Apologies if this has already been discussed here. I'm quit einterested in how people use/play with/ operate their layouts.
Some of things that I'd love to hear.
1. Are you a binge user - do you leave it for days and then suddenly have an 8 hour marathon of train running?
2. How often do you change out the trains are sitting on the layout (or maybe you have space for a yard area)?
3. Do you have strict train compositions that you are unwilling to change/mix or do you change everything around all the time?
4. Is there a pattern to using your layout - e.g. do you run it for 30 mins at 8am every morning?
5. How does it work with friends family - are they barred or do you like showing the layout off and running all the trains when they visit?
6. Do you ever leave the layout running as a background activity, much like you may listen to radio sometimes?
7. Do you do anything else while trains are running - whisky or beer drinking :D?
8. Have your playing habbits changed at all over the years? :hmmm:
9. Do you even even run your layout at home, or only at club nights/exhibitions?
For my part, I would say I'm quite a spontaneous user of my layout. One favoured time to run trains is at dawn with the all the layout lighting on, particularly with my bowl of cereal and listening to some music. I do mix train compostions sometimes, but those that follow my my main thread https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=42824.0 (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=42824.0) probably know that I have 'main' favoured train compositions.
Let me know your habbits!
I'm afraid I'm very much #9, as in the layout only gets run "properly" at exhibitions and they're few and far between these days (before covid even). In between shows the layout lives crated up, maybe comes out once a year if I have time/space.
Most home activity is construction, with just a little running to test progress. I seem to have built up quite a few items of stock which need to have a go round the layout next time I do set it up :D
I often fall into 6 have been known to 7 on occasion, I tend to run set trains, I change the stock in use as the mood takes me, maybe steam or early diesel or 60's/70's I some times have a rule 1 session I run what I am in the mood for.
After all these years mine is still under construction although I can and do run trains. Stock is not stored on the layout so I really have to be in the mood to unbox stuff, play for an hour or so, and then box it all up again. If I need a quick fix/need to run a new purchase in I have an oval of Kato track and a Farish controller from a set I can get set up in minutes.
Drink wise - it depends on time of day. Music is a must.
I have about 12 trains set up in my fiddle yard all ready to go.
As it's a small layout, I can only run one at a time but maybe three Or four times a week I'll have about an hour long running session utilising all the set trains in turn.
Probably every two weeks, I'll swap some locomotives and perhaps completely change 2 or 3 of the rakes of stock.
Hi Matt. I tend to have a 30mins to an hour running session every other day. I usually swap my locos over on a regular basis (probably once a fortnight) so as to give them all a run although some of the more specialist ones that serve a particular purpose (e.g. shunters) do tend to stay out longer. At the moment there are about 10 locos scattered around the layout and each one will be run several times during the next couple of weeks before being stored again and replaced with another. I have a selection of fixed formation passenger and freight trains in the hidden storage sidings at any one time and I usually select one of these to suit whatever loco is out on test. Like the locos these passenger and freight sets get swapped over from time to time with others that I have in store although some of the more popular ones do stay out permanently.
Apologies if this has already been discussed here. I'm quite interested in how people use/play with/ operate their layouts.
Some of things that I'd love to hear.
1. Are you a binge user - do you leave it for days and then suddenly have an 8 hour marathon of train running? No - I run it most days.
2. How often do you change out the trains are sitting on the layout (or maybe you have space for a yard area)? There is a semi-scenic storage yard with capacity for five trains.
3. Do you have strict train compositions that you are unwilling to change/mix or do you change everything around all the time? Tend to run one company for a week. Say, Great Western one week and LNER the next and so on. There will be two passenger and two or three goods trains appropriate to the company I'm running.
4. Is there a pattern to using your layout - e.g. do you run it for 30 mins at 8am every morning? No, but I do tend to run it in the morning and evening rather than during the day.
5. How does it work with friends family - are they barred or do you like showing the layout off and running all the trains when they visit? Visitors are very welcome to play trains if they wish.
6. Do you ever leave the layout running as a background activity, much like you may listen to radio sometimes? Yes, I sometimes have trains running when I'm at the workbench.
7. Do you do anything else while trains are running - whisky or beer drinking ? Coffee, tea, wine or fine, foaming ale according to the time of day. Almost never listen to music and never listen to the radio when trains are running.
8. Have your playing habits changed at all over the years? Not really - that's what I did with my Tri-ang Hornby layout when I was 12... apart from the drinks!
9. Do you even even run your layout at home, or only at club nights/exhibitions? Only runs at home.
I hope this helps.
Best wishes.
John
Well, Neraland 2 is both my test track and (when I get the scenics complete) destined to be my exhibition layout to showcase the possibilities for pre-grouping modelling in N.
When on the exhibition circuit the idea will be to run a set sequence of pre-grouping railway companies, running all the trains from one company, then all the trains from the next, aiming to have a minimum of four trains from each ... one passenger and one goods in each of the "up" and "down" directions. If I can get more, so much the better.
The trains will be set formations, and will "live" in stock storage boxes ... not their original manufacturers' boxes ... one train per storage box. Even if it's just a single railmotor, it will have its own box. It's the only way I can think of to preserve my sanity. (Current train count is pushing up towards 50 ... but when all outstanding projects are complete (ha ha! As if ... ) it will be over 100. Whether I can cycle through all of them in an exhibition operating session remains to be seen ...
The exhibition sequence will be pretty standardised. Up train 1 does a complete circuit, running through the station without stopping first time out, then comes to a stand at the station. Down train 1 does the same. Up train 1 moves out, and Up train 2 does the same. Down train 1 moves out, and Down train 2 does the same. And so on and so on. At the beginning and end of each railway company, there will be overlap with the trains of the next railway company. The movements may be predictable ... but the trains most certainly are not!
Running it at home, at the moment I mostly use the four fiddle roads to hold the next four trains scheduled for completion. Models are taken away to be worked on, then returned to their train when ready ... and when all models in the train are completed it goes into its box which is then labelled and catalogued.
Every so often I clear the decks of trains, and then have an LBSC session, say, or an S&DJR session, where I'll unbox all of my trains from that company and run them all for a couple of cycles of the exhibition sequence, before boxing them up again.
At other times I will clear one road through the fiddle yard, so that a locomotive I am working on can be set to run uninterrupted circuits, with or without its train.
On club nights (Thursdays) I normally take four trains, often from the same company, and set two of them running round the club test track for a few circuits before switching them over to the other trains and back again. This way all of my trains get a reasonable amount of running time, and the other club members quite enjoy seeing them, and speculating on what I've brought along this week!
1. Are you a binge user - do you leave it for days and then suddenly have an 8 hour marathon of train running?
No, Would love to have the opportunity of 8, or even 4, uninterrupted layout hours...
2. How often do you change out the trains are sitting on the layout (or maybe you have space for a yard area)?
Whenever new ones arrive, or I am working on particular stock, or I feel in the mood for particular trains.
3. Do you have strict train compositions that you are unwilling to change/mix or do you change everything around all the time?
I have a *lot* of Japanese EMUs which really need to be in proper set formation (if nothing else so the pantographs are in the right place), so am vigilant when setting those up. Otherwise whatever looks reasonably plausible.
4. Is there a pattern to using your layout - e.g. do you run it for 30 mins at 8am every morning?
it's still work-in-progress, I mess around with it when I have some free time usually late in the evening. It's located in my home office where I spend my working day which sounds more tempting than it is, but sometimes I find running trains for a little bit a nice therapeutic distraction.
5. How does it work with friends family - are they barred or do you like showing the layout off and running all the trains when they visit?
Still work-in-progreess and and a bit of an equipment dump so not really in a state to show off, though the Squidlet (aged 5) does come and take a peek every now and again.
6. Do you ever leave the layout running as a background activity, much like you may listen to radio sometimes?
Only when napping
7. Do you do anything else while trains are running - whisky or beer drinking :D?
napping :D
8. Have your playing habbits changed at all over the years? :hmmm:
probably not
9. Do you even even run your layout at home, or only at club nights/exhibitions?
it's a purely home layout
Quote from: ntpntpntp on June 11, 2020, 05:56:56 PM
I'm afraid I'm very much #9, as in the layout only gets run "properly" at exhibitions and they're few and far between these days (before covid even). In between shows the layout lives crated up, maybe comes out once a year if I have time/space.
Most home activity is construction, with just a little running to test progress. I seem to have built up quite a few items of stock which need to have a go round the layout next time I do set it up :D
You need a permenant exhibition space Nick! :D
It's fascinating to hear how you all operate differently, really interesting! :thumbsup:
The N Gauge layout really is for exhibitions. So if I ever get it finished at home it will only be set up to sort the running bugs out.
The Em gauge layout, will mostly run when we have visitors or I'm modelling. It's the modelling that's my interest not the running, so it will be run while i'm making something..
I would say N gauge is for decent length trains running through nice scenery. O (which I don't have) is for admiring locos but too big for most of us to run decent trains, G scale is for garden (which I have) and 00 is a sort of compromise - the locos and stock have more presence than N but you obviously need twice the length and twice the width to run decent length trains but you get more scope to run reasonable trains than in 0. We are all different and get different things out of our hobby which is great and part of the interest of a forum.
I like to see somewhere near correct scale length trains running through nice scenery. My last layout was very much built with exhibitions in mind but my current project is designed for what I want at home but with the ability to go to exhibitions. I have no intention of taking it to many exhibitions although its always nice to have a chat about the layout with exhibition visitors. I guess the thing I really like is trying to make a model of a real place. Through my adult life I have built/started 7 layouts based on a real place (with varying degrees of success) and only three based on entirely fictitious locations. Two of the layouts based on a real place were abandoned well before completion due to the impossibility of what I was trying to do but nevertheless were great learning curves. Once built I do like watching a string of trains that are correct for the place and era go by - a bit like trainspotting from a bygone time. That's my thing but I wouldn't for one second think its the only way to do it. Some folk just collect, some build lovely stock and can't be bothered about scenery, some just like to see trains run and don't care about whether it is anywhere near prototypical. All of these are perfectly valid things to do as part of our hobby. If it feels good do it as they used to say when I was a lad.
My new project will have a 12 road storage siding facility. I will have the stock to run it in four different time zones. Three are quite specific and all are set in summer. These zones are 1959, 1963, 1968 and the less specific one is sometime in the 1980s. I've decided to let myself have a little more wiggle room for the last era, probably because I want to run early 1980s but also want to have a chocolate and cream 142. I am quite fussy about things like that on my N gauge layouts but will run anything with anything out in the garden, that's double standards for you. Along with the pleasure of watching trains go by I have to admit that I get a great sense of achievement in that I have done all the work myself. I know its not perfect by any means but I made it and that's a good feeling. I think this applies to a lot of us and it should because completing any layout is a worthy achievement.
I run my layout when I am in the mood or when grandchildren are around. My 4 year old grandson is quite adept at running both my garden railway and my N gauge. Out in the garden he can now handle remote control points as well as remote control trains and get them to go where he wants. Indoors he does like to run my full length HST flat out for long periods - it seems to have coped so far but I got hold of a spare set of gears when I saw some for sale just in case! At least he now has got the concept of bringing it to a nice gentle stop at the platform when he has stopped racing it. I also run it if friends come round which of course isn't happening at the moment.
Quote from: Chris Morris on June 12, 2020, 11:33:03 AM
00 is a sort of compromise - the locos and stock have more presence than N but you obviously need twice the length and twice the width to run decent length trains
That's what I used to think, Chris ... but these days I'm not so sure.
An 0-6-0 with 5 or 6 wagons and a brake van looks fine in OO, but the train just seems too short in N. Ditto a 4-4-0 with 3 bogies on. So whilst what you have said seems right in principle, I think that in practice you may be able to get away with something less than twice the length and twice the width in OO.
So I'm increasingly coming to the view that in the railway room (I'm not talking about extensive exhibition layouts here) ... N is for main line layouts and OO is for branch line layouts.
Quote from: PGN on June 12, 2020, 01:33:05 PM
So I'm increasingly coming to the view that in the railway room ... N is for main line layouts and OO is for branch line layouts.
My smaller layout is 3 boards. I. Fiddle yard. 2. Scenic stretch. 3. Branch line terminus/small goods yard. That takes up approx 9ft in my lounge. There's no way I could fit in 18ft or so for 00 :no:
Some sage many moons ago told me no train should take up more than 1/3rd of a scenic section on a layout (unless it's a heavy goods train) and I don't think they were far off.
I'm at the moment building my layout from Unitrack on the floor - this has multiple reasons - the first being flat size. due to the way my flat is laid out (and due to the fact that I'm not the only one using it, the fiance wants his space too) I cannot build anything large and permanent. Even something small is difficult. I've been drawing up plans for a small TMD, etc, but so far, have been unable to build anything, due to my second problem - I have a sort of nervous tremor from stuff that happened in the past, so detailing on scenery is going to be nigh impossible.
Regardless, I do like running my little trains. I usually put up the layout, leave it for one or two days, and run trains from time to time (when I'm in the mood) usually for around 15~ minutes. I usually put on a nice record (mostly dire straits) and then watch the trains go by, perched on my sofa, where I have full control over the layout. I have my train formations, which I'm not yet fully happy with (I'm an impulsive locomotive buyer and despite plans to go for late BR blue stuff, am now in the posession of a lot of stuff that doesn't quite fit) and I usually have 3 in the small yard I can build atm, and run one or two on the main line. Sometimes all the coaches get stuck on the deltic for a prototypcial, 10-coach express train, but I'm afraid my platforms are significantly too short for that.
I don't usually put it up when friends are over because of the cramped room in the flat, someone's inevitably going to step on railway track and incur himself a 1000 pound fine.
I have been taking the layout, securely packed, to friends of the family and been building and running it with their kids, that was very fun!
Evening all,
Wenlock only ever sees proper use whilst at an exhibition. Most of the time the layout lives in the garage with occasional use to test the layout prior to a show. Space is my main issue, the layout can be set up in full in the kitchen/diner but the room then cannot be used for anything else! I can get the layout up in the garage if needed but again space is at a premium. For running in new purchases I have a loop of KATO track that i clip together on the dining table as and when.
Cheers
Ollie
:NGaugersRule:
Quote from: Globibahn on June 11, 2020, 05:49:50 PM
Apologies if this has already been discussed here. I'm quit einterested in how people use/play with/ operate their layouts.
Some of things that I'd love to hear.
1. Are you a binge user - do you leave it for days and then suddenly have an 8 hour marathon of train running? Sometimes yes
2. How often do you change out the trains are sitting on the layout (or maybe you have space for a yard area)? Every time I go in the loft at least 1 rake is replaced or changed
3. Do you have strict train compositions that you are unwilling to change/mix or do you change everything around all the time? Some are strict, others not so
4. Is there a pattern to using your layout - e.g. do you run it for 30 mins at 8am every morning? Hell no!
5. How does it work with friends family - are they barred or do you like showing the layout off and running all the trains when they visit? I'm well known to be a show off
6. Do you ever leave the layout running as a background activity, much like you may listen to radio sometimes? Every time I'm in the loft there are trains running whether I'm working on a part of the layout, carrying out repairs, hiding from the wife, secret drinking etc
7. Do you do anything else while trains are running - whisky or beer drinking :D? Absolutely! Haven't you seen my loft beer fridge? It's always well stocked when I first go up there, less so when I wobble back down. There's always music playing too. Anyone who has watched my videos will be able to tell you which band is usually playing. I have Sky Q, DVD player, stereo/CD player up there and couldn't be without ANY of them
8. Have your playing habbits changed at all over the years? :hmmm: Not really although the music changes some times
9. Do you even even run your layout at home, or only at club nights/exhibitions? Only at home as it is not portable
For my part, I would say I'm quite a spontaneous user of my layout. One favoured time to run trains is at dawn with the all the layout lighting on, particularly with my bowl of cereal and listening to some music. I do mix train compostions sometimes, but those that follow my my main thread https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=42824.0 (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=42824.0) probably know that I have 'main' favoured train compositions.
Let me know your habbits!
my dilemma is "when to go" and "when to grow" I wrote a letter to the N gauge Soc, mag some years ago on this subject and in my case the same dilemma prevails.
I enjoy both running and progressing the modelling on the layout. When I build, I am conscious that the railway needs to run and when I run I feel that the layout is not progressing. I do know that if I carry on with the building too long, when I do run it does need a good cleaning or it does not run well. I suspect I will never solve this satisfactorily but know that music and a wee dram goes down well during both activities.
My running is sporadic.
Does anyone else feel this way or is it just me ?
It's not just you :no:
As soon as I got trains running (you have to test all electrics and every piece of stock ;)) all other progress ground to a halt. Now, if I want to proceed (and I do) all will have to be taken up again, proper electrics done rather than the jury-rigged set up I currently have, and everything laid again before I can start terraforming etc and then running will have to stop owing to the mess I make.
It's a conundrum, alright.
After roughly a year and a half my Saxon Street layout is 90 odd percent complete.
https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=43263.0 (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=43263.0)
During its construction I more often than not, was guilty of running trains rather than carrying on with the construction. I've now only got detailing left to do which happily means I can 'play' to my heart's content.
I spent hours and hours trying to plan a layout that gives a lot of operational possibilities. I'm glad to say I got that part right. I knew at the outset that I'd soon be bored with just an out and back setup. Having a so called 'roundy roundy' was very important. Normally I'll have a couple of trains circling the mainline while I mess about shunting trains in and out of my storage lanes or sending them back and forth long the branch line. Having four trains on the move at any one time is about my limit. Three is more usual.
Saxon Street is very much a rule 1 applies layout. That's just as well as I have a mixed bag of liveries and eras in my stock. I can only have seven or eight trains scattered around the layout before it looks too cluttered so I tend to change three or four every few weeks so that I don't feel guilty at having stock laying around unused in boxes.
Alec.
1. Are you a binge user - do you leave it for days and then suddenly have an 8 hour marathon of train running?
Regular user if other commitments allow.
2. How often do you change out the trains are sitting on the layout (or maybe you have space for a yard area)?
EverythingI own fits on, just ...
3. Do you have strict train compositions that you are unwilling to change/mix or do you change everything around all the time?
Mostly compositions stay the same.
4. Is there a pattern to using your layout - e.g. do you run it for 30 mins at 8am every morning?
Nope, fit it around everything else.
5. How does it work with friends family - are they barred or do you like showing the layout off and running all the trains when they visit?
Grandkids love it. I don't think anyone else really 'gets it'.
6. Do you ever leave the layout running as a background activity, much like you may listen to radio sometimes?
No, always watch it.
7. Do you do anything else while trains are running - whisky or beer drinking :D?
Swear at it when it all goes wrong ....
8. Have your playing habbits changed at all over the years?
Not really.
9. Do you even even run your layout at home, or only at club nights/exhibitions?
Home only.
I also feel I am in a minority in that my layout runs with computer automation. Very few seem to do that, wheras for me it is a key part.
Interesting discussion.
I thought when re-started my model rail hobby last year I would be running trains all the time. However it seems the opposite. The stock I have bought I have checked, run in, chipped and then they have been pretty much boxed up unless testing something on the layout.
The building of the layout which is very much still work in progress seems to occupy all of the time I can dedicate to the hobby and I am actually really enjoying this aspect of it. Which is the opposite to what I thought it would be ;D
I guess my answer, on playing trains, would be not as often as I would like! Given that it takes me a couple of hours to clean the track & get some stock out it restricts running to the weekends.
Right now I'm playing with my layout in Great Northern mode.
Four trains in use:
Gresley Pacific no. 1470 "The Great Northern" + seven bogie coaches
H4 "Ragtimer" 2-6-0 no. 1003 + six bogie coaches
J13 0-6-0 PT no. 1247 + six 6-wheel coaches
J5 0-6-0 no. 394 + short goods train composed of GN, GE and M&GN stock
Great fun!
1. Are you a binge user - do you leave it for days and then suddenly have an 8 hour marathon of train running?
I tend mostly to have trains running at home when testing or when preparing one of the (4) layouts for a show. I like to spend some time in the shed most days- the layouts get lonely in the dark... :)
2. How often do you change out the trains are sitting on the layout (or maybe you have space for a yard area)?
When building the layout or testing/repairing the layout the same trains run for some time. When testing trains they change frequently
3. Do you have strict train compositions that you are unwilling to change/mix or do you change everything around all the time?
As roundy-roundies Hawthorn dene and Croft Spa have fixed rakes and these go into their boxes the right way round in the right order. Rakes do change a little to accomodate new stock/repaired stock and lose stock waiting repair. The OO shunting plank has no fixed trains, and I'm playing with rakes on the new one, Bregenbach, as I build it.
4. Is there a pattern to using your layout - e.g. do you run it for 30 mins at 8am every morning?
No
5. How does it work with friends family - are they barred or do you like showing the layout off and running all the trains when they visit?
I'm a show-off.
6. Do you ever leave the layout running as a background activity, much like you may listen to radio sometimes?
rarely, usually only if running something in.
7. Do you do anything else while trains are running - whisky or beer drinking :D?
no
8. Have your playing habbits changed at all over the years? :hmmm:
Not a clue....
9. Do you even even run your layout at home, or only at club nights/exhibitions?
One layout is set up most of the time between shows (except if going out twice in quick succession. I suppose you could describe what happens on the finished layouts a s playing- the current one is in build.
Les
Here goes ...
1. Are you a binge user - do you leave it for days and then suddenly have an 8 hour marathon of train running?
Not really - depending on other things going on I might leave the layout for a couple of days, or if I'm stuck with a problem and need to mull it over, then it could be a couple of weeks or more that I leave things alone. When I come back to the layout hopefully the solution in my head works on the ground.
2. How often do you change out the trains are sitting on the layout (or maybe you have space for a yard area)?
Right now pretty much everything I have is on the layout, with the exception of a couple of locos I'm not sure will ever belong (even allowing for Rule 1). I'll mix up the locos working the main or the branch to give them some exercise.
3. Do you have strict train compositions that you are unwilling to change/mix or do you change everything around all the
time?
Nothing is "strict", although I like to be consistent with coach formations, so those stay pretty much the same. However, I saw a great YouTube video a couple of nights ago about the end of steam on SR where there was everything running with everything else. I'm not sure if it made me shudder or gave me even more "Rule 1" leeway.
4. Is there a pattern to using your layout - e.g. do you run it for 30 mins at 8am every morning?
No. If I have a running session it'll be late in the evening as a wind-down. Sometimes it can be a wind-up if things don't go according to plan.
5. How does it work with friends family - are they barred or do you like showing the layout off and running all the trains
when they visit?
SWMBO is the only visitor. No-one is "barred" but equally no-one has much interest so that's fine with me. I share on the forum, that's good enough.
6. Do you ever leave the layout running as a background activity, much like you may listen to radio sometimes?
Yes, usually while I'm working on some other modeling, kit-building, etc. directly related to the layout and I'm in the same room. I don't have it running in the background while I'm doing anything else un-related, although if I had the space I could see me working in the home office while the railway was running on the other end of the room.
7. Do you do anything else while trains are running - whisky or beer drinking :D?
All of the above. Coffee in the morning, adult beverages at any appropriate time. I try not to solder when the sun is under the yardarm, I think I'll set myself or the house on fire. I do enjoy sitting back with a glass of wine and watching the world and the trains go by.
8. Have your playing habbits changed at all over the years? :hmmm:
*Habits*. Yes, my first layout was a single-track end-to-end with a bay platform, main terminus platform and run-around loop at the scenic end and I thought I'd be thrilled with driving a train a few feet, running around, and driving it back again. It was fun, but eventually began to pall as I realized I liked seeing trains rolling by at slow speeds. TINGS 2019 changed my mind, especially when SWMBO told me I needed to build a bigger layout. So that's what I'm doing. I've got a dual mainline and an upper branch, and usually have three trains slowly running around while I figure out shunting problems, possible stock movements or construction issues
9. Do you even even run your layout at home, or only at club nights/exhibitions?
No club nights or exhibitions here in the USA, so it's all at home. As the layout comes to fruition I'll probably post more pictures or video links on YouTube - it's others that have posted which got me into the hobby and let me see the possiblities. Those future postings will be my "club nights and exhibitions".
I guess I'm a type nine.
I enjoy building and working on my layouts and stock, planning how it should work and improving it. My private running is more to ensure everything is OK and preparation for exhibitions although usage has been much heavier during lockdown.
At exhibitions my colleagues do most of the running and I deal with any problems or answer questions.