How long did it take you to finish your layout?

12 YEARS AND COUNTING.

32 years and still not close to being done. But then I have things to keep me going.

Finish? LOL!  

Been almost done twice....

1993-2003 layout......completely wired.....a small area ballasted, scenery only barely started.....but ran well

2011-2021 layout.....wiring essentially complete and scenery far advanced.....and, ran great....

Now, I'm trying to finish, again....it's taking me a year to get this much done.....

Bottom line, there are a lot of factors that go into the time of building a layout....most of the factors are unexpected and unplanned......but that adds to the fun and gives one a sense of accomplishment.

I built my layout in spurts.

Most of the benchwork, track and initial wiring and scenery was done after work and on weekends in a few months around 1998 when I was 47 years old with young children. Getting my kids involved, introducing them to tools, was great fun.

The next spurt took place a year later when I  tunneled through a partition between the playroom and laundry room in the basement and extended the layout into the laundry room. This took another month or two, and included scratchbuilding the Popsicle Stick Yankee Stadium. My daughter and son enjoyed gluing together and painting the bleachers and adding the O Scale players on the playing field and O Scale fans seated in the bleachers.

The scenery, structures and Postwar accessories on the layout have been changed many times since the late 1990s.

This Forum, which I joined in late 2017, greatly inspired numerous recent layout projects and improvements. Also, model railroading was a Godsend for me during the early part of Covid when so much was shut down, and I had a lot more time to work on the layout.

My biggest recent project was re-wiring the layout, which also included installing DCS. The rewiring was physically taxing - much crawling under the train tables and contorting my body, which I call my Model Railroad Yoga. This took about 6 weeks in my spare time.

My most fun recent project was adding a layout extension where I have a Plasticville My Little Town and a removable river with boats and barges.

The Plasticville village, river and boats and barges was done in my spare time over several months.

Before that, I scratchbuilt a Popsicle Stick Polo Grounds, the took a few hours:

One might say this layout has been a labor of love that I've worked on, off and on, over a 25 year period since 1998. But, don't let that discourage you;  I had trains running on a layout that was about 60% of the size of my current layout within a few months after I started construction. Arnold

Will let you know if I ever get there...

I thought I had it but Bill Parks wins so far with 32 years and not done yet.  I am only 24 years and maybe a little over half done.  I am accelerating now as the Mrs has it in her head to move in several years.

34 years and still working on it. Scenery changes or track tweaks. I’d say it was about 20 years to get it to some form of completion.

Not counting the first iteration that had to be ripped out because the grades were too much for my non-traction-tired engine with 7 heavyweight cars, the current layout has been under construction for 12 years or so.

However, the first thing I did was to get track in place and wired so that trains could run.  Nothing kills enthusiasm for a layout like the inability to run trains.  Further, the need to test them before adding accessories and scenery makes getting them running a must.  And trains running provides inspiration for the rest of the job, not to mention a relaxation when the whole thing seems overwhelming.

So don't despair when you read these numbers.  Make getting at least one route in operation a priority as soon as the benchwork will support it.

I have found that I really don't care if I ever get "finished."  I am not trying to get my layout in any magazine (a pic or two might be nice, but no feature article), and my family are the only ones who need to enjoy it--my older son runs trains more often than I do some years.  So don't let "finished" get in the way of enjoying what you are doing.

This layout has evolved over a 33 year period.  HO was the thing at the time which transitioned to postwar S gauge with the current three rail O gauge emerging around 1998.

It has had two additions, one 15 yrs ago, the later in the last few months.

The current design is U shaped 13x13 in space allotment and all that meets CEO approval.

Progress or lack thereof has been dictated by time/funds allocation to other hobbies or extensive travel.

I would say the greatest benefit to this hobby for me has been as a member of this forum.  I would consider several of you as friends even though we have never met in person. This is a great resource!  You have come to the right place for enlightenment and encouragement!

John

@palallin posted:

Not counting the first iteration that had to be ripped out because the grades were too much for my non-traction-tired engine with 7 heavyweight cars, the current layout has been under construction for 12 years or so.

However, the first thing I did was to get track in place and wired so that trains could run.  Nothing kills enthusiasm for a layout like the inability to run trains.  Further, the need to test them before adding accessories and scenery makes getting them running a must.  And trains running provides inspiration for the rest of the job, not to mention a relaxation when the whole thing seems overwhelming.

So don't despair when you read these numbers.  Make getting at least one route in operation a priority as soon as the benchwork will support it.

I have found that I really don't care if I ever get "finished."  I am not trying to get my layout in any magazine (a pic or two might be nice, but no feature article), and my family are the only ones who need to enjoy it--my older son runs trains more often than I do some years.  So don't let "finished" get in the way of enjoying what you are doing.

I totally agree with Palallin. Arnold

"I should be able to work for at least an hour or more most evenings and a good portion of Saturday and/or Sunday to work on the layout. Delays notwithstanding, I'd like to have all the benchwork built, track laid and wired up, and trains running in about a year. The next year would be for getting the lion's share of the scenery done, and after that it would be detailing to my hear's content. Is this overly optimistic?"

I think your rough timeline is very doable and not overly optimistic.  Much will depend on having materials on hand, time you have to work on your layout, and overall size/complexity.

By way of example, here is where I am with my current layout, started shortly after we moved to our new house in 2016.

Future train room, November 2016

By February 2017, I had benchwork largely complete and enough track (temporarily) down to run trains.

Roughly a year later had even started on some scenery...

At roughly 6 years and counting...

Finish? What is this word finish?

2 weeks, built from scratch with wife's help. Layout was completed Dec. 23, 2011, and has been up and running since then.

I have two completed layouts in my basement - the older one is 12'-by-8', the newer one is 10'-by-5'. Each layout took five years to complete and both have been the subject of articles in O Gauge Railroading Magazine. I built all the structures (about 80) – mostly from kits but also from scratch – and didn’t buy any ready-built and just put them down onto the layouts. It usually takes me about 80 hours to build a structure. My approach is to work steadily on a model railroad until 100% of the table area is covered by track, structures and scenery. Then call it complete and run trains.

MELGAR

Thank you all for the input! And the humor

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

One might say this layout has been a labor of love that I've worked on, off and on, over a 25 year period since 1998. But, don't let that discourage you;  I had trains running on a layout that was about 60% of the size of my current layout within a few months after I started construction. Arnold

@palallin posted:

So don't despair when you read these numbers.  Make getting at least one route in operation a priority as soon as the benchwork will support it.

@Mayor Magoo posted:

I think your rough timeline is very doable and not overly optimistic.  Much will depend on having materials on hand, time you have to work on your layout, and overall size/complexity.

And thank you for the reassurances, some of these replies were making me worry that I got involved in the hobby too early!

Also, MELGAR and Arnold, I really admire what you have been able to do with your layouts. I think both layouts are great examples of how you don't need the O72 curves to have a great, eye-catching layout.

If I ever achieve completion, I assure you that I will track down this thread and let everyone know

I’ve reached the conclusion that building a layout is much like doing home improvements… they never end, they can only be stopped

I agree with you, Paul, that it seems for many of us that the layout is never completely finished.

For me, even when the layout seems pretty much finished, it's not because there is always something to at least tinker with, and sometimes substantially change.

I think many of us want to never be totally finished. Maybe it's because we never want the creativity to end.

It just occurred to me that we may reach a point when the layout seems to physically be finished. But, for me, it's still not finished because mentally I still often wonder whether to make some improvement or change; sometimes I act on these ideas and physically make the change, sometimes I don't.

This also reminds me of the expression that says, in sum and substance, that we are always on the journey, never to reach the final destination. Arnold

@0-Gauge CJ posted:

....Also, MELGAR and Arnold, I really admire what you have been able to do with your layouts. I think both layouts are great examples of how you don't need the O72 curves to have a great, eye-catching layout.

Just to clarify, the outer loop on my 12'-by-8' layout is O-72 because one of my requirements was to be able to run scale-sized models of large engines. The 10'-by-5' layout is just a single loop of O-54 track on which I also can run many scale-sized engines. Realism was another of my requirements for both layouts.

One point about layout size. It's easy to build a large layout that will impress people. But it takes more skill, workmanship and planning to build something nice in a small space. For that reason, I regarded my smaller layout as more of a challenge.

MELGAR

Still working on it...40 years.

About 4 years of weekends and evenings, including a move from Texas to Virginia, and then a move within Virginia.  There are always tweaks, but that's about how long it took to get what you see at the link below.  My last large layout took about three years, including a major redesign and one move.

I started my first layout and all the buildings in October 2021 right after I retired. I was about 70% complete and decided to build a well planned design with lots of train action. With the help of forum members after joining in May 2022, I started the new layout in August 2022 and still building.

Gene

Well, been like 25 years and counting...though a lot of that was lost to getting the basement finished off, not having time, etc.  A lot of this depends on what you mean to finish it, do you mean to the point where scenery is done pretty much and it is just tweaks and changes as you see fit. For others they see it as running trains and then the scenery and the like evolves over time. The other factor is the size of it, obviously a larger layout takes more time, a highly detailed layout will take more time, whether it is more 'toy train like' or scale, then one less detailed. 

Given my slow rate of progress I am not a good model, but I have a 9x14, with a relatively simple track plan. The benchwork I finished in a couple of weeks working an hour here or there during the week and on weekends. The track, if I had had it all on hand, would likely have taken me a couple of weeks. The wiring likely will take me a while. All told, if I had worked on it the way you did, I could probably have had trains running in like 6 months (no scenery, ballast, just wired up).   To get it basically scenicked, probably will take me at the kind of pace you are talking about, another year. To get it to where I consider it done to where most of the scenery and stuff I want to be in there, probably couple of years total.

The thing is, no matter how far you get with a layout and then you let's say decide to move, or have to, whatever you have done is valuable, in the learning process for the next layout. If you had trains running, you learned a great deal, including what you wouldn't do again. The real answer, I know it is a cliche, is layouts take as long as they take. In my view this is a hobby and it is not like doing a project for business or on the honey do, has to be done list or the like. Like I said, if someone envisions they will move in 6 months, might not be wise to set up a layout, but if you otherwise think you will be someplace for a while, jump in and enjoy.

Well, is that a trick question?  In my experience, a layout is never "finished."