Turning Over a New Leaf

Admittedly I've been frustrated with model railroading lately.  Perhaps you've been there too.  It seemed like I've been interested in model railroading for quite a while and even dabbling but given how much time and money I had invested, it didn't feel like I really had much to show for it.

My first response was to second guess the whole thing all together -- is model railroading really for me?  I spent a little under a week not doing anything related to MR'ing.  Yeah... that didn't really work out.  It wasn't quite the right response.  So I took a sec to think about things.

I think it's a bit like a boy with an allowance.  Said boy receives an allowance each week, to which he promptly spends it on bubble gum.  The most he will ever have is small pieces of bubble gum.  On the flip side he could choose to save that allowance, and over time be able to purchase something larger, like a bike.

That may not have been the best analogy, but for each of us, the time we have to spend on model railroading is fixed.  It's like an allowance that can't really change.  If we choose to spend that time on small projects, here and there, it will likely never amount to anything large.  Instead it takes a plan, or at minimum a goal, to "pool" that time and focus it on something larger.

And that's what I decided was the correct response.

But that's a bit hard to do.  How do you take all of these model railroading ideas, influences, books, technical knowledge, and turn that into something big?

I started with two premises:

1. Not everything needs to be decided up front.
   This was a biggie for me.  I've been much more of an "arm chair" railroader for years now.  I have designed and planned several layouts (around 25 or so it seems), a handful of which have stories, history, prototypes, and custom names/logos designed for them.  My big premise here is that I don't need to know EVERYTHING in contribute towards something big.
2. Big things take investment.
   If I wanted to get the ball rolling on something big I needed to actually give it some real investment.  So I took off two days from work.  Really.

After somewhere around 8-10 hours of work on my first day off, I've got rough 60% of the benchwork done...

Now to demonstrate my first premise...

• I have not yet finalized a track plan.  I know about 80-90% of where things will go but it isn't locked down quite yet.  I have enough of an idea to start building.
• I haven't finalized the name of the railroad or the names of the main cities
• I haven't even finalized on a scale/gauge.  I'm strongly leaning towards one, but I'm trying to keep an open mind.
   

That said, I do have some leanings.  I'm strongly leaning towards doing a "mostly-freelance" On30 layout, set in 1930-1940-ish, loosely inspired by the ET&WNC.  My tentative working name is...

BUT THAT COULD ALL CHANGE!