Just out of Curiosity

I spend every day doing something....right now, without a layout at home, I only run trains on the club layouts. I finished 6 kits since early February and am slowly plodding along with my new attic layout.....probably working on it this Wednesday with the group.

I enjoy my trains alone and with other people......I am president of our local 3 rail modular group. We (the group) had a busy summer and did about over 100 hrs of public displays since mid July. We are busy getting ready for the fall/winter train season.....and, there is always something to do, either on the layout or administratively.

Peter

I try to do something every day, even if it's just surfing the forum.

Layout time is sometimes simply sitting in front of it and pondering the possibilities.

Building, fixing, and running happen as time allows.

Bob

Everyday... Similarly, my layout is finished.  However, there are always things that need to be fixed or dressed up.  I also have a small group of local train friends and we gather on Tuesday night 2x per month at one of their layouts. I am the coordinator of the Tuesday night shows. We go to train shows, hobby shops and chit chat with the owner and buy a few things to support them.

With regard to my own layout, I like to run the trains and I an trying to create better videos.  My time spent on the forum gives me a chance to learn and see cool ideas.  Frequently I will use what I have learned to enhance my layout.

Every day for some small and/or long time the layout has my attention.

Great news fellas. I’m just hoping for the best for our beloved hobby. I hope it is here forever.
obx

I am rebuilding my layout after a water pipe had a pin hole leak around the first of February and flooded my condo.  Had to tear down the original layout.  I am close to being done with the rebuild and 2-foot expansion.  I have the street and building lighting to finish.  But I never seem to complete a layout I always find things to add.  I run my trains four or five times a week about an hour or more each time.  I missed running the trains while the layout was torn down as soon as the condos rebuild was completed, I started to rebuild the layout.

No layout currently, but I spend nearly every day of the week these days working on projects for 3rd Rail.  Checking drawings, doing research, QA/QC on projects in progress.  It is a very different experience than getting to run my trains daily, but still a very satisfying one.  One of these years, I'll get back to operating my trains.

The only reason my layout is almost complete is because it is a small one over  a single garage. There’s only so much room. It doesn’t matter whether your layout is big or small. Just whether you enjoy it. Run some trains, it’ll remind you of why you got into it to begin with.
obx

I try to do something every day even if it's only 30 minutes.  I have a lot going on but progress is progress and some things just take more time than others to complete.  Of course, some day I'll be retired and will no longer be umpiring (on the side) so I'll have much more time to spend on the hobby. 

-Greg

Enjoyable thread obxtrainman!  I've enjoyed reading everyone's posts

Layout time and running trains is usually less frequent for me during the summer months.  Outdoor activities and out of town ventures eclipse the layout during this time.  In August I did spend about 60 hours building 3 dioramas, photographing them,  and writing a story for an upcoming issue of OGR Magazine.  The dioramas were all created on different sections of my layout.  

I've not had time to deconstruct the dioramas so my layout has not been operable since the beginning of August.  However, the hint of fall air ( and some foreseen time in my schedule )  is beginning to beckon me to the layout room with a shop vac, bags  and boxes which means the trains will run again and of course ... they will run on time!  

I built one layout about ten years before retiring and another within the first five years after retirement. Both still in operation. The layout construction kept me busy for ten years. I worked on the retirement layout every day for five years and built every structure and piece of scenery on both layouts. Both are completed and don't need any further work. Being retired, the two layouts and model trains now occupy me every day. I run trains at least three or four days a week and take photos and make videos that I post on several weekly threads on the Forum, especially Switcher Saturday. I also keep busy cleaning and repairing the trains as necessary. Sometimes I go downstairs and just admire the trains and layouts. I've also written several articles that appeared in OGR Magazine, do a lot of reading about railroad history, current events, politics, and amuse myself with engineering computer programming. The trains are central to my existence these days. That's what retirement is for. And I spend time every day on the OGR Forum...

MELGAR

I am like Mel. I go to the basement for a tool but then I look at the layout and fix something or move trains around.

I spend more time at the club but it is getting  time for more activities on my layout.

I live in the north (PA) and love to mountain bike and fish. 'Hobby creep' is real. Trains go on the back burner as the temps warm. Northern summers are far too precious to spend indoors. As late fall rolls around and frost coats the ground, the trains come to life. Even during winter I probably spend 10 hours a week doing train stuff if I'm lucky.

My wife and I both work full time. Our boys are in preschool and kindergarten, so trains aren't #1 (or 2 or 3 or 4) priority right now. I also know my current layout is temporary, so I'm not inclined to make it perfect. Just good enough for me.

I love being outdoors starting in spring until early October. Then weather chases me into the basement form late fall until spring. I do spend a few hours a week converting my engines to battery power and I am moving into the deadrail world. That means a complete redo of track going from 3 rail to 2 rail. It's starting to get that fall feeling here in the pacific northwest so you can find me running trains or re-doing  the layout.

Yes. "There's always something ..."

My 15x19 L-shaped layout was "finished" two years ago, but there are things to do. At his point in time:
   * Replace a few burned-out bulbs in the Dept 56 North Pole Village buildings - 35 of them on the upper level
   * Swap DC power (instead of AC power, installed by mistake) to a sound card in the Lionel Bandstand
   * Diagnose and repair a K-Line O42 LH RC switch at a siding
   * Repair the drive mechanism in the tower that supports a rotating aerial blimp
   * Troubleshoot and fix the MTH Mel's Diner - kids jammed its operation by too-rapid button-pushes
   * Reverse the wires to a Lionel O42 LH RC switch - the red and green indicator lights are backwards
   * The "bubble tubes" on two of the three oil derricks don't work; either the bulbs are burned out or may
      be incorrect (i.e., not enough heat produced to activate the bubbling)
   * Add another GLENN SNYDER display shelf for a recently acquired train set.
   
Some of these mini-projects require scooting under the layout for access to wiring runs. Now 83, my mobility is limited, so I do the above-the-platform chores first. I hope my nine-year-old great grandson will soon be ready and eager to help me with the under-the-platform tasks -- even if that only means "bring me the parts box" or "go topside and press the control button for the Bandstand to see if it now works."

Mike Mottler    LCCA 12394

Wow!  I’ve really enjoyed reading everyone’s replies. I’m glad that I’m not the only one enjoying time with the trains.
obx

While my layout is in the garage, much of the summer it’s too hot, humid and dusty to spend much time out there.   I try to wake up early Sat or Sun morning to spend an hour or so out there before it gets too warm.    With fall around the corner, I’m sure I’ll be out there a couple times per week since evenings and other times of the day will be comfortable.

Something I’ve done to pique interest in family and friends is to show them some history behind pierces on the layout, particularly engines.    I have pictures printed out of the prototypes often times with the same road number that my engine has. Suddenly people realize they’re not just toys and it makes for interesting conversations.

I am an avid cyclist so summer time is out on the road.  But cycling clothes need yo be washed, the laundry room is next to the layout, why not pass the time while the machines do their thing?

In the summertime, around 2 hours a week. The rest of the year, maybe 3 hours a week. Also into other things.

Had cancer last year, started selling off the collection this past April (after 69 years), still trying to decide if I really want to keep a set for under-the-tree other than my wife's sets (she's not giving them up yet. )

"Layout time is sometimes simply sitting in front of it and pondering the possibilities."

Isn't that the truth. However, I still spend about 4 hours every day working on the layout. I would do a few hours more but I have to wait for my legs to wake up and function.

@artyoung

Art, I hope you've escaped the big C and I wish you good health.

Selling off the collection is something I frequently think about. I wrote down the Trainz website and told my bride to sell it to them.  And, I told my kids when the time comes just put a dumpster in the driveway and ditch the rest.

It's interesting to think that our first priority is what to do with the trains.

We all know what's going to happen, we just never know when.

artyoung

I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1999 and was not expected to live. Chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant in 2000 and I've been in remission ever since. At the time I was planning on not surviving but my oncologist said "you never know what's going to happen with life". Glad I listened to him. Started buying K-Line trains, happily remarried over 20 years on.

I'd keep a set of two--you don't know what life will bring (but do get all you financials, wills, health proxies and etc in order).

Yes you never know about what is around the next bend in life. Cancer is in my family and we all are praying for those who have contracted it. I keep asking myself should I sell my trains at this time in life. I am just 80 and feel darn happy that I have not some health issues that others face. For some reason I just seem to shrug off any notion to stop building or playing with my trains. When weather is not in my favor I am down in the basement looking ,pondering, and tearing down scenery and what evers. Just this last week I have been doing a redo to some scenery do to the heavy smoke filled air from forest fires  🔥. It has been a Tru blessing for me to be in this hobby. It just puts me in a different state of mind . I call my city and layout Fullfillment. Welcome to the layout of fullfillment, God bless to you all and keep those trains running on time.

Wife and I are planning to downsize our home next year, so part of my collection had to go.  I did OK, selling about $15,000 worth of O scale PRR equipment (steam era only) at a reasonable price to a much younger man (in his 20s) who used to work at my LHS.  He plans to re-motor and add DCC to all the brass engines and then run it all on a 91 year old friend's UP layout.  And, the cherry on top for him is that he just got hired as a Conductor for the Wisconsin & Southern RR.  This hobby may wax and wane, but I really don't think it will totally die.

The wife knows that if I need to go to the basement to retrieve any thing there is a good chance she will not see me until supper.  Ya juss has to run sumptin'.  Once you run one train it is only fair you run others.  Then I need roll out a few engines from the whisker tracks.  Of course the 3 rail engines need rotating also.  As long as I am there what about the...

The most satisfying is the wee small hours of the morning when sleep escapes me, I then creep down to the abyss and run all the locos which do not have sound lest management is stirred.

Six trains can comfortable be running all the time with only a fair degree of diligence and that is about the only level of diligence left these days.