Two weeks off. More or less done with the Journal this month. Nothing much else to do thanks to COVID. Scraps of wood in the shed. So building a freelance American layout on a 3 x 2 piece of 9mm MDF using Kato track. Literally just to have something to do! I keep seeing cool videos on scenic techniques, so need something with mountains and waterfalls! This can't be healthy...

Cheers, NeMo

If I ever had so much free time at home all to myself, I'd have a good crack at finishing the existing layout "finished", and maybe move on to various rolling stock "projects".

PS if you're really bored I can send you a highly active 6-year old to keep you occupied for a week or so.

Quote from: railsquid on March 31, 2021, 04:36:26 PM
PS if you're really bored I can send you a highly active 6-year old to keep you occupied for a week or so.

Got one of my own, thank you very much! But she had forest school today. 

Cheers, NeMo

Quote from: NeMo on March 31, 2021, 05:18:16 PM

Quote from: railsquid on March 31, 2021, 04:36:26 PM
PS if you're really bored I can send you a highly active 6-year old to keep you occupied for a week or so.

Got one of my own, thank you very much! But she had forest school today. 

Is that the one where you tell them to go and look for the gingerbread house?

I am about to start a new layout, but that is more because I have virtually finished Averingcliffe. There is very little I can do on the layout, so have decided to remove the layout and, sometime in the future, create a new 'Little Averingcliffe'. I have been toying with the idea of a layout on which I can use my American rolling stock. Having got hooked on n gauge, I feel I have to do something!

Quote from: dannyboy on March 31, 2021, 06:27:39 PM
I am about to start a new layout, but that is more because I have virtually finished Averingcliffe. There is very little I can do on the layout, so have decided to remove the layout and, sometime in the future, create a new 'Little Averingcliffe'. I have been toying with the idea of a layout on which I can use my American rolling stock. Having got hooked on n gauge, I feel I have to do something!

Ah!  The joys and curses of multiple interests! I have my small Aberffilli layout thats progressing albeit slowly and I'm about to pull my main Canadian layout apart just after I've got it running, as I was too impatient building it.  So I'm replacing it with a long narrow end to end  Canadian one (DCC and switching really suits North American layouts) and a slightly less narrow simple double track mainline shelf to staging loop layout for all my loooong passenger trains (Continental)

I haven't reached the stage of "needing something to do" because, having finished The Coniston Railway (well, finished until I think of something else to put on it) I had my crazy idea of making a working coaling tower then realised that I'd need something on which to put it - which turned into the rather more complicated than anticipated Furness Junction and will keep me well entertained for some time to come, I hope.

At an appropriate juncture, I'll be relocating both layouts to put The Coniston Railway back around the walls of the spare bedroom for "playing" and Furness Junction in the rear half of the lounge for ongoing building and playing. Then they will only come apart if the spare bedroom is needed for guests or I have to take them somewhere else, like a club open day.

If I get Furness Junction finished as well, I dare say that the urge to build something will strike again (I think my greatest pleasure of the hobby is building rather than just playing) then the lack of space will encourage me to just do something small, a shelf or coffee table sort of thing - or just spend a heck of a lot more time down at the club 

I still haven't started one layout yet, yet alone 'another' one.

With my setup, it's easier to build a new module!

Quote from: njee20 on March 31, 2021, 10:22:15 PM
I still haven't started one layout yet, yet alone 'another' one.

No. SWMBO keeps finding me things to do so I don't have any spare time for something to do!!!

Mountains and Waterfalls in 3' x 2' is a BIG ask ... if you manage it, then I think you should definitely write an article telling us all how you did it and submit it for publication in the Journal. Be advised, though: that editor fella is a real tartar when it comes to word count ...

Ah, can't pretend this is my idea! Check this out:

https://www.steves-trains.com/post/colorado-loop-layout-build

As a bit of a freelance fun, I think he's made something really good there.

Cheers, NeMo

Quote from: PGN on April 01, 2021, 09:36:49 AM
Mountains and Waterfalls in 3' x 2' is a BIG ask ... if you manage it, then I think you should definitely write an article telling us all how you did it and submit it for publication in the Journal. Be advised, though: that editor fella is a real tartar when it comes to word count ...

I needed a simple oval test track for sound installations, playing around with CVs and suchlike.  For reasons I cannot understand let alone explain, the test track has now escalated into a model of Midford goods yard on the Somerset & Dorset Joint, code 40 trackwork, dual control DC / DCC, full scenic treatment and so on.  I'm starting baseboard construction tomorrow and I have no idea how any of this happened. I don't even have any suitable locomotives for the S&D.  I have two exhibition layouts already and no exhibitions to take them to. Total madness.

Richard

Quote from: belstone on April 04, 2021, 10:25:17 PMI have no idea how any of this happened. I don't even have any suitable locomotives for the S&D.  I have two exhibition layouts already and no exhibitions to take them to. Total madness.

Richard

The expression N.F.N. springs to mind ...