Before I decided to dismantle my Siskiyou Line layout, MRH began promoting a home layout building scheme we called TOMA — The “One Module” Approach. Modelers were happy to learn about TOMA as we explored it with a TRAINMASTERS TV project layout series, which we completed.

Index to Joe Fugate's journal entries:

• Dismantling and rebuilding ebb and flow (Siskiyou Line 1 teardown, TOMA build)

• Distractions from the hobby

• Adding the second Siskiyou Line 2 module -- KC here we come!

I'm continuing to dismantle my old Siskiyou Line 1 and exploring how to build the new Siskiyou Line 2 TOMA modules. There were some questions around all this on another thread, so rather than pull that thread off-topic, I've moved those discussions here.

I've had a lot of distractions from doing the hobby in the last few months, not the least of which is finding my birth parents (I'm adopted).

I've also been enjoying some of the hobby by being on the road shooting layout tours -- I've just not been working on my own layout much.

Progress continues on the two modular sections of Siskiyou Line 2 that I plan to have on display in the MRH booth at the Kansas City NMRA National convention Train Show Aug 10-12.

Here is the track plan of what we will have on display:

Progress on the modules in the next post below.

I've started building the first Siskiyou Line 2 module section. Given this is the first one, it's something of a prototype and I'm making some mistakes with it. But overall, it's coming out pretty much as expected (and hoped).

  More in the next post!

Now that my mom's house has sold, that project is now behind us! I've started dismantling Siskiyou Line 1 again. More about that in the next entry below.

One of the things I'm coming to like about using TOMA to build a home layout is the "finish it as you go" concept.

TOMA (The "One Module" Approach) looks at building a home layout using sectional/modular techniques to build your home layout a bit at a time. Another TOMA concept is to build each of the modules to completion as you go.

Read the rest of the story in the next post, below ...

I started a bit of dismantling of the trackwork in staging on Siskiyou Line one in late April and early May -- and then life circumstances intervened. I’ve had to put all layout activity on hold for the next several months.

The Siskiyou Line 1 dismantling continues.

The "refuse pile" of materials is building up, so in the next post I give you the details on how I'm keeping "my head above the refuse pile", so to speak.