Planning and doing

I am in my 5th decade as a practicing IT guy. In my business we have two extremes about planning. None and planning paralysis.

None means just do it and figure it out as you go along. The results are often, well expensive.

Planning paralysis are those folks who will not start building until it is all on paper. There are always details to be worked out. The results are, well, nothing gets done. A plan is not a railroad.

It has been my observation that these same tendencies are possible, even prevalent in the World's Greatest Hobby.

So, I am thinking we will have a little poll to do a personal inventory as to just where we, er, me are in this continuum I have outlined.

I am setting the poll up as a blind one, so the only person(s) likely to ever be able to see how you voted are the Admins, certainly the most trustworthy group on this railroad!

Best!

Joe

 

I finally have a layout, but I know what you mean about planning paralysis, been there done that.

It seems to me the results are about the same:
A. No matter how much you plan there will always be something you could have done better/differently.

B. Build as you go works, but there will always be something you could have done differently/better.

Time spent is money too. Planning forever means you aren't going to get that time back. You could have a heart attack tomorrow. You never know.

 

I have been collecting N scale for 10 years and have planned quite a few layouts. It always seemed that about the time my planning was about to finish something changed (money, space, desires) and I ended up scrapping the whole thing.

This last year I started collecting HO and selling off my N. I have purchased a bunch of HO Kato Unitrack to get something up and running. I figure this will take care of my planning paralysis. I can set something up and operate on it then if I need to I can take it down or if I want to I can rearrange it. To me Unitrack isn't the most realistic stuff but it will get me to the next step, operating trains.

So for someone who had planning paralysis I can't wait til after christmas when it is cured.

On a lighter note. I sold most of my N scale stuff to buy the HO Unitrack and now I HAVE to wrap it and put it under the tree. Nothing like buying your own presents. I wonder who's going to have the bigger smile on their face christmas morning, me or the kids.

Lucas Barnlund
Sitka, Alaska

 

I usually do some basic planning then ignore it all.

Strangly, that's kinda what I did when redoing my Lab's RF network.
Course, most of our expense came from having products that didn't work as advertised.

 

Good afternoon Joe,

As a professional involved in the planning of some really major projects, I don't understand why it is important to classify people who are involved in a hobby, into builders or planners.

The Train board is a place where people can come for understanding and assistance in solving problems they may not have encountered in their working environment.

Most Model trains that are developed beyond the loops in the Christmas sets are often not trivial and deserve serious attention to details before making large financial expenditures.

Jerry

 

On my previous attempts at building a layout I just went for it. Plan what plan, just lay track.

But this creates a different type of paralysis, you realise you have made a major mistake and are faced with the prospect of ripping the whole lot up and starting over. Or you can't get the idea you had in you head to work because of access problems etc.

So it pays to do some basic planning but without getting to bogged down with details. Get the bench work up and the track layed and fill the details in latter.

The whole idea is to have fun doing it, there will be challenges but that's what motivates me solving problems or finding out how others solved similar problems with their layouts. Love TrainBoard for all the info you can find and helpful people you meet.

Cheers Ken.

 

The best advice someone gave me (I really need to remember who it was) was "Lay Some Track" - hence my vote.

 

good comments, good reading.

As someone who worries about the details, I really favor the lay some track and roll some trains approach.

Unitrack has to be one of the best things this hobby has going for it. It lets you just have fun running trains and thats what this is all about ultimately.

 

During my highschool days, I took an Architectural and Mechanical Drafting Class. I utilize just about everything I learned when planning and building a model railroad.

Over the years I've built everything from simple run arounds, to the layout currently under construction. Today, I don't spend as much time planning or drawing things out. Most of the steps and action needed, knocks around in my head. Still, each layout goes through steps that eventually leave me with a finished product. I mean you can't lay track without a sub-roadbed and you can't run trains without being wired first and track would help. From the start-up, a basic plan needs to be drawn-up even if it isn't to scale. The key is lot's of measurements recorded on your plan including radius and cut lines for the sub-roadbed, elevations or grades and so on. Wiring can be tricky if you are putting in a dual cab operation. Once you understand the concept it's relatively easy. When planning the wiring a diagram or an electrical schematic is a useful tool. Color coded wiring is usually the best way to wire a layout and may require a schematic, at least a written guide sheet Ie., Black and white are Main 1, white is neutral and black is positive. Take it one wire at a time.

Some helpful hints: I avoid the "Common Wire/Common Rail" and encourage everyone else to do the same. DPDT (Double Pole Double Throw) toggled switches is the best way to go and can be converted to DCC on one side, while you maintain analog on the other. Allowing you to operate your analog equipment...at will. The upside is, you can convert over your equipment that is decoder ready to DCC,...a marginal savings.

Speaking of which, I need to get back to all the fun soldering, stripping wires and hooking them up to the wire drops.

Keep in mind this is all about fun. If all the planning seems like yuck...it just might be. So, whatever approach you use enjoy and have fun!~

It's snowing at 28 degrees and I am glad I didn't build an outdoor railroad.

Till later!

 

You are absolutely right Rick, fun is what the World's Greatest Hobby is all about!

What ever floats your boat, as the old saying goes!

Joe

 

I guess I'm in the middle somewhere. On my layout, I started with the trackplan. I prettymuch stuck to it when I laid the track. But I didn't plan where my industries would be or what they would be. I just made that up as I went along.

Eric

 

Me too Eric, and that is where I really got into trouble. Once I got to doing some legitimate scenery meaning more than setting a building or a cut out on the edge, a huge problem arose, my version two had too little room for scenery. And I found that building mountains and scenery was perhaps the most fun of all, I get jazzed when I see a locomotive roll through the area where I actually ballasted the track and put a mountain.

So I am redesigning my trackwork and layout, expanding so I can build a lot more scenery. Version 2 will run trains though until I get V3 so it will run trains.

Best regards,

Joe

 

I took some atlas track and a sheet of rigid foam insulation and I have been tacking down different temporary layout to see what works and what doesn't. I already know from this what switch configurations operate better for the kinds of cars I like pushing back over the frogs.

I have been working on our club layout, too, and learning a LOT in doing so.

As far as my permanent layout, it's a matter more of money than anything. I need to buy the wood and make the benchwork. At this point it looks like I will be building a couple NTrak modules and the rest will be Onetrak and whatever else I need to fill in the gaps. I want a couple NTrak modules so that I can take them to shows and such, but I want the rest of it semi-modular so that I can take it apart and move it in case I ever switch rooms or want to swap out a chunk of the layout for something else.

I am not in planning paralysis... I know that I work best just establishing some basics and going for it. Most of my mistakes are not too egregious nor expensive.

Adam

 

Yeah, that whole planning thing. I'm petrified of making a serious error in planning so I plan, plan plan some more, post asking stupid questions, plan plan plan some more.

When I do build I want it to be one that I can show off and be proud of, and not get criticized to death on. Of course since I also want it done sometime this lifetime...I'll probably just end up building sooner or later.

 

I actually find it kind of liberating in model railroading to just come up with a rough idea of what I want to accomplish and then just start doing it. At work, I have to be real careful and have every decision checked and double-checked simply because if I don't, the building may leak or something else very expensive may result. In model railroading, the stakes are still rather low compared to million dollar plus problems in buildings.

 

I find that one difference between IT projects and model railroad projects is that in IT, the objective is to get to the end. In model railroading, the journey can be the objective. If planning and researching is a part of the hobby you enjoy (like me ) then you aren't really "stuck". I doubt in IT though that you'd get to "blue sky" forever...!

Andrew

 

I agree with MasonJar, half of the fun is getting there.

I started into this hobby because I enjoy modeling buildings & scenery. I had/have very little knowledge of how railroads are designed.

Reading books, forums and looking at others projects, pictures and designs has helped me very much.

My design is almost complete, my bench work is built and foam painted and laid out. Working on some buildings and buying my turnouts.

From my own thoughts I think a lot of us are on plan 10.9.9.9..... Constantly looking at ways that we will make our next wall for that building or how the next turnout is going to fit into the plan.

 

i have been away from rr modeling for a couple of years. i have two incomplete layouts that are not what i wanted.

at present i plan to build or mock up all of the "scenes" i would like to have. the farm, surface coal mine, logging and milling, small town passenger service,etc. (pre 1960).

once that is done i will build a railroad to suit the needs of the customers.

hope this works for me this time.

davido

 

It's funny how some of these older threads get new life breathed into them! The wonders of the internet.

I am finishing the benchwork on a complete rebuild (again ). I usually get a plan fairly well detailed and then make numerous and radical changes while I'm laying track. If I could build five layouts at the same time I'd have it all! LOL