It's now a year later, and my trains are still in boxes and I haven't even started my layout I simply can't find the time...

Throw away clock watches and the calendar!
Relax and enjoy yours trains when you have possible.
Don´t feel pressure!

Hmm, we moved to the UK in 1997 and the trains are still in the boxes, just the number of boxes keeps growing ...

How about sleep less.
Don't watch TV.
Listen to the news only once a day... at noon is best.
(better day not to start with news, better sleep without news)
And get your wife and kids involved.
....Also the deadline of presenting something at a train show helps!
Make your set by modules.
Think of it as your perfect part-time
(or full-time after full-time) job.
- Mark

ps. Or our hobby can just be collecting and looking at other people's trains on youtube and the forum!

Wow! That's fast! I can install a decoder in the time that FD takes!

I have to admit to taking longer to actually do some real work on the layout or my trains. Installing a signal can take an hour or two, constructing a model building can take many hours, but you can break it up into small chunks. Some tasks, such as scenic treatments, can only be done if you have a few hours at your disposal.

Running trains, however, can be done for just a few minutes at a time if the trains are on the layout and all you need to do is power it up! I often run my trains while waiting my turn for the bathroom, or if I have a spare fifteen minutes at any time of day. A full running session for me is rarely more than half an hour anyway, as the layout is small and operation limited.

To those who have their trains in boxes and have yet to build a layout, my advice is to start small and get something running quick. We all have our grandiose plans for multilevel multitrain super-layouts, but if they never get built then they have no value. Build yourself (or find) a 2m X 1m table, lay some tracks on it, wire it up, and put a couple of trains on it. You can play with this while planning and constructing your dream layout!

Such a layout can be used for exercising and testing your trains, and you can add scenery and buildings to develop your modelling skills for "the big one".

It is time for a Trackplan!

In the winter time, I normally dedicated 1 hour in the evening in the train room (instead of watching TV or surfing the net)!

It's amazing what can be accomplished if you do that for 1 week every evening.

Brgds Lasse

Forget about your step-son and the spare room. Where there is a will, there is a way.

You CAN start with a simple piece of plywood, 6 feet by 4 feet and put on a couple of simple ovals. That would take 30 minutes.

You then put the trains and power packs on, that will be 15 minutes.

You then play for 15 minutes.

Total: 1 hour.

If you do not have one hour to start your hobby, then maybe it is not your hobby. You prefer doing something else.

Sorry to be a bit rough, but that is how I see it.

Ask yourself this question: am I right or am I wrong?

If I am right and you do not have a real interest in this hobby, get another hobby.

If I am wrong and you do have a strong interest in model trains, THEN GET GOING. Stop reading this and start putting some tracks on plywood.

We had a great presentation at our NMRA meeting last year. The simplest layout is a point to point..you can have one industry at one end and another at the other. You could do this with a 2 foot by 8 foot piece of plywood. You could then add a passenger station in the middle...then you can add a couple of loops at either end...I have a simple end to end straight track. I can run all my old analog trains. As I get more C-track I will be running my digital loks, with my new MS2..
morsing, one of my professors in college described tv as monkey box...he never had one and hardly ever watched...
PS my name is Thom K and I have too much screen time...LOL

My layout is already going in the garage, as that's the only place there is room. If I fit a temporary layout there, then I won't ever get a proper one going.

It's not that I'm more interested in other things, it's that I have to do other things. I don't want to give up model trains, even my wife is getting interested :-)

Ave,

no time that is/was my problem too, well in 10 days i will be out of the job.

Problem solved.

have fun
LT

Make a shelf that the bonnet of the car can drive under, to give yourself a permanent layout table. that way the garage is still a garage and you have somewhere to run trains.

I love what you started, Ave. Looks REALLY sharp.

For me, when i started my layout i was dedicating to much time on the layout building and not enough on my family. Come spring time this year, i was summoned to help with the garden. Then the weather turned nice so of course so building at all. The cars also require their time (have one which is almost 30 years old). Work and summer later took over completely. Still way to much to do work wise and haven't really been home much. But in the last few weeks, i have found time to start my last phase, lay some tracks, done some electrics, began mountain work and also built a few buildings. Still plenty to do and as winter has arrived (it snowed yesterday) i think more building time is a matter of sooner rather than later.

Cant wait to kind of finish.....as one never do on a layout!