Time to talk about orphans and adoptions. We all know the plight of orphans, neglected, ignored, nobody to love them. Just a bunch of ragamuffins with runny noses looking for someone to pay attention to them, just someone willing to adopt them and give them the home that they deserve. Most frequently, we can find these orphans in our own homes and that is so sad, so won’t you please adopt one of these poor orphans?

No, I’m not talking about those little waifs with big eyes and curly hair; I’m talking about those orphaned projects that we all have stacked on or under our benches, in the closet or on a shelf somewhere gathering dust. We all have them; a kit you started and never finished or one that you bought half-finished at a swap meet, ( I have several of those). How about a car you started to paint and decorate that sits naked in a box, just pleading for you to get back to, or just something that you changed your mind about and abandoned. Come on, be honest, isn’t there a spot you cleared on your layout that you never got around to putting anything on? Didn’t you start to rewire for DCC, or redo that tight curve so you can run long trains? Where are your orphans, which ones do you want to adopt and see them through to the point you can be proud of them? We want you to adopt an orphan, most likely one that’s sitting in your train room untouched, or perhaps you know of an orphan that someone else has that you can give new life to it through the process of adoption. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to say, “I’m the proud parent of this orphaned project”? See it through life until it can function on it’s own, just like having kids and seeing them graduate college and get a real job, but this is not nearly as expensive.

So here's the challenge: make a commitment to take a project that either you or someone else has abandoned, and then complete it. Contact a friend or someone here and see if you can trade orphans or just adopt theirs if they have no use for the neglected little one. Resolve to do whatever it is, in three months or less. Post the name and age (how long the project has been an orphan) and, as usual, continue to show progress in a separate thread. At the end of three months, we'll have a vote to see who came closest to completing the adoption process and bringing their orphaned project through to adulthood. Be specific, but keep it simple so that you can keep your commitment. This must be something that has been started in the past, either by you or someone else. We will give you time to talk to others about trading or taking over their project. Also, note that we are allowing you to adopt more than one orphan, just that you must complete the entire adoption process with one (finish one project), before you adopt another one.

Remember, the intent of this challenge is to get us procrastinators to finish something that we started, sometimes years ago, and just plain get it finished as intended. Oh yeah, a special award will go to the one that has the oldest orphan, just be honest when you give us its age.

The Rules:

1. You can enter any orphaned railroad project that you’ve started and abandoned in any stage or one that someone else has started but hasn’t finished. This can be anything from a structure kit, a kitbash, anything scratchbuilt, weathering or rebuilding a car or engine, anything goes. The intent is that you started this project, no matter how long ago, and now you are going to finish it. You have adopted and orphan and you are nurturing it to adulthood where is should not need any more attention (unlike most kids at any age).
   
2. Start a thread in this forum, "Your Screen Name, 2013 adoption challenge," and describe the project you’ve adopted in your first post. A picture would be helpful to see where you stopped before. Also, please tell us how long it’s been since you abandoned the poor thing (estimates are acceptable). This is important since we will use that info for consideration on the special award, or just to gasp in amazement.
   
3. You can open your thread at any time before the official starting date, which gives you enough time to decide on what you want to do or even swap orphans with others. You are also free to enter a project at any time before the end of this challenge but please do not start posting progress reports until the starting date of the challenge.
   
4. Tell us what you intend to do as part of your challenge, in other words, what you’ve adopted, and it would be nice to know what scale you are working in, if that’s appropriate. As usual, provide us with lots of pictures of your progress.
   
5. If, before the end of this challenge, your orphan is no longer dependent on you, feel free to adopt a new one. You will then be judged on your individual projects, just like the last GOYD challenge.
   
6. Because we never give anything of value away, this challenge is open to all registered members of the Big Blue Train Forum, including the staff. Let’s face it, we all need to dust off some of these orphans and complete them as we originally intended, I know I do. Sometimes I can hear these little waifs sobbing from loneliness after the lights go out for the night.
   
7. This challenge is all about your project, you can have help, but you must do a substantial amount of the work yourself. You or someone else can take the photos.

The challenge starts on June 15, and will run until September 15. A poll will open after that date, so that we can pick a winner.

As usual, there are no real prizes, just bragging rights and a certificate from Big Blue showing that you won one of the top three spots. One special certificate goes to the person with the oldest project.

Please post any questions or comments regarding this challenge only in this thread and we will attempt to resolve any issues here before the challenge starts. Do not post your challenges here, please start an individual new thread (see rule #2) for each one that you enter.

BTW, this challenge is a result of feedback from several of our members. Who says we don't listen????? We thank you all for your suggestions.

Don, very good, a new challenge!
But I know that I will need for my sleeping project many more time! Finishing date December 15th would be many, many better! And a short before christmas eve finished project will be a good gift - for all of us.
Can I get a longer running challenge, please?

modelsof1900 Wrote:Don, very good, a new challenge!
But I know that I will need for my sleeping project many more time! Finishing date December 15th would be many, many better! And a short before christmas eve finished project will be a good gift - for all of us.
Can I get a longer running challenge, please?

The idea is to simple projects, otherwise they tend to become abandon once again. For those kind of projects, three months should be more than enough time. I really wouldn't want to go beyond October 1st since at that point we're getting into the holiday season. We most certainly don't want a bunch of orphans not be able to enjoy the holiday by being put back into hiding, now do we? I'm going to keep it at Sept. 15 unless some others think they would be better off with an extra two weeks.

I need to keep it real simple But to be fair, I should let it be something that I havent touched in a long time, right? Not something that I have been slowly working on recently...

My basement is a certified orphanage right now ,,,,which one to choose??????

nachoman Wrote:I need to keep it real simple But to be fair, I should let it be something that I havent touched in a long time, right? Not something that I have been slowly working on recently...

Yeah, I would think that something old can be something new. .. Like you, I've got a project that isn't finished but I've been working on it now for a while that I don't think would be fair to enter with, but... I've also got a few other projects that I started as far back as five or more years ago, and a couple of half-finished kits I bought at swap meets (it's been a good three years since I've been to a train swap meet). Some I've used for parts, but I could finish one off as a declared orphan of the night....

e-paw Wrote:My basement is a certified orphanage right now ,,,,which one to choose??????

I agree.

Lutz

That's the whole idea, take a section of you orphaned layout and finish it off. Take an old kit you started or a half-finished scratchbuild, anything that has been orphaned at some point.

ezdays Wrote:That's the whole idea, take a section of you orphaned layout and finish it off. Take an old kit you started or a half-finished scratchbuild, anything that has been orphaned at some point.

You mean someting like this?
A project started almost 20 years ago, then abandoned about 10 years ago. (before I bought a lathe and milling machine.)

Sounds good to me Ray!!!!

ray_m Wrote:You mean someting like this?
A project started almost 20 years ago, then abandoned about 10 years ago. (before I bought a lathe and milling machine.)

Yup, and I thought I had a old orphan, got one or two that are at least five years old. Jump right in there Ray, it'll be great to have you along.

The only orphan that comes to mind was cannibalized last week!

Lester Perry Wrote: The only orphan that comes to mind was cannibalized last week!

That's what happens when you don't pay attention to your orphans. I do that a lot, and have even bought kits just for the parts. Look around though, you may find a wayward orphan just looking for your attention.

I'm beginning to think that I'm the orphan here; I'm so totally out of synch. Some months ago I got tired of my layout being so piled up with STUFF that I started working on it. Of course, I'm so slow, that by the time the GOYD challenge came along I was about all done. After getting that done, I cleaned the tracks, checked out, oiled end lubed the locos. Sooooo, I had a couple bashed gallopping gooses that barely ran. I got them running great, had some spare parts, anstarted in on a couple more. Then, to my surprise, after getting them running, comes the orphan challenge. Either I'm psychic and get a month headstart, or just running a couple years behind.

Don, or ngauger, one of you tell me the challenge for this fall, and maybe, just maybe, I can get started on it by the time it is announced.

I enjoy my trains, bt have a great time bashing up autos, buses, trucks, and what have you to run the rails. The weirder the better.I may get some pictures today of some of them.

Lynn

Well, I might consider this as I have a few uncompleted projects. Here's a list of possible projects:

-- I have a card kit for a corner grocery store that is about 1/2 or 2/3 completed.
-- my son & I started on an HO engine shed (an old kit that my Dad had). Hmm, this might work well on my new switching layout! so it could be a good option.
-- I also have a couple detailing kits whereby I could add more pipes and items onto 1-2 of my locos.

I'll see what happens!