My friend and fellow W. Cornwall dweller Port Perran, recently mentioned he had lost his Mo Jo.
This probably happens to a number of us periodically. Personally I go through spells of lost interest, and then come back fully charged with enthusiasm.
If I push myself when I am not really inspired and up to it, I invariably turn out a mediocre job. So, loss of Mo Jo for a while may be no bad thing.
I'll be the first to go along with that. :thumbsup:
I lost my mojo when my VERY best friend Cyril passed away suddenly and I never hardly went down to my railway for a few years ,Then through my daughters boss I found another very good friend Reg and I started to get my interest back in the railway he was a senior signalman untill he retired and we used to have some very interesting chats while running the layout .But then Reg became one of the first victims of Covid and so I just couldnt face going down the shed on my own again .
I joined the Berkshire Area N Gauge group and what a great group they are Hailstone and
Snowwolflair of this Parish are both members of the club and now very good friends . Darrwest LU6and Crewearply40,are not members of the club but all of them have shaken me up and managed to wake my Mojo up so much that I have made a new Module for the Railway Club which was well received by all the members .
So now once the winter is over I will be down the shed on a regular basis ,
So loosing two friends and my Mojo has now been overcome and I am nearly back to my normal self
Before I finish waffling on CAN I WISH YOU ALL A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A PROSPEROUS
NEW YEAR WITH LOTS OF LOVELY RAILWAY GOODIES COMING YOUR WAY .
Regards to you all
Bob Tdbury
Hope you find your Mojo soon Martin. Remember you help fellow modellers in many ways. I'm sure I was looking at some of your railway photos on another site just a few days ago and found them inspirational.
I tend to work with bursts of enthusiasm, mixed with periods where I do nothing on a project. I tend to just go with the flow now rather than forcing things.
I find it helps to have plenty of side projects; usually I feel like working on at least one of them.
I agree with Paul, it's best to just go with the flow and do whatever you can whenever you can. Having different things to do on your layout can make it easier to find something you can at least start. I usually do something quite simple, which then usually gets me going again. It's frustrating when you can't be bothered though.....
Dave
My Mojo is well and truly back.
It went missing about 6 weeks or so ago but wasn't absent for too long.
I'm now busy making piles of logs for our club layout and buildings for my Camelbridge layout at home :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
ive been involved with n gauge for over 50 years now, built but never finished several layouts. Too many house moves--and periods without a job. Things hit rock bottom in the early 90's--and i had to sell up to raise money to put food on the table.
I was without any model items for many years--just buying magazines to keep up with the hobby. I joined this forum in 2011. Then i finally bit the bullet and bought a ready to run layout in 2018--but no stock--and set about making up for lost time.
i decided to sell on that layout a year ago--and began a new one this january. Its getting there. Also--ive been able to acquire several more locos on my wish list recently.
Quote from: port perran on December 04, 2022, 12:09:08 PM
My Mojo is well and truly back.
It went missing about 6 weeks or so ago but wasn't absent for too long.
I'm now busy making piles of logs for our club layout and buildings for my Camelbridge layout at home :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
My guess is that you found it either at the back of the fridge or in the recycling bin :beers:
I'm in a mojo slump at the moment. We had a water leak last winter in the garage above my layout due to a frozen pipe which caused a fair bit of damage. The damage (shown after the damaged drywall was removed and everything had been dried out) has since been repaired. But no trains have run since I'm afraid and I haven't yet plucked up the courage to fully assess the damage yet. Hopefully I will find some time over the holidays...
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/128/817-071222051352.jpeg)
Sympathies. The same has happened to my layout. :thumbsdown:
I'm in a similar situation having done nothing with Tintern for around two years. There just seem to be so many other things to occupy my time and at the present we are preparing for my younger sons wedding at Christmas. Once this is sorted out I'll get back into the loft and start again. I think one of the problems is that one or two little "to do" tasks on the railway escalate into the enormity of constructing a whole layout and you get bogged down by the complexity of it all.
I have to admit that as far as my own layout goes progress had slowed, it just didn't have enough operationally for me and as it is quite a small layout relatively speaking I was a bit stuck.
Then inspiration hit me. I decided to convert what had been a long siding into a loop with one point off-scene. This allows four trains in the scenic section at once should I wish and means to "hold" a goods train so another train can pass. This now means I have more scope to alternate trains and up to four complete trains in the scenic section at once.
Trackwork is now done apart from a small section of ballasting, scenic parts now on order to construct a tunnel which will be the scenic break.
Roy
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/128/242-071222103254.jpeg)
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/128/242-071222104351.jpeg)
Quote from: Chetcombe on December 07, 2022, 05:20:36 AM
I'm in a mojo slump at the moment. We had a water leak last winter in the garage above my layout due to a frozen pipe which caused a fair bit of damage. The damage (shown after the damaged drywall was removed and everything had been dried out) has since been repaired. But no trains have run since I'm afraid and I haven't yet plucked up the courage to fully assess the damage yet. Hopefully I will find some time over the holidays...
I'm lucky. I had a leak when the felt on my shed roof failed, during a period of very heavy rainfall, in a location that is not normally visible to me. However, my shed is lined with insulation and boarded over, so the water mainly ran down within the roof and into the wall, with only staining of the roof lining visible and no real damage to the layout.
The shed roof is now clad with box-section steel roofing, so should remain waterproof for many years.
I have the same feeling. Spent over 20 years building the layout and collecting locos and stock. When I was working I spent almost every spare minute in the man cave looking forward to all that forthcoming free time. Now I'm retired I find little enthusiasm to go and "play trains". Obviously the construction phase was my mojo. Current thinking is divided between do I rip it all up and start again and can I really bear to destroy 20 years work?
That's exactly the way I feel about my layout.
Nev S
I think we all go through that phase where we think of ripping our layouts up ,But then stop and think ,How will I be able to save the track because my state pension wont stretch to buying a lot of new track ,so I end up thinking how lucky I was to be able to afford what Ive built when I was working .
Apart from that I now suffer from a really bad back and cant stand up long enough to be able to build a new one .
So now I just keep adding new scenics as and when I can , my latest addition has been a patio area with a B B Q and a sand pit and swinging seat with figures and flowers round the house that my daughter bought for my birthday a couple of years ago .
Now its far too cold to go down the shed any way so now its CDs and D V D s to keep me happy untill the weather warms up again .
Bob Tidbury .
Understand completely. :thumbsup:
I sometimes regret dismantling Averingcliffe and starting the new layout, there was always some little thing that I could do with Averingcliffe. I started the new layout and got a lot of track laid including a helix at both ends. However, my mojo has well and truly gone missing. I ended up with some other committments earlier in the year which took up some time, so I did not feel like doing anything railway related. I have over the last couple of months found other things, totally unrelated to model railways, that have kept me occupied. But the new layout is there, waiting for me, (and mojo), to get back to it..... eventually.
I know the feeling. I do get quite long periods of time when I either can't do anything on my layout due to other commitments or just can't think of anything to do (despite a stockpile of kits I appear to have built up over the years). Sometimes, just switching it on and playing trains for a few minutes helps me notice stuff that would be fun to do.
Quote from: Nev S on December 07, 2022, 08:10:23 PM
I have the same feeling. Spent over 20 years building the layout and collecting locos and stock. When I was working I spent almost every spare minute in the man cave looking forward to all that forthcoming free time. Now I'm retired I find little enthusiasm to go and "play trains". Obviously the construction phase was my mojo. Current thinking is divided between do I rip it all up and start again and can I really bear to destroy 20 years work?
This is usually the point where I start a micro layout of some point. Usually because I want to try something that's not within the style or era of my main layout.
I hope you get your mojo back. We all go through it. My n gauge modelling pretty much stopped about 5 years ago, and you can probably see a huge decline in my posts! The last two years I've not had much interest in it at all, due to so much going on at home. I still buy the odd thing, as I hope that it will come back some day. At the moment I just have a lovely collection....! :uneasy: ;D
Quote from: trkilliman on December 04, 2022, 08:06:19 AM
My friend and fellow W. Cornwall dweller Port Perran, recently mentioned he had lost his Mo Jo.
This probably happens to a number of us periodically. Personally I go through spells of lost interest, and then come back fully charged with enthusiasm.
If I push myself when I am not really inspired and up to it, I invariably turn out a mediocre job. So, loss of Mo Jo for a while may be no bad thing.
Whew! This makes me feel better. I'm in a 4-5 year "mo jo" lull and partially it's because my track stopped "working" and I'm terrified to even try to figure it out.
But yes, I go through this. I'm glad to know I'm not alone. I feel guilty about it.
What I must avoid is the temptation to sell my stock right now especially since I can get a mint for it at current rates!!
Also! I've been debating a switch (or addition) to Z Scale. I could sell my excess British N gauge stock and easily fund a Z Scale empire, but I'm afraid to do that before getting the mo jo back. Maybe selling and buying would be the spark?
As per usual with me, I got 'Kimbolted' to the stage where track was laid and by 'jury rigging' some wires I got trains to run. I was happy. I took short vids of my trains.
When I had a new roof on my mancave I had to dismantle everything to allow the workmen access. I swore I would rebuild with 'proper' electrics, isolating sections, polarity changing on points to avoid the poor contact syndrome etc..
I hate electrickery. I don't understand it. It bores the backside off me. It scares me. If there was one thing I could wave a magic wand at and have it done it would be the electrics as I enjoy everything else, even ballasting, which some hate.
Consequently very little has been done in 18 months. It's fair to say the loss of my moggie soul mate and the passing of my Mother has also had an effect but I will get back to it next Spring - honest!
Quote from: Newportnobby on December 08, 2022, 02:03:26 PM
As per usual with me, I got 'Kimbolted' to the stage where track was laid and by 'jury rigging' some wires I got trains to run. I was happy. I took short vids of my trains.
When I had a new roof on my mancave I had to dismantle everything to allow the workmen access. I swore I would rebuild with 'proper' electrics, isolating sections, polarity changing on points to avoid the poor contact syndrome etc..
I hate electrickery. I don't understand it. It bores the backside off me. It scares me. If there was one thing I could wave a magic wand at and have it done it would be the electrics as I enjoy everything else, even ballasting, which some hate.
Consequently very little has been done in 18 months. It's fair to say the loss of my moggie soul mate and the passing of my Mother has also had an effect but I will get back to it next Spring - honest!
:claphappy: :claphappy: Yes! Me too, exactly. I'll ballast happily and build trees from scratch happily but I hate the electrical side of this. It really stymies me greatly.
Amen, Brother Scott ;D
I just cannot fathom, deal with or understand electrics. Prefer scenics, ballasting and making buildings.
I agree wholeheartedly.
I hate the electrical side of things. I have absolutely no interest in it hence my understanding is pretty much zero.
I did 10 O levels at school. We were allowed to drop one subject prior to starting O level subjects proper and Physics was the subject I dropped without a blink of an eyelid. Even at age 13/14 it made absolutely no sense to me.
Never trust what you can't see is my motto :D.
But.....hats off to those who love it. I can sort of see the fascination but only just.
I did at one point consider going entirely Kato for my track when the electrics got too problematic. I was definitely getting jealous of Mum & her partner who have a fully Kato layout and only need to do a quick cleaning run around on it before playing with trains. Whereas I was having to trouble shoot all sorts of power issues just to get something to go round once.
That's why I carried out a huge exercise with my stock and #4 points but the well known problem with them, along with lack of flexitrack and curved points meant I had to abandon Kato as I was not willing to compromise on my track plan.
Sorry, chaps, but I hated physics at school, failed O level twice, then got a geophysics degree in later life, and wondered why I'd found physics so hard as a kid. I ended up teaching it for most of my career!
I love the electrical side of the hobby, as hopefully comes across in my layout thread. The problem is that old age has made working under the baseboard difficult.
Quote from: Newportnobby on December 08, 2022, 02:03:26 PM
I hate electrickery. I don't understand it. It bores the backside off me. It scares me. If there was one thing I could wave a magic wand at and have it done it would be the electrics as I enjoy everything else, even ballasting, which some hate.
I quite like the electrics side of things:
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/106/262-140221135515-1063771525.jpeg)
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/113/262-050921022114-1134561737.jpeg)
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/105/262-240121005852-1051472153.jpeg)
I have other pictures of spaghetti somewhere but it will take too much searching for those and it's late.
Quote from: Newportnobby on December 08, 2022, 02:03:26 PM
As per usual with me, I got 'Kimbolted' to the stage where track was laid and by 'jury rigging' some wires I got trains to run. I was happy. I took short vids of my trains.
When I had a new roof on my mancave I had to dismantle everything to allow the workmen access. I swore I would rebuild with 'proper' electrics, isolating sections, polarity changing on points to avoid the poor contact syndrome etc..
I hate electrickery. I don't understand it. It bores the backside off me. It scares me. If there was one thing I could wave a magic wand at and have it done it would be the electrics as I enjoy everything else, even ballasting, which some hate.
Consequently very little has been done in 18 months. It's fair to say the loss of my moggie soul mate and the passing of my Mother has also had an effect but I will get back to it next Spring - honest!
Same here with regard electrics...can't see it so can't fathom/ deal with it. I can build carriages from etches, buildings from scratch, landscaping no problem, but electrics is my weakest area in railway modelling. I have a well illustrated bookazine on the subject, but I seem to draw a mental blank.
My good friend port peran is the same. Next week we are meeting up for a couple of Christmas drinks and N gauge chat, but I'm sure electrics won't even get a mention!
I feel rather embarrassed that I just don't get electrics after having an electrician father and spending most of my working life working in the electricity supply industry. I felt really stressed by the wiring of Brickmakers Lane and while this did abate a bit after starting one of the two boards, it was never going to be a quick, or easy, job for me to get it all finished. Thankfully Steve Wright of James Street fame has taken on the task for me, while I've used my newly found Cricut skills to make him kits for all the new buildings on the enlarged quay on JS. This now means I'm itching to get my layout back to start doing all those boring things like track painting, ballasting, laying 3rd rail (not sure if I'm really looking forward to that one!) and scenic work.
Sometimes you just need to find another way round something that's blocking you.......
Dave
Whilst I'm no expert in or enthusiast for things electrical and electronic, wiring a layout causes me little distress. I wonder if the problem some people have is trying to understand too much. After all, everyone who looks at or posts on this forum must have the ability to use a computer, tablet or smartphone. I suspect that very few of us really understand what's going on inside in any detail, but we know how to get them to do what we want (most of the time, anyway). Similarly, I use a DCC system to control trains. I know how to connect to the layout (the manual that came with the system told me) and how to use the controls (manual again) but I understand even less of how it works than I do the computer I'm typing this on.
Most of the wiring we actually have to install ourselves comprises quite simple circuits, it's just that there are a lot of them and all in the same space. For instance my track power and point operating systems only meet electrically at the mains, so when working on one I can ignore the other.
As we build model railways for our enjoyment (don't we?) it follows that it should be enjoyable. All of it. I suggest that those who find electrics difficult avoid trying to understand things they don't need to and see the wiring as a collection of individual circuits rather than a monster tangle of wire. Working neatly should help with this.
I would strongly advise against getting involved with mains electricity, but it is not hard to find a cased power supply with a mains plug fitted. Once you have that, you are only dealing with low voltages and low currents so you shouldn't come to harm.
I hope this encourages the electrophobics among us to have a go.
All the best,
Ali
Quote from: Trainfish on December 09, 2022, 02:11:28 AM
Quote from: Newportnobby on December 08, 2022, 02:03:26 PM
I hate electrickery. I don't understand it. It bores the backside off me. It scares me. If there was one thing I could wave a magic wand at and have it done it would be the electrics as I enjoy everything else, even ballasting, which some hate.
I quite like the electrics side of things:
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/106/262-140221135515-1063771525.jpeg)
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/113/262-050921022114-1134561737.jpeg)
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/105/262-240121005852-1051472153.jpeg)
I have other pictures of spaghetti somewhere but it will take too much searching for those and it's late.
My electronics workshop practices instructor would be rolling in his grave without proper looming and lacing.. sadly he died earlier this year.
I don't enjoy the electrics, because it has been my job for the last 47 years, that may change when I retire in 3.5 working days.
Personally I like scenic work , but the N guage layout, is almost finished from that point of view. I'm about to start working my way back down the layout adding buildings and electrics.
I have a EM guage layout on which work will recommence next year, and I'm experimenting building OO9 track for a planned mini exhibition layout.
I find it necessary to have more than one project running so if I loose mojo on one I move over to another..
Enjoy the retirement. :thumbsup:
Quote from: The Q on December 09, 2022, 01:17:25 PM
My electronics workshop practices instructor would be rolling in his grave without proper looming and lacing.. sadly he died earlier this year.
Fear not, it's a lot tidier now, I just can't find any pictures. I suppose being a qualified electrician for almost 40 years and having worked a lot on control systems in several countries and different industries does help to understand how it all works. I was never into electronics though, most of my work involved relay logic which I enjoy.
Quote
I find it necessary to have more than one project running so if I loose mojo on one I move over to another.
I absolutely agree with this. I only have the 1 layout but it's big enough that if I lose my mojo on scenery then I can move onto rolling stock. Then electrics, then a different section of scenery. If all else fails I can sit back, listen to Pink Floyd and watch 6 trains run around continuously while I have a beer instead :beers:
Peaks and troughs happen to us all, I think. Sometimes a fresh start is needed, sometimes it's just a break.
Our garage was considerably colder this year than previously so the decision was made; empty the box room of the day bed and furniture that we will never use again since my dear departed MiL left us, build new cabinets to support the layout in a condensed size, then take all the track up, box up the buildings and trees, cut bits off, and get it ready to move upstairs. This took two weekends.
I will be doing away with my freight yard which simplifies the electrics massively, I just need to power one big meandering loop with a few drops on a bus wire and a couple of drops from a small MPD area now, so my dual controller is all I need.
A big clear out of stuff I don't need will follow but I reckon by the Spring we'll be back up and running. The new trackplan also makes running German stuff in an English countryside setting easier. All will be revealed one day....