I go through periods where I don't even touch the layout. I never really loose motivation. If I haven't ran trains in a while, do what I do... Either read a model railroader/classic toy trains. Watch a train DVD. Go to a train show/hobby store. These usually help. My biggest problem is space. All I have room for is a 4X8 but I try to make the most of it.
Most times I get like this a walk along the real tracks smelling the creasote and seeing distant signals or a funky spur track with an old ground throw gets me back on the model..
If you have a passion for trains, it won't leave you. It may hide for a bit, but it will never ever leave you! I think they call it a bug?? lol
Yez gotta be careful whist walkin' 'long da tracks! The steel on tne engine is almost as hard as your punkin head, and the damage to that engine is expensive and difficult to fix. Besides, the residue of your eye balls and teeth, tend to stink after a while out in the sun!
Motivation Even though I have a layout in its own room there are times it dosen't get run or have anything done to it. Inspiration to work on the layout comes from something I've seen while out somewhere or a new kit for a structure that has come out. An era change was made recently. The layout was originally set in the year 1957. Now it's the late 1970's. Still Espee though.
Did you remember to have your trees grow taller? Are the people older by 20 years? Should have some Hippies and Mini Skirts running around and add some '70 Caddy's.
I've seen this picture of the "limo horse" somewhere before... What I find interesting when these shots are made are the inconsistencies. For instance, notice the shadow on the ground behind the horse and you'll see evidence of "4" stirrups rather than "3"... Reminds me of a time when a buddy and I were watching a rail DVD of a model pike and sounds had been dubbed in of a passenger consist with heavyweight, six wheel trucks going over a cross over but the sound was that of "four wheel trucks!" Not a rivet counter but I always find those things to be funny...
Yeah, my Dad and I used to watch the background for oddities in the movies. Like a car going around a bend in the distance in a Western shoot 'em up, and the 12 shot revolvers. I don't pick the other guy's stuff, but some of it is funny.
Not? Oh, really? A "stirrup-counter" is just a rivet-counter in 1890. Just kidding of course. That stretch limo is just Watash's "every day toolin' around town ride" - you should see his big one! And a great big welcome to TrainBoard, Larry777, that kind of humor'll be right at home here!
The trees are the same but the vehicles and RR equipment got changed. The ice dock for the ice bunker refers got replaced by an oil bulk plant.
Given that movie and TV makers employ professional 'continuity' people I think pickin holes in them is fair game It's been years since, but IIRC there was a website dedicated to listing those sort of bloopers in programmes and films - nitpickers.com or something. A bit nerdy, but did highlight some howlers which were funny.
I've found that clutter, be it in the layout room, on the layout, on my desk, in my garage, wherever, is a huge demotivator. It's just harder to do things in a cluttered space. I don't know if that's Feng Shui or just human psychology or what, but I've been making serious efforts to declutter all my spaces. Now if I could just avoid putting the coversheets on the TPS reports...
No YOHO, no response. We changed my email address and now the responses are coming again. Thanks for your help!
I have only worked at one place that didn't have clutter. It was a Lab where everything had to remain "Clean" as in a Clean Room environment. Nothing was 'handy' like in a busy shop where everything was being used, and therefore was 'handy' for quick access. Fridays, an hour before quitting time, was clean up time. Mondays were frustrating trying to find everything again. I think it is 'what you get used to', that feels comfortable.
My Dad raised me to "Put tools back where they belong!" He had what later became a 'peg board' with an outline of each tool hanging up behind each machine and the work bench in our basement. He could walk down the stairs and tell instantly when I forgot to replace one of his tools. I was barred from using any for a day, or as much as a week! It became a habit with me. (or die!) Right now, while trying to clean out my model shop of supplies I wont live long enough to use, and 'projects' I'll never get to make, I am just throwing any tools I find of his or mine, into a box to sort out later. Its a mess. Very disheartening to open the door. I'm even having to sort out books and reference material here in the computer room! Just too much stuff! Then I have hundreds of photos, and VHS tapes to put on disk, and files in folders to open and commit to disk. Then, maybe then, I can get back to building the layout again. Where do you start after 'putting out fires' for 40 years? Life has just been too fast!
Thanks much, Night Flyer...Glad to be a part of Trainboard. Well, I guess at heart, we've all got some "rivet counter" blood in us. Starts young, when you find that NP PA's didn't exist even though American Flyer made 'em look like the best thing on rails... Heck, maybe Wasatch'll let me hitch a ride on that "3 saddle" number...:angel:
I fear the day my father dies. He is king of the packrats. He kept every issue of his small town's newspaper for something like 20 years despite not living there and it's not like he kept them nicely. They were yellow and brittle. Nearly useless. I'll have a good 40 years of National Geographic which is great, but I'll also have 20 some years of IEEE magazines and such. These are bound, but what can I do with them? I'll likely donate them to an Engineering school's Library. And don't even get me started on his workshop.
Just remembered a thought from over 50 years ago! I lived about a mile from Seattle's King Street Station and on a summer day when my parents said "you can go watch trains", I stood down there at that station, hoping to see a Northern Pacific PA. Went back the next day and the next... Nothing but F's... Shucks... From what I've read, I don't think NP even sampled the PA's but as we all know, relied exclusively on EMD power to handle its varnish. Today I have Baldwin Sharks and Alco PA's on the pike. All will be painted in NP passenger colors and they'll pull a passenger train or two...
