What are your 2013 layout goals

1. Get my layout hooked back up.

2. Get good enough with RR-Track so I can whip out my own track plans.  I don't know why I have a mental block here.  I want to overcome it.

3. At least have a preliminary track/benchwork plan figured out so I can transition from O36 to O72 minimum.  A longer main would also be nice.

I almost forgot a big goal for 2013

Pay off all the debt I have from buying trains and layout stuff.

I'm going to extend my pre-war o gauge layout another 4 feet so I can fit in my Sinclair gas station & some other things.

 I am also going to add a turntable to my N gauge layout.

In 2011 I started applying some scenery with the intent of completing it in 2012, didn't happen.

My wife has been fighting all sorts of medical problems since last April and that seems to have taken a lot out of both our sails.  I won't go into the details, but just let me say you can't always believe what 20 doctors tell you (we figured out what was wrong on our own).

I did manage a couple of small engine/rolling stock projects to keep me busy though, so all was not lost.

Now I'm starting to re-think my current layout plan.  If I settle on a good upgrade to what i have now, I have a feeling the current layout will come down and rebuilt, or at least part of it.  Here's what I'm working on:

The area to the left of "Stuart's Cold Storage (SCS)" and down from "Virginia Chemicals" is the new revision.

At the bottom left I have the following tracks:

1-Track going to mainline/offline

2-Yard Lead

3-Track going to mainline/offline

4&5-Engine storage tracks.

To the left of the WYE at SCS, I have a 3-track yard, enough to store 13 cars and to the left of that is a run-around.

With such a small space (12x12) there's not but so much room I have to model an old Seaboard Sub-Division line.  this will give me the ability for continuous loop running and a bunch of switching in the new area plus all the industrial spurs I currently have.

Go from a rough plywood table (remnants of an old G gauge layout) to real, professional quality benchwork, pick the track mfr to use, get better at RR-Track, finish a track plan and get some track down.  And, have a nicer Christmas layout inspired by the terrific thread here.  Whew.

Happy New Year.

Ron

Scenery, lighting and placement of structures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSVGY3FQpPA

i've gotten "this" far on my layout.  I hope to "finish" some time this year.  next year i'll be ready for a tear down and rebuild!!

Scenery, scenery, scenery.  The track is down and mostly wired and I have most of the buildings and accessories I want now I need to bring it all together.  My biggest problem is I keep buying locomotive and rolling stock projects.

Mine.......

Finish room prep.

Start and finish benchwork

Get track to the point I can run something........

Simple....but lots of work.

I want to finish my layout by Feb - March. Have a party and tear it down.  I want to clear out my garage and build a 20x8 along the north and east walls of the garage.

Paint tops

Attach tops

Lay track

Wire

Room and bench work are done.

Gilly

get a few more buildings, final scenery and post picture here on the forum  (just getting into the photography aspect)

Complete conversion of all rolling stock to Kadees

Complete the laying of track in the Yard

Complete wiring of the roundhouse tracks

Install remaining crossing gates

Start ballasting the track.

But these were 2010, 2011, and 2012 goals also.

Start benchwork

My goal

 1. finsh wiring switches.

 2. finsh wiring lights.

 3. finsh with turn table get wired up and working right.

 4. have fun running it all.

Here is a tip to you Gary and everybody else.

Try to work on the layout everyday for as long as you like, 10 minutes, or 3 hours. But when you do, don't stare. Run a wire, hook up some power leads, ballast a small section of track.

The thing is, do something no matter how small. Those small things will add up over time and before you know it, allot has been done.

It's how I completed my large layout I built about 12 years ago. Small steps go along way.

J,

  1st I want to acquire another original Tin Plate Crane Car, in really good working condition, for my 263E Work train, and 2nd engineer an inside track for running both the original 263E and the MTH P2 reproduction Tin plate, in oppsite directions at the same time, for next years Christmas layout.

PCRR/Dave

Which layout? HO, O, O27, N, HOn30 ... and some portable projects ...

Get the first two loops finished switches & sidings wired.  Then start on the scenery before I start on the inside part of the layout.

I have been trying to get a portable O-gauge layout I started two years ago finished up while I have been off the past two weeks for the Holidays. The weather didn't cooperate and I wasn't able to get much done, so I will try to get it finished in the next few weeks. I also started on a portable N-scale layout a year ago and it is on my list to finish this year as well.

Finish it!!!

Well I have started my bench work and had plans to be almost done by this time,but thear always seems to be more medical problems that seem to pop up as I go.I just got out of the hospital yesterday.Well my plans are to get some more work done on the bench work done.Lay some more track.Pick up some more 3/4 " plywood and some more Quiet brace.well we will se how things go and I hope to show how things go.

Start on the scenery and lighting of the structures....

Alan

1. Get a bigger transformer (maybe MTH Z-1000) so I can use the smoke unit on my RailKing Dreyfuss Hudson.

2. Continue assembling the fleets, both HO and O.

3. Get more track, especially turnouts, so I can expand beyond a simple loop of track.

4. Continue building airships.  I may not have a layout yet, but I can at least keep building things I intend to use on it.

5. I would really like to try weathering my equipment.  Never done it in either scale, but a recent thread has been highly encouraging to me.

These are all rather ambitious, but I have options on what to work on.

Aaron

Simple:  wiring.

To finish what I started years ago. Wire up the layout, finish off the tables, lay down the rest of the track, build some panel boards and finally complete the scenery. I think too much for 2013 but I best get down to doing it.............Paul

Put all the "stuff" I have purchased and never put in place to good use. I could easily spend the year doing this and just tidying things up. I'm happy with my layout and roster  so it is looking like a soft year as far as purchases go. I'm sure something will grab my eye at York but that's fine. 

Finalize the track plan--I'm close, but not quite there yet--and then get started on scenery.  I have everything I need for all those projects, just have to get my butt in gear.

Run trains upon it often enough to keep the rails clean and the power flowing.  My grandson needs to visit more I think.

I went from 4 years behind schedule to 1 year behind schedule. Thats progress!

Tweeking, moving spiders and dusting the RR because it will be seen In HD and Blueray in an upcoming OGR video!!! Happy New Year!!!!

First I need to finish adding flats to the background of my lower mainlines. I can still see the basement wall on my CBL.

Second I need to add a passenger platform on my elevated line. Right now my passengers just run in an oval with no way off the trains. "Next stop Willoughby".

2013 goals:

Improve the wiring.

Ballast.

Scenery.

Run everything.

In my little round-the-room 9x16 attic operation[steam/transition era until 1960]:

Complete the placement of structures in the soon to be nearly unreachable back corners[Denim Mill in one and Samill w/Lumber Yard in the other]. Perhaps do a little very basic ground scapes and placement of a few scale working people and vehicles, then move on for now.

Then clear tools and junk off the other still raw side of the layout and plan placement of structures where the Village, Depot,etc, will reside [across the aisle from the Service Yard side with its 6 Towers and Enginehouse].

Wiring done and track laid in February '10--health issues shut the railroad work down for quite awhile. Need to lay ballast along dual mainline in one spot and touch up the railside rust paint and ballast in general. Then clean track and run trains again while I ride up to work at the Village on the two-rail stairlift and toil while aided by legal steroids and oxygen.

 Happy Railroading in the New Year everybody!

Oh,oh, I forgot all those drying sedum plants awaiting tree conversion work.

In 2012, I attained my goal of setting up a minimal layout for the holidays (they'd been packed away since the early 90s).

For 2013:

1.  Inventory all of my stuff before I pack it away until next holiday season.

2.  Repair anything I broke before I pack it away.

3.  Gather up spare parts & lamps since LHSs ain't so local anymore.

4.  Get a small track layout mounted to plywood so I can run trains at my whim.

5.  Join a club so I can participate in trains year round, until I make the space at home.

To completely take down my 16 X 28 and start all over. With:

1. Complete inventory.

2. Multi elevations

3. comply with legacy/TMCC/conv.

4. New display shelves

5. additional lighting

6. a lot more detail in wiring.

7. as large a radius as I can go with. Hopefully 60 and up.

Re-wire my storage yard sidings. They are not working as well as I want.

I also want to improve the roundhouse/turntable area of the layout.

I think in setting 2013 goals for the layout, they should be realistic so you can accomplish them and not be disappointed at this time next year.

This advice is GOLDEN.  We think that we don't have time to do something so we put it off.  Breaking the bigger jobs into small (or micro) tasks that are manageable really helps make a seemingly impossible job doable.

I'm a tinplate/toy train layout guy, and I already have a nice tin layout that is mostly complete except for a few odds and ends.

In 2013, I'm contemplating doing one of the Lionel display layouts. It's an idea that's always been  in the back of my mind and would fit in well with the look that I enjoy.