How long has it been, are you happy about it?

[Tyson Rayles]

I just realized Thanksgiving weekend was the 9th year of working on my current layout. Still have one major section to go. So far I'm very happy with it. So how long have you been working on your current layout and are you happy or having second thoughts?

[Sumpter250]

My "layout"........
That became modules, a long long time ago, in a Solar system, far far away...
The track work on the two 3- module sets has long been completed {{ hey! just two mainline tracks from one end of the module to the other }}.
Both sets, have narrow gauge loops, on the old set that track is above the height of the mainline tracks. On the new set, it's a dual gauge loop, below the mainline tracks.
I started the new set, because there was nothing left to do on the old one. All the track work is done, but there is this small area..... approximately 7.5 scale acres of open water .... that requires an ongoing construction of sailing vessels, to fill that watery void.
"It's My Tern" started the documentation of the current project, a 132' { Length over all , LOA. } Three mast Schooner.
When done, it will share time at the sea wall with the Brigantine,W. W. Marsland, and the diesel powered "Cruise Ship", as yet un-named. The Tern, will bear the name "Uruviel" { Thank-you J.R.R.Tolkien, for that elven name. The Tern will be as beautiful a ship as her namesake, a Woodland Elf, maiden, was }.

:oops: guess I need to take a few more progress photos of the "Tern"

[faraway]

I am usually happy with the general track plan for two years until I find some quirks that bother me. As a result is the track plan more or less reworked every second year.
The constant rework of the scenery is no indication of lack of happiness but the pure joy to try something different after the last idea has been implemented. That happens usually ones or twice a year. Sometimes is the implementation of the idea to my satisfactions sometimes not. Some implementations look great but are nasty to operate others are great to operate but look somewhat boring.

[teejay]

You've made a lot of headway over the years Mike .

I have to go back , briefly to the first layout in the new house that I started about 13 years ago ....came to the conclusion ( rightly ) that it would never be finished . I tore it down 3 years ago , gathered ideas and then started on my present 30 inch x ten footer that I'm quite happy with . I have mentioned that due to various household issues I did ignore the layout for over a year but am happily back at it and do something every day . Trains do run , it's just the scenery and structures I'm finalizing .

[Ralph]

I've been working with mine for 22 years. I'm mostly happy with it but wish I'd known more about operations before building it. I'd like to have more staging. I think if I were to do it again I'd also keep it to one level and avoid grades.

[BR60103]

Mine has been in progress since we moved 2 1/2 years ago. I've gotten hung up on a couple of stations that haven't gone just as I'd like, and I have places where I need ideas for scenery.
But I can go down and run trains either in a circle or in and out of a station.

[Charlie B]

I have been working on this one for 5 years. Not everything is what I hoped for, but I know a lot of things I wanted to model just didn't fit. I got most of what I wanted on the layout and I have one section left to do. I have lost a lot of time to a bad mood over a lousy health issue but I have that beat now so time to get moving. Of course with Christmas I am working on a train that is full O, and one that is S to see if I can run them for the holiday.
A good layout always has room for changes.
Charlie

[Prairie Trains]

My layout was started almost 35 years ago. It started as two modules to fit with a club layout. But they sold it before mine was ready. So I kept working on it, and added more modules to it over the years. This was all done in the living room of a Mobile Home, and was taken down in the summer months when I did not have time to work on it. In the winter of 03/04 it was moved into the basement of the house, re arranged and added onto. It now has a second level and one of three staging yards mostly completed. Over the years at times I had lost interest in it but all ways came back to it. Before the turn of the century I joined a better club and since 2008 they have been having operating sessions on it every Wednesday night during the winter months.

I always planned ahead with building and never drew up any written plans. Just built bench work that would fit the room then laid what track would fit with lots of long train main line running with lots of switching also. Trains are 18 to 20 cars with at least 2 units. Maximum grades are 2%. And I have never ripped up or changed any thing after it was first done.

I am very happy with my lay out. and if I could do it all over again there is nothing that I would change.

Well maybe one thing, I should have used more uncoupling magnet lifters or electric magnets instead of fixed under the ties ones.

[teejay]

Wow , 35 years ....my 2 marriages barely add up to that !

[Roger Hensley]

Lets see, 1980... that's 35 years. It started as a 4x7...
1980 - original 4x7 layout. Town of Westport.
1983 - 4x4 yard section added. Now L shaped.
1986 - removed yard section and built across back wall with new yard with return loop. To be connected to a new city section.
1987 - raised layout 6 inches.
1988 - city area in place with track through it and reversing lopp under.
1991 - East Yard added to extend track through and beyond city.
1995 - major operational problems with original track moving with seasons. Ripped out
original table structure, saved farm area and all buildings. Reversed layout of town of Westport
placing farm at other end of section.
1997 - added a leg to Westport for Grain Operation.
1999 - Began changing to under table slo-motion switch machines and LED control panel
operations. Began rebuilding of grain elevator area.
2004 - replaced an industry in East Yard with new plastics plant.
2005 - Installed new backdrop behind grain elevator area.
2013 - ran a second line under the hill to give the layout another path to run in.
2015 - added a new industry to the East Yard.
I say that it is the same layout, but the only original piece is the farm scene. A layout is like the Energizer Bunny... It keeps going, and going, and... I only know one man who actually finished his layout and he promptly lost interest.

[Tyson Rayles]

Looks like we are all sticking with it and having a good time in the process!

[Roger Hensley]

Oops, a couple more items.

2007 - Built Oil Company distributor at East Yard.
2009 - Added drop down section to Grain Elevator to extend the run through the Elevator.

Yes, I an very happy with it.

[Brakie]

For my small ISLs from start to finish around 2-3 weeks and after that several months of operation follows the completion.

[Sumpter250]

Roger's post reminded me that I once had a 4' X6' "sheet-of-plywood-layout", with several "Paper building kits", and a loop of snap track. This was a 1950's project, and my very first "attempt".
   
It was in the mid 60's that I removed and saved what was "savable", and the rest was discarded.
The "Gift Shop", ( building farthest away , behind the red bouy)
   
is the same, but "modified" Revell Depot kit, that can be seen in the back, left, corner in the black and white photo above.
Yeah I saved some things for "many years" before they got re-used......... and slightly improved my model building skills.
There's 55 years between those two pictures.

[Tyson Rayles]

While you were good 55 years ago you skills are awesome today Pete!