What happens when the layout is "finished?'

ConrailFan posted:

3rail 2 posted:

Here is what happened to mine just today......

Donald

Donald, is that your basement, garage or attic? I ask because I see all three aspects in the pictures you posted, LOL! I see the garage along with pulldown stairs and then the othe two which I'm assuming is your basement. Pretty Cool! Out here in Cali- attic is totally out of the question(think about the Twilight Zone episode of the earth moving too close to the sun-LOL!), a basement is totally out of the question, when Mother nature likes to turn over in her bed she pulls all the covers and everything come crashing down! And unfortunately I really do need the garage for my cars. So for right now I am classified as a collector. Good Luck with the re-build, I would love to see pics when you're through.

Hey Conrail fan. That is my basement and garage. I have attic space above the garage where you see the pull down stairs out in the garage. My layout room is in my basement and filled a 12'x35' foot space. That wall you see on the 2nd pic is now gone which opens up the whole basement area for my NEW LAYOUT to 24'x35'. My sons were a big, big help in the demo, now the fun begins. I have been working on the new design for the last year!

One benefit of the east coast is a basement as long as you have no water problems to deal with.

Donald

3rail 2 posted:

ConrailFan posted:

3rail 2 posted:

Here is what happened to mine just today......

Donald

Donald, is that your basement, garage or attic? I ask because I see all three aspects in the pictures you posted, LOL! I see the garage along with pulldown stairs and then the othe two which I'm assuming is your basement. Pretty Cool! Out here in Cali- attic is totally out of the question(think about the Twilight Zone episode of the earth moving too close to the sun-LOL!), a basement is totally out of the question, when Mother nature likes to turn over in her bed she pulls all the covers and everything come crashing down! And unfortunately I really do need the garage for my cars. So for right now I am classified as a collector. Good Luck with the re-build, I would love to see pics when you're through.

Hey Conrail fan. That is my basement and garage. I have attic space above the garage where you see the pull down stairs out in the garage. My layout room is in my basement and filled a 12'x35' foot space. That wall you see on the 2nd pic is now gone which opens up the whole basement area for my NEW LAYOUT to 24'x35'. My sons were a big, big help in the demo, now the fun begins. I have been working on the new design for the last year!

One benefit of the east coast is a basement as long as you have no water problems to deal with.

 

Donald

That's COOL!! and to have your sons help and involved in the hobby, that's really great! Although my daughter is 18 now and going off to college, not really interested in trains anymore, she still always makes time to go to the train shows when I ask if she wants to come with me. I never get a "No", and that warms my heart.

They close the coffin lid.

When you consider adding and/or replacing buildings over time, adding details to the scene, add building lights etc, its hard to believe the layout could ever be finished.

I use masking tape and a marker to make notes of things on the layout that need to be changed, fixed and investigated. I make a note on the making tape and stick it on the layout or rolling stock so I can see & remember what needs my attention. I have never been able to get all the making tape off my layout.

Using car cards and waybills to give purpose to moving cars on your layout is great fun and involves solving a lot of operating puzzles. I am always making changes & improvements to my car cards (I call it the "Train card game")

Consider that you can see the end in site as optimism. You may never quite get there, even though you can see it from here.

What is a car card?

Thanks

rockyshores posted:

What is a car card?

Thanks

Just like a "waybill" from back in the "old days of railroading" before computers. Each and every car on your layout would have a "car card" with a description on it for the type of car, the load in the car, and then turning the card over would be "empty" on the back of the card. The Yardmaster would make up a train of, say 12 cars, with "destination slips" on each car card, hand the stack of cards to the Engineer & Conductor, and tell them to "go deliver all these freight cars". Then the fun begins, i.e. locating & switching the various industries WITHOUT interfering with the run-through main line trains.

If you know its going to be boring when you finish then your track plan was not right to begin with. It takes courage to admit that because it may mean you have to tear down and start over.

When a layout is finished, its time to enjoy it and maybe look for scenic improvements. The layout may be never finished with some as they strive to increase, size, features and operational capacity.

In my basement, the layout is 95% finished . All that needs to be done is to hook up the lighting. It took 13 years to get it to this point and the 15' x 28' room is full of track work with little room for expansion. Its not the biggest layout around but it is full of scratch built structures, plenty of scenery, with mountains, a river gorge, viaduct, cascading river and a mountain side coal mine. That's enough hobby work for one mans lifetime.

Wonder where the original poster is in all of this? He has not responded after starting this thread. Wonder why?

I've completely rebuilt my layout 6 times and am currently on #7. I don't recommend this its costly but I guess I'm hard to please.

FINISHED!!! Finished? Was it finished when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!!! No. It's never finished! 

bigtruckpete posted:

FINISHED!!! Finished? Was it finished when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!!!

Otter: [to Boon] "Germans?"

Boon: "Forget it, he's rolling."

Took a bit to get back to this...... BigTruckPete must have been reading my thoughts from last falls dump of the toy figure box..I still had this pictures folder open from earlier....go figure