was told it started out as an early steem, layout, now it is runing SD units and such.

I also thought that once you got the track down, and the wirering done and the power connected you automaticly ran trains,(at least I do), like I said I have`nt seen a finished layout yet and I dont expect to see one, after all there are always area`s that could be reworked, or inproved/updated...ect, ect, ect...

then theres always the working out a timetable, and running to it( or trying to)especially with friends and other hobiest...
I hope I havent rabbited on to much but that meeeeeee!!!....Have a good one..Steve
 
brakie said:
Hey Roger
*** set out ***
Now if I tear this layout out(which I doubt) then I will be starting on a NEW layout that will have nothing to do with the current one. :D
So the old industrial layout was finished before I tore it out... :D :D
So,yes a layout can be finished..

A matter of perception. As you describe it, the old one was 'finished' and yes, you have a new layout. :)
 

brakie

Active Member
60103 said:
Are there different concepts her? Can we call them "complete", "finished" and "done"?
Complete means that all the necessary bits are there -- yards, stations, main lines, industries and there's a basic uniform layer of scenery.
Finished means that all the industries and mini-scenes and trees (!) are installed.
Done means that you've gotten bored running it.
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David,I think you hit the old spike on the head.. :thumb:
 
F

Fred_M

You guys are applying circular reasoning to the question. I agree a layout is done when the owner says it is, and the reason the owner says it it is because they don't want to improve it anymore as there is always room to detail and superdetail the details. Now we also need remember that different people want different goals from building a model railroad. Some want to build and build and try and make their world look like a minature version of the real one. Running trains are secondary, and some just enjoy running their trains in a circle in their real world of minatures, if it even runs. At the other extreme is the operator who is happy doing a timesaver on a bare 1 by and switching loads into factories represented by a card taped to the board. Most of us fit between these extremes. So you are actually trying to define a term that has no definition because what appears done to you is only just a good start to another. I myself lean toward the scenic extreme and my layout will never be done and neither will yours. I tend to think nothing is ever really done. There is alway room for improvements and upgrades. Fred
 

brakie

Active Member
Fred,I agree with you in principle but how far can I take this layout? There isn't that many trees in most older industrial parks.. I have 14 on this layout.I have lots of cars,trucks,LLPs, and 2 mini scenes.
 

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cobra

Member
OK, Larry , I'll take a flinger at this one :
You have Pillsbury , Standard American , Valley Produce , Honey Creek , AJ Cuttinghams and TR Petermans . All have got some sort of situation with manfactured goods or products . They would have waste products , semi finished and finished goods , byproducts etc. You could open a rool up door on several of them to run loads by rail in or out of the structure . This would involve adding turnouts but the number of new turnouts would depend on your traffic flow ....sharing sidings etc. The various spin-off goods could be handled by different transport trucks or ' straight jobs ' ...use your imagination . Dreaming up something along those lines could keep you busy for a year ....ideas could foster other ideas . How about a highline for the scrap yard to dump scrap into a crusher or whatever . It will give some ' vertical element to the scene .

NEIL
 
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