Large Scale Central

S&G - resurrection or last convulsions?

billboard10
.

first time i had this billboard on a layout, was about 24 years ago.

for the following i “blame”" Jon and Devon and my daughter.

Jon, who in a few weeks converts a shabby hut into a perfect hobby-shed.
Devon for our conversation about “squarefeetwise” cleaning/shuffling junk around our hobby-rooms.
my daughter for, when she presented me my first grandson, saying “innocently”: “Pa, you know, that you need a functioning railroad, when he turns four?”

well, these made me think about the billboard.
it’s decades ago, that somebody shot at me, it’s half a century ago, that i lived in a house with lead waterpipes… where does the lead in my bottom come from?

only logical explanation would be the internet.
sitting on the Statler and Waldorf balcony - doing nothing.

ok, short story even shorter: i gave myself a rule: every time i’ll open a new pack of cigarettes, i work/clean/do whatever to my hobby room for ten minutes.

the interchange with Devon, about cleaned “square feet” was seven days ago.
now - about 33 pack of cigarettes later - i present this:

where this was:


.

is now this:


.

recycled structure, new bolts and boards (about $90.-)
15 (fifteen !) squarefeet cleaned out, 75 squarefeet storageroom gained.

there we see, what pure terror can achieve.
a deadline of a mere four years for a big layout, that is safe for and against children is not very long. :wink:

1 Like

Quite a transformation Korm, and congrats on your new storage area!

From your thread title, I gather you’re downsizing or reworking your layout, but not retiring it fully?

Well at least it ain’t me for once cause it kinda gets old (no pun intended)

:rooster:

It’s been quite a bit more that a few weeks and it’s far from done, but I’m motivated to keep at it with all that propane heat going out the roof.

compared with my seven or eight years of nearly total inactivity it is a mere few weeks

:grin:

maybe i should have included you.

  1. because of tradition.

  2. because out of the blue you went and made another variation of an alu-tube.

  3. and just because.

:innocent:

seven or eight years ago, or so, i had bad health, difficulties with my still unfinished two storey layout, too much interesting materials (femalese: junk) occupying each and every square inch of the room - and, worst of all, a new idea for a new layout.
instead of my 450’ of track planned layout (about 350’ done and cabled) on two levels something, that i might use even in case of evolving disabilities.
after a decent time of De armchair modelling (about two years or so) i had the perfect layout for an old man.

a table of 6’ by 40’ , divided in the middle (lengthwise) by 2’ high backgrounds and dividing Dioramas by mountains, forests, or else.
on legs, of the type as the new shelf (i got lots of these irons)
with a 3.5 wide path around the table.

a complicated roundy-round.
on both ends a halfcircle of about 3.5’ by 6’
connected to each leg of these halfcircles four stations/passing sidings of 10’ length.
these passing sidings connected to the passing sidings on the other end of the table by single track.
that leaves me with three dioramas on each side: a cattle town , a southwestern desert (later with a Navajo pueblo) and a mexican adobe village (maybe with a background build of the Alamo and - a must - with animated Mariachies and dancers)
on the other side a harbor (the gulf part of Southern & Gulf), a forest with some indian village (and maybe a logging operation on 32mm) and a city station with five and six storey background buildings (Burl - style) this station will/must have a second passing siding!

using DC and the LGB - epl technique i will have nine trains on the layout. four clockwise and five counterclockwise. either four clockwise trains will run to the next station, or four counterclockwise trains.
( thanks to having one more counterclockwise train and siding it will take some time, before the same two trains meet in the same town)

in other words, i plan something as dense, as Vic’s layout, with as much animations as Noel makes and (background) buildings as nice and impressing as those from Burl or from you.

and, most important: hands-free running!

when/if that is done, i’ll go on to give an army full of figures the Frankenstein treatment.
and if the reaper then still hadn’t found my address, i’ll shrink my rolling stock to 1:32.

i’ve got most of the details clear before my eyes, i tried out nearly every techniqe needed - so it all comes down to one point. Time.

if my new shelf is a real beginning, and not just the last fart of a corpse, than i think i have a fighting chance to bore you all with a lot of third world junk-modelling.

3 Likes

What a great layout plan! I love the scenes you describe, and hands-free running. Thanks for taking the time to explain, and I’ll look forward to your next steps of… new shelf layout sections? Whatever they are, it’ll be very interesting to watch!

no, seems, that i forget to specify.
the shelves are exclusively to guard my precious building materials (in femalese: junk) to make room to start building the layout.
gollum, gollum…

  1. build shelves 2. fill shelves with stuff now laying on the old layout 3. dismantle part of the old layout 4. take material from that for more shelves 5. fill additional shelves etc, untill there is room for the new layout.
    i’m now at (2.)

:confounded: :roll_eyes: :crazy_face: for Hines: :upside_down_face:

I’m planning similar, storage shelves under the planned expansion sections. It took me years to go from Plywood Pacific to the current layout, hoping I can do the expansion in 2026, seems like the hardest part is always taking that first step.

Wait a minute, Korm…
Wasn’t this supposed to be the storage shelving for your bunker?

You know—where you were going to stockpile all that sausage and cheese from Germany…

…for the Wurst-Käse scenario?

image

you must be a relative young man.
the harsh truth is, everything has got its time.
and for older men, when they get problems to climb up into bunk-beds, the time for building and maintaining bunkers is over.
for each prepper comes the moment (sooner or later) to decide, which end of the Wurst is less desirable:
the End with Scariness,
or the Scariness without End.

a young prepper/survivalist concentrates on physical preparedness.
then he starts hoarding stores.
then he realises, that one needs weapons to defend hoards.
then he starts to hide his precious hoards (gollum)

and, mind my words, that’s just your “every day prepping”
nothing about WW 3, 4, or five, or heavens forbid “Biedermann events”
just the normal dangers: poachers, cattle thiefs, riots, political $h!t & so on.

but, when a prepper reaches my age, it all comes down to some small printed numbers:

the “best use before” dates, not on food, but on the medicines one relies on.

then… one has to prepp one last thing. the own mind.

then… planting your flag, standing your stance and getting it done with it.

and, untill one crosses the Little Big Horn, modell railroading becomes more satisfying than prepping.

if this answer was too serious, just pretend, that i was just joking.

well, one day/4 packs further:


.

the shelves are not even half filled.
but…


.

the first 8’ long section is 3/4 cleared of junk.
(to my surprise i could even find some installed track - unaccounted for)

as Vic mentioned:
“seems like the hardest part is always taking that first step.”

i’ve got nine days left this year, before the whole family will arrive for the holy days.
but in '26 i’ll have the whole year free for the railroad.

It’s great that you’re hitting it head-on Korm.

The lower photo is of a portion of your layout, that you’re clearing, right?

Very clever using a shelf system for the layout, and reworking it for both shelving and future layout.

Keep at it and it will happen!

yes.

i thougt that’s the best defense against being asked, when it’s finished. :grin:

i love these angle irons. i can re-use them for other things and with a wrench i do hit less fingers, than with a hammer.

and peace is important too. if i start to hammer something at, let’s say, 3am i run into serious problems of getting breakfast.

1 Like

So I suppose gun powder powered concrete nails are out as well! Fortunately, when I used those for my build in CT it was during normal wake hours. The dog didn’t like it much.

no good will or good deed stays unpunished for long.

for the christmas family reunion my wife and i set up the pool (plastic sack hung on a railing)

for there is nothing better at above 100F than to sit in the pool, strawhat, southern comfort and singing “jingle bells”.

and then the new hoses between pool and pump were too tight.
we got us half a gallon of boiling water, put the ends of both hoses into it, i took one hose out to push it to the pump, while the other hose tipped the kettle over…
… my bare feet.

now, after a rich cover with aloe vera, my feet feel somewhere between medium rare and well done.
now the twenty paces between computer and bathroom feel like foot trecks from the east to Salt Lake.

so, it seems that my big mouthed project to clean my hobby cave is on hold for some days.

we were wrong, when we wrote that the first step is the most important.
Lady luck simply is not very trusty.

if i were an optimistic person, i now would be happy, that i get the chance, to repeat the first step.
but, i still can sing Jingle bells (if my wife brings me the southern comfort)

:hot_face: :face_with_head_bandage: :snail:

1 Like

Wearing a spiderman thong on backwards.

that would be a cultural breach.
remember: singing jingle bells.

1 Like