“Is your layout finished?” “Do you host operations?” “How much scenery do you have complete?” These are just a few of the types of questions I get asked all of the time. When you use your layout as the background and subject of public videos, people become very interested in its progress. I appreciate that, but at the same time it is complicated…and a little embarrassing.
The complicated truth is this. I have been working on my layout–The Texas, Colorado & Western–for over 13 years. When I started building the layout I had been in my home for just over a year. At the time my three kids were all still at home, in school, and participating in a variety of sports and other activities. We were a busy family. I also had a very full-time job that kept me on the go. Model railroading was my hobby that kept me sane, but if I got a couple hours on Saturday to work on it I felt good. That does not make for fast progress.
In addition to all of these factors, there were long stretches of time when I didn’t work on the layout at all. One such period started in the spring of 2014 when I had a serious personal situation arise that caused me literally to get up from working on scenery one evening, walk away leaving everything exactly where I was using it, and not touch it again for two years.
Then there were life transitions, like the fact that my three kids have all now grown and moved out of the house. That transition let me to do some remodeling of my basement so I could expand my layout. While the expansion was needed and desired, it set overall progress on the layout back significantly. I also have looked at areas of my layout that I was not pleased with and eventually torn sections out to rebuild them. Why keep building a scene that I am going to hate? In fact, I have two such scenes currently that will undergo major revisions in the next few months. (Watch for those on video.) The decision to start the YouTube channel and video everything I do did not speed things up. Don’t get me wrong, I love creating videos and sharing them, but it slows down progress significantly.
All of these factors and more leave me with a 13 year old layout with benchwork that is complete, trackwork that is 99% complete, structures about 50% complete, scenery maybe 5% complete, and numerous features that I would like to add–most notably a signaling system. This truth is a little embarrassing. Why? I don’t know. It is, after all, a hobby and it is my layout. I see, however, many people who build incredible layouts in that amount of time, and others who build similar sized layouts to mine in a fraction of the time.
All of that said, I want to emphasize here that I am not discouraged. Despite upgrades and changes planned, I still love my layout and enjoy building it. Now that I have retired from the full-time job and am devoting full time to building the layout and creating video, I am excited about the progress that I know is just around the corner. My point to you is to remember that this is a hobby, that the important thing is that you get relaxation and enjoyment from it, and that your rate of progress is your rate of progress. Dedicate time to your hobby, but don’t stress about the amount of time spent or the progress you make. Just enjoy it and let it bring you peace.
3 responses to “Finished?–007”
I have 7 12×14 T-Trak modules used at my Northwest N-Trak club. These will probably never be finished.
Thank you for sharing. I don’t feel so bad about my layout. I have built three. Never finished. Now a fourth after building a 16 x 12 foot shed. Thanks again for sharing. I look forward to reading more.
I suppose I should have mentioned that my previous version of the Texas, Colorado & Western was in process for 7 years and was far from complete when I tore it down to move. Only my first layout, the 4’x4′ layout, ever reached something close to complete.