Many times we need to renew our enthusiasm to build layouts. In January, 2017 I was faced with this issue and resolved it. What did I do?
1. I decided to have a single track main line and in so doling, eliminated track spaghetti.
2. The main line is 0-72 curves and I used the extra space to construct one reversing loop, meaning a second reversal requires switching. That adds interest.
3. I could never decide which track system to use. I bought everything (Gargraves, Fastrack, Atlas brown and black ties, tubular, Super "O" ) to experiment. I like them all. So, I made the following decision. Fastrack is the main line, because it is ballasted. Subdivisions are not. Subdivisions are limited to towns, where the secondary track is Atlas, and Super "O", which do not have the cork sub-bed and, thus, look to be secondary.
4. The area between towns is restricted to the one track main line, so that the railroad appears to go somewhere.
5. To add interest, I added a dedicated trolley line of 0-27 track, connecting one station in a town to another station in an industrial area, opposite. The trolley line has a purpose.
6. I utilized some extra shelf space, built by my son before he moved away for his HO trains, and added the Lionel bungalows (out of scale) and Plasticville, representing distant places with a forced perspective.
7. I had a habit of leaving stuff all over the layout and decided to establish a system of warehousing and maintaining an inventory of all that stuff. I now know where to find a part instead of trying to remember where it might be on the layout.
8. I decided to mold my time not in hours (as I did) but in minutes. I developed more patience and when I achieved a certain limited goal, stopped. Formerly, I had to achieve broad objectives and hurried too much.
9. I took an old computer station I was going to throw out and decided to use it for one project at a time. I keep it upstairs, when I can do something in a short step.
10. Finally, to get the layout in a finished state, I decided to move around the basement, right to left, and clean it up, one area/town at a time. The standard is "pretty good". My plan is to sweep around the layout several times in this manner and finish it, so all I have to do is run trains.
11. I resurrected my program of storing videos in my hard drive, so if, as I get older and become disabled, I can sit in a chair and press a button and watch my trains. No one gets out of here alive.
As a result of the foregoing, enthusiasm has been rekindled.
Mark
