Fits and spurts

In my head, I am constantly at work on the layout, but out in the real world it comes in spurts - spurts that are often dictated by my wallet. Right now, structures from the track plan are slowly turning into 2D building plots, and those plots are turning into 3D paper mock-ups. But the real holdup is trying to figure out how to build the "ramps" from the lower to upper levels for the track. BUT it'll all get done just as soon as my family stops insisting on daily human interaction with me.....

Speed is Relitive to Deadlines

     You are not alone!  I started my five year module project over eight years ago. Once I knew I was not going to make my self imposed deadline, my interest drained, then almost died.

     Like a rebirth, the need to succeed was awakened by the announcement of a national model railroad show at the location that seems possible to transport my monster to. An eight hour drive, but being where I live, that can be expected to be the closest a national convention will ever be. When I learned that the place had been picked for 2018, I now had a new pressing deadline and a new commitment was scheduled at that moment.  Now with 24 months to go, I made up a progress schedule which allowed 2 months to complete each of the 9 modules and the rest of the time to complete the 4 add-on sections and final testing. 

     Now having the work schedule plan all set up and feeling comfortable about the time verse work required, I can work easier with many different deadlines, than just one big one. It also helps keep me focused on keeping on track and sticking with one module at a time until it is completed.

     The photo below was taken on April 10th, 2009, about a year into the project. Six months was spent in just drawing up the plan for each module before the saw cut the first piece of wood. With modules only being 2 feet wide and 7 foot 4 inches long, it required paying total attention to each detail to make it all fit in On3 scale. 

Very leisurely

I can work very quickly. For instance I can build a complex electronics board in just a few hours, but for models I'm more interested in the quality of the job than time spent. That means a lot of measuring and a lot of do-overs. My hands shake a bit, so I might spend fifteen minutes devising a fixture to hold the work for a two minute task.

That's when I am modeling-- I often have to put everything aside to work on one of the other projects I have going, including a bit of teaching. Add in some health issues and railroading doesn't actually happen much. All I can say I've done this year is a sawmill and some bridges.

pqe

I don't have a stockpile of equipment and supplies

I don't have any spare parts and I have a very small supply of tools, paint, glue, ballast, etc. That means that I probably won't have all the supplies for fully completing a project, and to get the supplies I have to either order them or go to the train store, but the store is pretty far away and I often have to do other things that get in the way of taking a trip there. Obviously, these factors slow me down and hinder my progress greatly. If I had more supplies and equipment I could probably work a bit faster on it.

I find in general I get more

I find in general I get more done with a deadline.  So if I have scheduled an open house or a convention tour or some such.

Conversely, the last two and a half years have been very slow.  It started with my father getting his knee replaced, the my mother got sick, and had a triple bypass.  My father then had a stent put in and my mother passed away, followed by health issues for me including but not limited to becoming diabetic and having my gallbladder removed.   This took so much time and effort that I was barely in the layout room.  Once everything was (mostly) over with it took about 4-6 months to catch up around the house. So after two years of little work I had to re figure out what I had planned!

In the last few months we have gotten back to regularly working on the layout again and it is back up and running and we are starting to make progress again.

Right now I spend about three days a week for two to 5 hours a day. I would say I average 8 to 10 hours a week.  A bit more right now as my dad has volunteered to have the layout open for a convention.  Now we are probably closer to 12 to 18 hours a week but the convention is,next month.

-Doug Meyer

Progress has

slowed a bit, I'm at that point now were I'm dealing with the dcc manual (what, can you explain that step in blue collar english please? ) I have also installed the Decoder pro program & sprog and used it this morning,  (e-gad,  more computer jargon)  but it does seem more user friendly to me........programmed an F7A & B unit......

When I went to read the decoder on the A unit, it started up and ran too the bumber at the end of the program track and stopped. It said it could not read the decoder type, that there was a short on the program track, and, it was reading a 5 digit address. (I kid you not!)

On to the B unit, bing boom bam, done!     So now, the B unit has to do the job of moving freight while the A unit is in pieces on the work bench.....who needs a stinking windshield anyway?...........

Bite-sized chunks and the power of 15 minutes...

As a new father with an 8 week old daughter, husband, and provider with an 8-5 job, I can't stress enough the power of doing 15 minutes a day. With very limited free time to myself, shut off the tv and spend 15 minutes doing something, anything... I have a free mo module that is 2x3 that I only started 3 weeks ago and will be laying track by the end of the week. By doing something, you avoid stagnation and you will be surprised by the amount of work you can get done. Just do smaller chunks, "building modules helps here" and don't get hung up, do something easy while you are solving larger issues.

5 minutes a day

I tell myself that I'll just do five minutes. Sometimes it is only five but often it goes much further. The idea that I try to do something small everyday, even if doing it over (or three times) gives me a lot a satisfaction and just going out to the railroad seems to make mowing the lawn or fixing the chainsaw, or (fill in the blank) go a lot easier.

Being online here doesn't count toward my five but does inspire me immensely! I have to agree with sanchomurpy that looking at the big picture is not a way to find motivation. This is my hobby so I look for something that I can do just to move it forward.

Work Smarter not Harder

Hi Nbrodnar,

I try to make the most of my modeling hour each day by:

Bulk building common items(mailboxes, fire hydrants, telephone poles, etc.).

Spray painting several kits at once outdoors using common primer colors, during the summer and reboxing the parts for later assembly.

When painting figures, do 100-150 at once.  Leave them on the sprue.  Paint all the white areas first, then yellow and so on, finishing with black.  That way you're only cleaning the brush once for each color.  Remove them from the sprue and touch up the point where they were connected.

Make trees by the hundred and store them in a shopping bag.  When you need a wooded area, you'll have plenty of trees ready to plant. 

These will make it much faster to create a finished scene on your railroad, because the details are available.

I wish I could stick to............

..........working on getting the rest of my track laid on my O scale layout so I can get a longer run going, but.........
I seem to drift back to my workbench and spend hours on tuning up my stockpile of older brass engines.  I go so far as to swap motors, re mount motors with rubber, swap gears around, swap drive shafts/wheelsets and any other moving part on the driveline until I come up with a combination that runs smoothly, quietly and most importantly under 1 smph on DCC!  I do all this because I've set a goal to have all my locomotives be able to run smoothly at under 1 smph.  Then we move on to painting, DCC decoders, LED lights and good speakers optimized for stereo as I use QSI Titans.  

I'm thinking of trying a schedule, layout in the morning, lunch break/nap then locomotives in the afternoon..........

Of course I have to fit in food shopping and prep and other household chores, as I'm retired but my S/O is still working.

So much to do, so little time...................................!! 

Peter

I have come and gone with

I have come and gone with model railroads every since the birth of my first daughter in 1969. A couple of goes at N and then a couple of goes at HO. Since retiring, I have built about 5 railroads of one sort or the other but none got further than laying the track and getting a train to run. 

I have sorted out my life and have four main interest now that I am "fully" retired and have all the time to myself (until SWMBO says otherwise . These are, in no particular order:

Playing Dixieland Jazz (to myself) on my concertina or alto sax);
Studying to finish my Open University Degree - which I stopped just before our third child came along many years ago);
Building scale model cars and painting figurines;
Building an HO railroad.

This time, the railroad is moving past just the track and I am allocating time each week to it so we will see how we go. I have purchased all of my expected wants in the shape of locos, cars, structures so expense should be minimal.

Real Sloooow

I also work at a rather slow pace. All of the track work is in, all of the structured have been built and now all that has to be done is to add some details on the last section of construction, which is a town.

With a couple of acres of lawn to take care of and summer activities, most of my work is done during the winter months when a warm train room is a better place to be than outside in the snow.

When these details have been added, older parts of the layout will probably be updated. 95% of the layout has scenery so I am now able to enjoy operating the railroad.