Just Playing Around

J

John P

New Member
Sep 29, 2006
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Hi All.
I'm just sending this out there as a possible discussion thread. I was playing around on my layout last night thinking about making up some trees and start moving some trains around and the next thing I know its time to go to bed. I was wondering how many of you out there get caught up in running your trains and neglect some other duties not only work on the layout but other "Honey Do" things. I find that if there are train on the tracks I'm going to run them. Only when I clear my layout off can I actually get any work done:) . Another thing that might be interesting to those using a Digitrax Zephyr is that last night I Overload my unit by running a 4 loco consist pulling 26 cars, a 2loco consist pulling 22 cars and a GP9 pulling 8 cars, only when I ran all at 75% throttle, at slower speeds everything was OK:thumb: . I think I found its' limit. I've posted some videos on Youtube, if you use john4498 to search you will find them.
Take care.
P.S. sure glad the CN strike is over, all I could run is my CP loco.:D
 
John,

That is often the case for me... My optimum time for working on the layout/models/whatever is Saturday morning. But that time is taken up with kids, breakfast, getting ready for swimming lessons, "honey-do", errands, chores, etc, etc, etc. We have "free time" after the kids go to bed too (~8pm) but by that point, all I want to do is watch the train go round and round. I don't have the brainpower by that time to do anything tricky like put a resin kit together... hamr

Andrew
 
Boy, can I relate to that ! It happens to me all the time.

And when I suddenly come across a problem, I can't leave until it's fixed & these often happen around 11:30 p.m.! I can't stand leaving the layout in the midst of a problem.

If fact, just yesterday, my wife gave me a list of things to do first before I "run my trains again" !!


Rob
 
Huh? What?
I'm sorry I wasn't listening, dear.
Yeah, OK... I'll get to it in a minute.
*2 hours later*
What?
Oh yeah, umm... sorry.
Oh... You did it yourself?
That's great!
*goes back to playing with trains*

:D
 
The great comedian John Wing summed it up with his "Four Words" routine:

There're only four words you need to know to keep things running smoothly in your marriage...

OH


YEAH


RIGHT


SORRY


Use them alone or in combination, as in

"Honey, weren't you supposed to take out the garbage already? I asked you five times!"

"Oh [pause] Yeah [longer pause] Right! [short pause, 'cuz a long pause will get you in more trouble] Sorry..."



I also think he may have said "It is easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission." Even if he said it, I'm sure he was not the first... ;)

Andrew
 
Is this what I have to look forward to?! My fiance has been wanting me to move in with her for a while now, and it's proving to be tricky for me as I have no end of projects to complete. I'm not just talking about modelling projects either! So much to do, so little time!
 
every day when i get home i get straight to work on my stuff to do then go in to my non-permanent layout and run trains.but like masonjar my optimum time is Saturday morning and Sunday morning.i tell the wife "hey goin downstairs,wont be back till lunch" and she's fine as long as later that day i get things done and she gets her soap operas **ugh**.but i live with it and its worked for 15 years ;) !--josh
 
MasonJar said:
I also think he may have said "It is easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission." Even if he said it, I'm sure he was not the first... ;)
Click to expand...
I've used this phillosophy many times- for both model trains and musical isntruments.
:D
 
It does appear I have fewer and fewer hours in a day to operate my trains. First I have to contend with my regular day job then make the transfer to my farm duties. Sometimes things happen on the farm that extends the working day a little longer than I would like.

Then I have to juggle my daughter’s 40 games basketball season that appears to take most free time between the farm work and 9:00pm through the week. I don’t even want to mention the weekends.

Most of the time I just turn the trains on and multi task between running the trains reading the forums and getting some of day work done with the computer. So far I have been lucky and this has not resulted in any major derailments or collisions. Although once while trying to type I threw a wrong switch, which resulted in a few tank cars hanging over the side of the layout.

[FONT=&quot]I guess it was just luck as the four tankers didn’t crash to the floor but just dangled along the side by their couplers. Nothing was damaged and now I make sure I keep away from the switch controls when I am multi tasking.[/FONT]
 
Renovo PPR said:
It does appear I have fewer and fewer hours in a day to operate my trains. First I have to contend with my regular day job then make the transfer to my farm duties. Sometimes things happen on the farm that extends the working day a little longer than I would like.

Then I have to juggle my daughter’s 40 games basketball season that appears to take most free time between the farm work and 9:00pm through the week. I don’t even want to mention the weekends.

Most of the time I just turn the trains on and multi task between running the trains reading the forums and getting some of day work done with the computer. So far I have been lucky and this has not resulted in any major derailments or collisions. Although once while trying to type I threw a wrong switch, which resulted in a few tank cars hanging over the side of the layout.

[FONT=&quot]I guess it was just luck as the four tankers didn’t crash to the floor but just dangled along the side by their couplers. Nothing was damaged and now I make sure I keep away from the switch controls when I am multi tasking.[/FONT]
Click to expand...

Are you telling us that you have a switch that leads to a siding that goes off the benchwork, or am I missing something?
 
That happens to me also. One night when I was working on taking apart my Atlas GE DASH 8-40CW I was up till 2 A.M. trying to firure how to get it all apart so I coud paint it. Just recently I was working on numberboards for my GP30 and when I look up it's 1 A.M. already.

-Smoke
 
Main Line #2 was diverted onto Main Line #1. Main Line #1 had a consist of 15 tankers being pulled by a GP disel. Main Line #2 had a full freight consist being pulled by a Mikado steam locomotive.

The Mikado broad sided the tankers and derailed. The tankers were sent off the tracks dangling off the side of the layout held together by their couplers.

In normal terms this is called a late night accident as the result of multi tasking and throwing the switch from Main Line #2 to direct that train into another trian running on Main Line 2.

However having a siding that leads directly off the top of the layout would be cool for those locomitves that gives me problems.
 
My son and I built a layout when he was in high school, and we had a good time working on it. Ten years ago we had to take it all apart as we sold our home and purchased a new condo. He moved 300 miles away 6 years ago and last summer I finally built another layout. He kept asking me when that was going to happen. I am now retired so have extra time to work at the hobby. My layout is complete except for the landscaping. That is my weak point and that was my son's big interest. I miss him!!
 
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