Making Mistakes

The thing to remember about making mistakes is this;

The only people who dont make mistakes are the one's who dont do anythng.

If your not making mistakes then your not doing anything.

It's How you recover from your mistakes and what you learn from them that matters.

Mark

Mr Fixit Wrote:It's How you recover from your mistakes and what you learn from them that matters. Mark

"To Err, is Human ----To make the same mistake twice, is criminal folly" - My Dad.

I do not want to become philosophic here but for my opinion there is only one "error" you can do at your hobby "not to enjoy what you are doing". I do therefor apologize for the false use of the term "error". I do really enjoy modeling at my pace with my results. However that has absolute no relevance for anybody else.

faraway Wrote:I do really enjoy modeling at my pace with my results.

Amen! That's the most important part of enjoying this hobby.

Since errors cost money I do my utmost to avoid them..I plan,rethink,think some more and re planed if necessary.

If I rushed head long into building Slate Creek I would had to rip it out and start over costing time and hobby dollars.

Hopefully the start date will be mid October.

Great looking buildings and layout

Brakie Wrote:Since errors cost money I do my utmost to avoid them..I plan,rethink,think some more and re planed if necessary ...

That is very true and I fully agree. May be I am in a somewhat unusual situation due to the way my layout is build.

- The base is a flat piece of wood and anything is glued with simple white glue on it. So everything can be removed easy with some water and 5 minutes time waiting until the glue became slime again. Except some new holes for cables no woodwork is required.
- 90% of the ground cover is sand. I buy about one bag of about two pound of sand per year. It is cheap sand original intended for bird cage but needs to be sieved before use.
- Track work and especially turnouts are mostly untouched to prevent cost and disruption of a functioning layout. If necessary I use simple Atlas material only. The flex track are mostly reused
- All buildings are scratch build. I buy styrene in large sheets 12" x 25" (0,50m X 1,00m). The styrene used per building is less than $2-3.
- Details like fences, bushes etc. are reused when every possible and it is possible for more then 90%. e.g. no new details have been bought for the hatch area.
- I did ones spend about $100 to get a box full of Trichy windows and doors. That box will last for years
- All paint is usually white, gray or brown primer in rattle cans

That very special environment permits to implement most brainchild right away. As I frankly admit you may call my structures mock ups with some details. It is part of the joy not to wait for weeks or month until everything has been planned and set like in real life. That leads to the very comfortable situation of a constant changing layout in the way of an evolution. I do rarely scratch large parts and "start all over" but I start pushing into another direction with little steps each one to be implemented within a few days only.
I did find two nice Atlas HH600 in my cabinet yesterday evening. They are beautiful and smooth runners. With more and more brick buildings erected on the layout ..... I do not know how my layout will look xmas 2011 :o

Reinhard ,I would hardly call your structures mock ups since they look good and more modern then most kits and I suspect far cheaper.

I especially like the details on those structures and as far as that goes the layout..

The details are added. Some has been used to hide or cover "dirty corners". I was caught be the white box buildings where I could paint the white details on the white wall with the rattle can afterwards. Painting details gray on a red brick wall is a challenge you can't really win (at least not with my eyes and hands )

However, the basic idea behind this building was to break the line of buildings all with the back to the backdrop and the front to the long street parallel to the yard. That works as expected. The overall impression of the structure placement along the south yard has changed. I will do another building on the other side of the small street face to face with this one. My intention is an overall impression similar to the street on the hatch.

Six pack
http://s966.photobucket.com/albums/ae149...G_0008.mp4
http://s966.photobucket.com/albums/ae149...G_0009.mp4
It is only the break in run and I wanted to play with the camera of my new IPhone.

faraway Wrote:- The base is a flat piece of wood and anything is glued with simple white glue on it. So everything can be removed easy with some water and 5 minutes time waiting until the glue became slime again. Except some new holes for cables no woodwork is required.
- 90% of the ground cover is sand. I buy about one bag of about two pound of sand per year. It is cheap sand original intended for bird cage but needs to be sieved before use.
- Track work and especially turnouts are mostly untouched to prevent cost and disruption of a functioning layout. If necessary I use simple Atlas material only. The flex track are mostly reused
- All buildings are scratch build. I buy styrene in large sheets 12" x 25" (0,50m X 1,00m). The styrene used per building is less than $2-3.
- Details like fences, bushes etc. are reused when every possible and it is possible for more then 90%. e.g. no new details have been bought for the hatch area.
- I did ones spend about $100 to get a box full of Trichy windows and doors. That box will last for years
- All paint is usually white, gray or brown primer in rattle cans

That very special environment permits to implement most brainchild right away. As I frankly admit you may call my structures mock ups with some details. It is part of the joy not to wait for weeks or month until everything has been planned and set like in real life. That leads to the very comfortable situation of a constant changing layout in the way of an evolution. I do rarely scratch large parts and "start all over" but I start pushing into another direction with little steps each one to be implemented within a few days only.

Sorry for the large quote, but I really, really like this approach.

I'm thinking of constructing my benchwork first and then track planning later (rather than the traditional other way around). I will have a simple shelf of 60cm deep around the entire room (4m * 5m), which should be plenty of room.

The only question I have is: Can you re-use turnouts? Even after they've been ballasted?

Cheers,

Colin

cthart Wrote:... The only question I have is: Can you re-use turnouts? Even after they've been ballasted?...

Colin, yes sure it works fine. But because the turnouts do not like physical stress it is important to supply plenty of water to the tracks and the turnout and let is soak thru the white glue. You simply gab it and lift it up. Later on it gets another hour in the bath tub and a nice shrub with a soft brush. They are like new.

If you are starting all over new it might be a good idea to do the woodwork 5 cm / 2 inch lower than planned and put 5 cm / 2 inch blue foam on top. It does not change anything to the bad but opens an easy way to do underpasses, ditches etc.

The other side of the street got populated with a simple structure modeled after 524 Colyton St, south LA. The white building in the background is the embroidery from Santa Fe St. That building had been suspended from the layout and will now join the new low structure to form a block. It will get a roof because it was designed to sit direct at the backdrop.
I love that simple buildings. South LA is full with them. They look like a garage but sometime you can peek into with streetview and notice they are all small business.

faraway Wrote:

cthart Wrote:... The only question I have is: Can you re-use turnouts? Even after they've been ballasted?...

If you are starting all over new it might be a good idea to do the woodwork 5 cm / 2 inch lower than planned and put 5 cm / 2 inch blue foam on top. It does not change anything to the bad but opens an easy way to do underpasses, ditches etc.

I'm thinking of doing just that! Now I just need to find a source of this foam here in the middle of Sweden.

Cheers,

Colin

The new central section of the south yard