finish my model railroad

I had an open house for the model railroad a couple weeks back; there was a large model railroad event in town, and visits to local layouts was one of the highlights. I had my layout open on Friday night and got 20-30 visitors during the evening.

Now, I’m proud of the work I’ve done, but I know there’s others who have done bigger, more realistic, more interesting layouts. Still, I was amazed at the number of people who had seen the layout a couple years ago and told me how I’d inspired them to start building, or change the place or time they were modeling. I had others who said that they loved how much modeling I got into the space I have (half a two car garage), and how they were going to rush home and finally start building something.

I like the idea that I’m sharing inspiration and encouragement. I’m going to try to keep up with some of the folks and hear about their progress, and hopefully see their model railroads next year!

I’m slowly roaming around the layout putting in trees, grass, and buildings as appropriate. Here’s the latest scene. The mountain in the background was printed from Google Earth as seen from the same site for the real railroad.

Still lots to do, but I’m making progress.

Well, at least I’m making progress on this. I’d hoped this year to make progress on building the layout – get rough scenery in across the layout, start detailing scenes, and actually operating the layout. (“Operating” means getting a few people together and having people run trains as if they were actually the train crew. On my layout, that means shuffling boxcars in front of warehouses and canneries.)

So far, so good. Two scenes are looking presentable, both up in the mountains. I’ve also had three operating sessions this year for other model railroaders, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

At some point, I asked myself “why haven’t I gotten more done?” It seemed like I hadn’t made the progress I’d hoped. But then I started writing down all the projects I had completed, and I was amazed at how much work I’ve actually done.

The photo shows one of the operating sessions. Here, one of the guys is uncoupling the rear half of the train so they can leave some boxcars at an industry; the father and son in back are running a different train and waiting for him to get out of the way so they can do their work.

It takes up most of the basement. But it’s a lifelong project and I like to escape down to the basement and tinker in my own little bizarre world.