The Love/Hate stage of a layout/build

[Andy Glascott]

So, I'm curious... Does anyone else have a stage of a build, whether it be a building, rolling stock or, as in my case, complete layout that they have a love-hate relationship with? We move house too often for our liking, so recently I've been building new layouts every 2 to 3 years, and being a 12v based layout it involves a lot of wiring (see below for a bit of it). Much as I love the end result, the wiring drives me nuts and I really slow down in my progress when I get to the point of needing to do it all. Anyone else got "pet peeves" so to speak that are part of the fun? 

20200927_115339 by andyglascott, on Flickr

[Roadmonkeytj]

Yes for me it's the ordering and sorting portion ... I'm ok when it comes sorted but when it comes in a giant bag with 500 other parts ... 

[JintaiZ]

All I have is train tracks

[Andy Glascott]

I get that alright @Roadmonkeytj!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

With 12 volt layouts I have the same problem as you ...the ideal would be a raised floor layout and run cables hidden underneath 

See how my cables run like spaghetti around the room... 

[cptkent]

After many delays I’m finally back in the building stage.

I’ve spent far too long planning, changing plans, starting and stopping. Too long building and making space in my shed, and cleaning up.... it’s only been the last year I’ve got into consistent, focused building of my town.

It’s nice at the point I’m at, I have ideas and can’t build fast enough. Just recently I reconstructed a complete loop of track I hadn’t had for over two years, it was disassembled at the last ‘replanning’ stage and lay in pieces since then.

If I found a bigger space, I’d be back where you are, moving again - I’d always go bigger even with all the frustrations that come with replanning and moving.

I don’t know what the future holds for my town, I’ll just make the most of it while I can.

 

[lego9vtrainfan]

Interesting topic :) For me it’s applying decals / stickers... used in moderation, I find these can really bring out realistic finishing touches in a model, but I really get stuck at this stage. The designing / ordering / sorting / building parts are all good fun though!

[Man with a hat]

10 hours ago, cptkent said:

...

I’ve spent far too long planning, changing plans, starting and stopping.

....

 

This sounds so familiar.

A couple years ago I was on the right track, but thee house movements and two kids later basically screwed up everything. I have managed to secure a reasonable space for a layout, but now the sorting and planning has begun and continues...

[cptkent]

It can be a significant investment in time, so I’d be surprised if most people who build train layouts didn’t go through periods where they start to get frustrated. I’m fortunate that I like the planning and dreaming as much as the building. But the preparation work, finding the space, getting it ready, was growing tiresome. I’d love to have a nice clean big room and.... just like everyone else I guess!

[aawsum]

I build a new layout every 2 years, and as we are using a MILS based setup I always reuse my old layout.  So never have this issue ;-)

[zephyr1934]

I have a minimal permanent layout for this very reason. One thing I'd suggest is to always have a working loop of track. That way you can still run the trains and find inspiration while you are building out the details. For me, it is the slow times- pulling parts for a detailed build... I was shocked how quickly the crocodile went together until I realized that I didn't have to pull any parts to build it. It was like being on holiday. I personally find I lose steam when building the grebling (e.g., underside of cars) where attention to detail is important but hardly ever gets noticed if done right.

[Andy Glascott]

5 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

I have a minimal permanent layout for this very reason. One thing I'd suggest is to always have a working loop of track. That way you can still run the trains and find inspiration while you are building out the details. For me, it is the slow times- pulling parts for a detailed build... I was shocked how quickly the crocodile went together until I realized that I didn't have to pull any parts to build it. It was like being on holiday. I personally find I lose steam when building the grebling (e.g., underside of cars) where attention to detail is important but hardly ever gets noticed if done right.

Fortunately, now that the wiring is in place, I'm almost at the point of having 3 working loops. We have an extra room coming online next week so a lot of the boxes that share my Lego space will move out and make it easier to connect everything and run the trains. Grebling makes a huge difference, whether on a car or a landscape, but yeah, can be a drag....

On 9/27/2020 at 3:45 PM, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

With 12 volt layouts I have the same problem as you ...the ideal would be a raised floor layout and run cables hidden underneath 

See how my cables run like spaghetti around the room... 

I did have a table I could hide wires under and drill holes through years ago, now that I have enough baseplates to cover it I don't want to drill through them! Eventually, almost all the wiring will be hidden by landscape and/or buildings. 

On 9/27/2020 at 6:03 PM, cptkent said:

After many delays I’m finally back in the building stage.

I’ve spent far too long planning, changing plans, starting and stopping. Too long building and making space in my shed, and cleaning up.... it’s only been the last year I’ve got into consistent, focused building of my town.

It’s nice at the point I’m at, I have ideas and can’t build fast enough. Just recently I reconstructed a complete loop of track I hadn’t had for over two years, it was disassembled at the last ‘replanning’ stage and lay in pieces since then.

If I found a bigger space, I’d be back where you are, moving again - I’d always go bigger even with all the frustrations that come with replanning and moving.

I don’t know what the future holds for my town, I’ll just make the most of it while I can.

 

This is a fabulous looking layout!

On 9/28/2020 at 12:36 PM, aawsum said:

I build a new layout every 2 years, and as we are using a MILS based setup I always reuse my old layout.  So never have this issue ;-)

I'd love to have everything on a MILS setup, but the 12v wiring makes that a little tricky... I did have a layout of four boards each 3x5 baseplates I could move around to shows but only did it once. 

[aawsum]

2 minutes ago, Andy Glascott said:

On 9/28/2020 at 6:36 PM, aawsum said:

I build a new layout every 2 years, and as we are using a MILS based setup I always reuse my old layout.  So never have this issue ;-)

I'd love to have everything on a MILS setup, but the 12v wiring makes that a little tricky... I did have a layout of four boards each 3x5 baseplates I could move around to shows but only did it once. 

MILS is ideal to hide wires and bare in mind that you do not have to stick to have all baseplates separately. For my rail yard I use a transport plate that holds a 2x3 MILS setup, so 6 baseplates together. That works really well with all wires tucked away underneath.

[Andy Glascott]

19 minutes ago, aawsum said:

MILS is ideal to hide wires and bare in mind that you do not have to stick to have all baseplates separately. For my rail yard I use a transport plate that holds a 2x3 MILS setup, so 6 baseplates together. That works really well with all wires tucked away underneath.

It is possible alright, but some of these wires run 18 or 20 baseplates long and also onto 2 levels.... One day I will build a fully transportable layout to bring to Brickfair or similar. 

[Pdaitabird]

For me, the love/hate stage is tearing down and rebuilding scenery.  I rebuild my layout every few months or so, with two major constraints:

1. The layout must fit on a 4' x 4' piece of plywood, and

2. My limited track supply precludes all but the simplest configurations.

Here's the current layout.  About 80% of the track is ballasted so far.

 

[The Brick Boss]

@Pdaitabird Great Job! 

[zephyr1934]

Moving is the layout killer. If I knew a move was likely in a few years, I would probably devise some personal modular standard, be it "these 10 baseplates always go like this" or a standard conduit for running wires long distance. Looking at how traveling lego train clubs do it would be great inspiration. Some clubs (including mine) just extend the concept of "everything on a baseplate" to an extreme. There have been years where we've done half a dozen major shows with large layouts set up in a day, two at the most. Most things break down into single baseplates, with larger items segmented in to parts so that they can be carried. This approach limits the amount of terrain you can build. Then there are other clubs that have a display that also breaks down but when assembled it always goes the same way (Michael Gale's UK layout is one of the best I've seen in this regard).

[Pdaitabird]

@Brandon Pea Thanks!

[KvadratGnezdo]

Rolling stock in my case: the historical prototype (theta class) was and odd design from the start with 5 or so photos of it made from the same angle but transfering it to lego definitely made it even more goofy.

Edited October 7, 2020 by KvadratGnezdo

[JWBDolphins]

 

Stickers.

 

19 minutes ago, KvadratGnezdo said:

the historical prototype (theta class)

That looks Great, by the way!