Ever had the urge to tear down your layout and start over

Tom Tee posted:

Built a RR in a spare bedroom.  Wife complained.  So I divorced her and extended the RR  into the remaining bedrooms + living room, dining room and kitchen. 

Met a lady when single and she heard a steam engine blowing a whistle & chugging by the phone and asked "Where in the world do you live?" After I explained I have not heard from her in years.   Happily married now to someone who demanded that our RE agent only showed us ranch houses with full basements.

Proceeded to build a large RR only to realize there is such a thing as too big.  Had to disassemble much of it twice to pare it down to a somewhat more manageable size.  Big can be too big.

See there are good wemen out there!You have just proved that.

My layout is 2 levels, that are really two separate layouts. I really want to change my main level, but everything I think about would mean getting rid of the upper level. It is stone simple, but it is my Christmas village, and I really love the way it looks. So, I spend a lot of time staring at my layout, trying to decide which way I should go. Maybe next fall. Maybe not.

Mike,

If you want to start over again, I have plenty of new ideas for you.

FrankM, I wanted to tell you thank you.  You are one of the few people that I get inspiration from to up my game with scenes.  You do excellent work as you strive for realism.

Gene Anstine

No.

Alan Graziano posted:

Mike,

If you want to start over again, I have plenty of new ideas for you.

I want to resist the temptation to rebuild for now and complete this one in hopes that I can say I have fully completed this one

Do it!

Our first 'permanent' layout was a simple figure 8 of Lionel tubular track in the basement of our old house.   Benchwork was an old patio table with a 4x8 plywood top.   When we moved to our current house 16 years ago I started building a new layout with MTH Realtrax (from starter sets) based upon our favorite railfan site, historic Harpers Ferry, WV.   The convergence of two railroad lines via multiple bridges over the Potomac River has been a scene that I have yet to satisfactorily reproduced.  As such, my layout has moved from one room to another, plan has been revised multiple times and expanded.   So though the site of the layout has remained the same, I've revised/rebuilt it several times.  I'm still not satisfied with the look of Realtrax and the compressed scale width of my Potomac River crossing.   Another thing I'm not happy with is that I can't see (enjoy) my trains as they travel out of site to and from the expansion in the next room.

After designing a few layouts (the last two with Atlas O) I've decided to rebuild Harpers Ferry again with Atlas.   Though to execute this plan I'll need to remove a non load bearing wall ;-).  I've learned a lot since starting my layout 15 years ago.  I plan to put all of my experience into my next rebuild.

My notable lessons learned:

• Used MTH Premier cost about as much as new Railking (especially once you learn how to perform your own PS2-3 upgrades).
• Bigger curves are better for scale (MTH Premier).  My layout revisions progressively eliminated O31 then O42 curves.
• O-72 is not required for all O72 rated engines.   My favorite steamers are my articulated Allegeny, Class A, and Y6b.   All run without problems around the minimum O54 on outer loop.
• Build a yard at least for your favorite engines.  If you are a loop runner like me you will get tired of removing and re-railing engines.   Rolling stock not so bad.
• Leave clearance for scenery and walls near track.   Scale engines and passenger cars over hang more especially on tighter curves.  My beloved articulated tore up parts of my backdrops.   Atlas O is 4.5 on center which will put my outer loop an inch farther from walls (but will reduce inner loop overhang clearance so no articulated).

grfd59 posted:

FrankM, I wanted to tell you thank you.  You are one of the few people that I get inspiration from to up my game with scenes.  You do excellent work as you strive for realism.

Gene Anstine

Thank You! Frankly, I feel privileged to receive such approval. And you used a good word, "strive," for what I do. I try. And I let myself play, frankly. I really have no idea what it is that I do, other than continue to learn from looking through magazines like OGR, following my imagination and instincts, messing around a whole lot with materials, and scrutinizing the work of the many wonderful modelers (we all know who they are, and they know too!) available to us through these pages.

Here is another area on the layout (called "V-Valley") which has changed several times. And believe me, it is no small feat getting my (more-than-ample) keister up there, into that valley, to remove features, and then to replace them with vignettes crafted off the layout in my work area, onto baseplates, and then brought to their places within the valley for emplacement....to what it is currently...I think I got more "playful" than "realistic" in my shenanigans in this area of real estate, but that is not for me to say as much as it is for others to say.

What a wonderful hobby.

So, I agree with David Minarik who said, "Do it!" in reply to the original question. I can't think of many reasons not to, as long as the doing suits the hobbyist's energies, health, enjoyment and purpose.

FrankM

    yep...

At times yes. But the I realize I can't expand my 16'X17' layout much without blocking access to the furnace/hot water heater so it's kinda a moot point. What I've been doing the past year is upgrades. I replaced all my Lionel 027 profile 042 switches with larger diameter Ross switches, completely tore out and redid my downtown/passenger terminal area and added a 3rd track to the station, and redid my freight yard to add another track to store a full train. My next plans include adding a small hill between my freight yard and the main line (which I may do soon) and redoing the industrial area of my layout, which will probably be a project for next winter (it's going to get nice out at some point and then I'll be outside tooling with my old Thunderbird). Because I'm landlocked, for lack of a better term, I've just be changing things here and there without a complete teardown.