I read a story long time back in the MR press about another trucker who put together a tool box to carry with him including paint. He figured out what he would need before each run to make whatever amount of progress on a kit while he was gone.

Jack

Always good to hear of a new layout being built. I look forward to seeing your progress........it doesn't need to be fast, I enjoy my time working on my layout and measure the time in the pleasure I get out of the process not how much I get done. Enjoy!

Don't lose sight of the fact that this is going to be FUN!  It doesn't really matter how much or how little you accomplish in a given time period; it only matters if you like the result. As for time to work on things, I thought Rod Stewart (whose home layout has been featured twice in Model Railroader magazine) had a good idea with his "traveling work kit". Any time he had some free time while touring on the road, he would work on something related to his layout. But even if you don't have time on the road to do anything  physical (building structures, etc.), you could keep track of some ideas, perhaps in a notebook, that you could put to work when you got home. When I'm out on my bike in the early morning, trying to do my five-miles-a-day plan, I often think up stuff to do on the layout when I get back (and usually a "honey-do" list seems to magically appear out of nowhere, mostly having nothing whatsoever to do with the layout, and preempts my good intentions...)   Good luck with your railroad, though - and be sure to let us all know how things are going! 

                                                               Fred 1940

Ditto on the working-away-from-home idea.  I have an office job and I used my lunches to build occupancy detectors and switches when I had an office.  Now I'm in a cube (open concept - YUCK!) and it's harder.  But I also keep lists of ideas, especially operating ideas, to try out when I have layout time.  If you have room in your cab, you could paint figures, build cars, make trees, etc.  There never seems to be an end to what you need for a layout!

Right now I have a lot of google time in the cab. Also using scarm to come up with a workable plan in my spare time. Like I said it will be based on a plan from a book but I'm not sure that it will be exactly that plan when the rail hits the bench. As time goes on I'll get into working on things in the truck in my spare time. I own the truck so it's really a rolling hotel room. I have power so I can even carry the air brush along if I want. I hadn't thought of a toolbox to carry along with what I need for a project so thanks for that idea. One of the things I love about this job is being able to see the things railroads do in real life. Some of the stuff you see out here if you saw it on some ones layout you would think it was over the top fake. I hope to have a plan decided on by the time I get home next so that I can begin building bench work.

Whatever you come across that you can grab a photo of for yourself or us would be much appreciated.

Have fun, Jack

Unfortunately all the cool stuff is hard to get photos of as I'm going down the road, and there's not an easy parking option near a lot of stuff for a 75' truck.

The link below is for a Google maps view of a 1.5 mile ling bridge near st.lous mo that crosses the Missouri river. That's an example of stuff that I would never see if it weren't for my job.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/38%C2%B047'49.3%22N+90%C2%B027'59.2%22W/@38.7970372,-90.4686437,672m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d38.797033!4d-90.466455

"That's an example of stuff that I would never see if it weren't for my job."

  Being around modern trains and facilities might be a good reason to model the present era and cut down your research time as well as build a more accurate looking layout? .....DaveB