Absolutely.  All year. 

Trains are a year round sport.  They will run all the time, no seasons or limitations.

Out where I live in the Inland Empire in SoCal it gets hot so I end up running trains all year long since my layouts are in my air conditioned home.

All year here. Not as much in the summer.

Like other So Cal members, 12 months a year

Does anyone here run their trains in summer?   Well ya, like is the pope Catholic?

Balshis 

 I don't spend any less time on my hobbies in the summer than I do in the winter.

My problem is that I have different hobbies, one big one is historical reenacting. My WW2 group doesn't do hardly anything in the winter. Most of their events go from May to early September.

It'll cut into model train time. But during the initial build of my layout, I blew off a lot of events with them and I didn't take my 1944 Willys Jeep to a single car show, as I normally take it to two or three local car shows each summer...

I never used to. But life is short. Why stop during the summer? It's a great way to relax and re focus on the small things when life gets overwhelming. If not now when? 

I'm thinking of doing an outdoor G scale garden railway.

I have my G gauge  layout outside but not a lot of fun, I think.  Have had G for 20 years.

Only when the temps here in the NE gets above 90, with high humidity.  I have to many other things to do here, mostly outside.

Year-round indoors and outdoors regardless of the weather:

Regards

Fred

Even though it is a business with me as well as a hobby, I look for bad weather days to plan on working on the layout or running trains.  Summer here in the Midwest has a lot of those.  The older I get, the less time I seem to have to run trains.  You would think it would be just the reverse of that. 

My trains may not get run every day, but they do see year round operations.

Are you guys who only operate in the winter like the Ice Road Truckers of O-gauge?

Seacoast posted:

I'm thinking of doing an outdoor G scale garden railway.

jim pastorius posted:

I have my G gauge  layout outside but not a lot of fun, I think.  Have had G for 20 years.

If I still liked being on my knees gardening,  I might also enjoy mine more.

I like to look at it sitting statically too, but I've worked on it more than I've ran it.

In hindsight, an elevated line would have suited me better.

(in O too)

Rain, bugs, twigs, rain, acorns, leaves, rain --enjoying my outdoor train.

As for me, summer time is train time.  Being a school teacher, I am off for almost three months in the summer.  The time off allows ample time for running trains, or rebuilding parts of the layout.  Another factor that makes summer time great for running trains is that here in North West Florida it is like a million degrees outside during the summer.  My train room stays a comfy 68 degrees.

Winter may be the time to take refuge from the cold and run trains inside for northerners, but Summer is the time to run trains inside and take refuge from the heat in Florida. Nothing like a little cool, dry air when it is 95 degrees out at 90% humidity. 

sure beats running them in the winter...

but don't forget the sunscreen!
cheers...gary

Gary Graves posted:

Winter may be the time to take refuge from the cold and run trains inside for northerners, but Summer is the time to run trains inside and take refuge from the heat in Florida. Nothing like a little cool, dry air when it is 95 degrees out at 90% humidity. 

  You're  on the extreme end of things for sure, but don't think your alone with "swimming in the heat".

   Northern North America, especially near large bodies of water, isn't totally void of the experience. It's common place, and lasts longer than you needing a parka in Fl. 

  In Southern Mich. we "hide" a lot from the cold  Nov-March, and again from humidity late July to early Sept. Spring we garden and build, and fall really leaves little time to spare then, due to preparations needed for the next extreme winter. Even Northern Michigan's Upper Penn. has it's windless days with suffocating humidity.

Hhmmm...Maybe the inside layout is enough

Soitenly !!!!!  With the windows open when I can get the cool breeze ( like tonight with the storms we have) and isn't that why they made air conditioning ?  Mostly work on the layout/run trains at night after working around the property all day, like Jim said in above post.

Jesse   TCA

Model trains in the winter, particularly during the Christmas  season, is part of our culture.

As our summer this year draws to an end, I think hot and humid summers are also a very good time for us to be in our nice, cool basements running our trains.

Without air conditioning, my basement can easily be 10 degrees cooler than the upper levels of my house.

It's been a very good for me to be in my basement with my layout this summer.

I bet many of us on this Forum have thoroughly enjoyed doing train-related projects and running our trains in our basements during the summer months this year. Arnold

There is a big switching job awaiting my attention right now. A 10 car train  fills all the spot and off-spot siding space in town. Customers on the Plywood Empire Route don't wait just because it's Summer and somebody's grass needs mowed 

My wife (who has more than a little control freak in her) had a lot of chores for me this summer and we have a pup who just turned one recently, and we didn't have a puppy at any point since my layout existed (we had a older dachshund as I was building it) so she also insists I don't do anything where the pup gets ignored. So if she's busy, I have to be available. Yeah, it's a ongoing battle, but you married guys know how it can be. She otherwise a wonderful (and cute) woman.

Generally, if I'm going to do something "me" oriented that isn't taking place after my wife and pup have gone to bed, I have to leave the house for that.

That, and not a lot of people around here do much running in the short summer we usually have here in the Pac NW. I tried to have an op session for the 5th anniversary of the first train run the entire length of the main, but only one guy could commit, so I didn't have it...

I tried but failed......

Found the state of the layout to be a sad one when I looked at it today.

Jim Barrett posted:

……………..., I look for bad weather days to plan on working on the layout or running trains.  ……………….

Same here Jim,

After many, many years of commuting to NYC for work, most of the year leaving home before sunrise and getting home after dark, I usually try to enjoy the nice summer days outside now that I've retired.

In the late evenings and on poor weather days there is a much better chance that one would find me playing on or with Warrenville

Yes, it’s a year around hobby with us here in Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, as we have a fun group of friends that like to meet 1 or 2 times a month. We run trains on each other’s layout and have a fun lunchtime together at different places of interest. We also try to visit friends that post their pictures on the OGR Forum, such as Myles, the thread Continuing Saga, in Louisville, Kentucky. Next week we meet in Evansville, Indiana with the chance to see a friend with the new L&N (4-8-2) Mountain Steamer, Legacy model. Also, we will meet at our hobby shop to pick up the long awaited UP Camera cabooses.....Being that we all are retired, theres no reason not to run our trains often, exchange ideas, and have fellowship as often as Our Good Lord allows.  Have a great Memorial Day Weekend, Run your trains and Have Fun. Great Thread, Happy Railroading 

Work, chores, honey-do's, household upkeep, auto maintenance, bill paying, etc., etc. really cut into my model railroadin' time something fierce.  

I'm trying to eliminate (or at least cut way back) on all of these non-essential extraneous activities. 

Do I run my trains in the summertime?  Is this a trick question, or what? 

I do. That’s where I get most of my relaxation from.

p51 posted:

My wife (who has more than a little control freak in her) had a lot of chores for me this summer and we have a pup who just turned one recently, and we didn't have a puppy at any point since my layout existed (we had a older dachshund as I was building it) so she also insists I don't do anything where the pup gets ignored. So if she's busy, I have to be available. Yeah, it's a ongoing battle, but you married guys know how it can be. She otherwise a wonderful (and cute) woman.

Generally, if I'm going to do something "me" oriented that isn't taking place after my wife and pup have gone to bed, I have to leave the house for that.

Just one of the many reasons I am single. I don't need anyone telling me what to do.

Plus, I play with trains all year long.

Does a 2 hour road trip on your Harly to pickup train parts count 

                                       Sure, but not as much as I run this.

                                         MY 71' CORVETTE & MY PHOTO

Travel and boating come first in the summer and then Trains.

Mikey

I ran mine today for one hour and thirty seven minutes.

I run mine almost every day year-round.

Sporadically. I'm outside a lot or tinkering/driving my Ford Thunderbird most of the summer. I think I've run trains maybe 8 hours or so since the end of April. When the weather gets colder and it's unpleasant to go outside I'll be back to running trains several hours a week, usually with a porter or stout in hand. 

Why would I run O Gauge when I can (and did!) go run the real thing - pulling mainline, regular commuter trains, at 65mph or faster in Wolsztyn, Poland?

I work on my layouts, and run and service my trains, year-round. During Summer, I try to spend as much time as possible outside. But when the Summer weather is adverse, I stay in, read the OGR Forum, and focus on my trains. During Summer, I often go downstairs and work on the layouts or run trains after dark.

MELGAR

Up until this spring trains were a 6 month thing  (November thru April) and the other 6 months (May thru October) I spent boating and fishing the Chesapeake Bay.  Well I sold my boat and boat slip at the marina the beginning of the spring so trains are now 12 month thing.

overlandflyer posted:

sure beats running them in the winter...

but don't forget the sunscreen!
cheers...gary

The Donald Duck:  The emgineer is not scale!