Back to Modeling

During the week after Christmas, with a little help from my kids, I finally cleaned out my office and train room. The train room, in particular had been a dumping/storage place for a couple years now and had been severely neglected. That's why I avoided photos of the train room itself last year, and just focused on the staging section.

New Years Day I restarted work on the layout and am now nearly complete with the middle tier of staging. I should complete tomorrow then I'll post the latest pics and get started on the lower tier.

So where did the time go the last few months? Well, I didn't get the outdoor bridge much past where I was in the last post, and as a result of not doing any strenuous lifing my rib healed fine by November. Beyond that the time period from mid-October - Christmas was a blur. This is usually the case to a degree, as we have 3 kid birthdays, one mommy birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Halloween all packed in, plus the usual holiday season events like recitals and plays to attend. This year was even more of a blur than normal due to a work project that required lots of travel and 9 straight 60 hour weeks (including 3 weeks working from home with H1N1) then a two week vacation to Hawaii in early December. The vacation was indeed a nice break, but it required lots of prep time and it also meant that all that other stuff was compressed into an even shorter time window.

So, short story long, no train stuff got done from October 13 to December 26. Looking ahead I want to be realistic about the time I'll have available and the time it takes to get stuff done (I'm usually way too optimistic on both fronts). So, thinking about the iNdoor layout I'd like to have the lower tier complete by February 7 (3 weeks from now) at which point I will once again be able to run trains roundy-round across the main layout and between the top and bottom tiers. Initially just getting trains going consistently will probably require a week just of track cleaning and ironing out track bugs. From mid-February until end April I'd like to do two things. First: get the electrical cabinet all set up and wired. (The cabinet has been assembled already by my son). Second: get scenery at least well under way on the section of the layout adjacent to staging. I'd like to have enough momentum built up that I won't completely ignore the indoor layout during the summer.

For the outdoor layout April, May and June will be about a) normal spring forest maintenance, including removing pine beetle trees, fighting again with the scrub oak, and doing some more tree thinning, and b) completing the bridge rails, garden pathways, planters, and electrical for the garden. That may be overly ambitious, depending on how many trees need to come down, but I hope to make it more acheivable by deferring the planned gazebo to 2011. If I get all that done by end June that means I can start on the roadbed and track in July with the goal of having a well built working loop with a few sidings by the end of the summer. During the track-laying months I'll also try to polish up the remaining work involving the pond and waterfall.