SpaceMouse
Fun Lover
For the last month, I have been devoting every spare second to building a room in the basement to use as an entertainment center for the kids. The goal was to create storage for my wife's paintings and get the kid's video game activities out of the living room. (Actually the main goal is cleaning up an impossible basement.)
My wife has since decided that if she put her paintings in that room, they will block the kid's view or at least loom heavily over them in a Feng Shei nightmare sorta way. So she suggested I build a layout in that area. Turns out I could make an L shaped switching layout with staging that is 11 feet long with a 4 foot return. Furthermore, I could incorporate an extensive saw mill which could represent the Union Lumber Company in the 4-foot return. The town of Fort Bragg with the terminus yard/service facility of the California Western Railroad would be in the long section. Ergo, it would be the start of the Redwood Empire I have been planning since day one. Furthermore, it would be the hardest most labor intensive, so I could get that part out of the way first.
I'm planning on building a scratch-built version of something like this based upon photos I have of the Union Lumbe Co.
That sounds like good news right? Well I guess it is. It's just that my next project in the basement will be to build the benchwork/video storage area for the new layout. Then, I have to organize a bunch of Junk and rip out a couple walls and reroute the house's wiring, cable and phone lines. Then I have to build a laundry room and another wall and my work benches.
All of this while, I'm trying to finish up the Rock Ridge and Train City layout--which I figure, with no basement construction, I have another 6 months or so. But with the construction, I'm going nuts because I haven't gotten anything done in 6 weeks or so and before that I was working on club projects.
I'll have the benchwork in place for 12-18 months before I can lay track on just the first phase of the layout. Well, I guess that gives me a lot of time for planning.
I just need some good quality layout time. Maybe when the room is done and before the benchwork is done, I'll take a couple weeks off.
Thanks for letting me rant. I kinda feel like the Microsoft engineer with the virgin wife after three years of marriage. He just sat on the edge of the bed and told her how good it was going to be.
My wife has since decided that if she put her paintings in that room, they will block the kid's view or at least loom heavily over them in a Feng Shei nightmare sorta way. So she suggested I build a layout in that area. Turns out I could make an L shaped switching layout with staging that is 11 feet long with a 4 foot return. Furthermore, I could incorporate an extensive saw mill which could represent the Union Lumber Company in the 4-foot return. The town of Fort Bragg with the terminus yard/service facility of the California Western Railroad would be in the long section. Ergo, it would be the start of the Redwood Empire I have been planning since day one. Furthermore, it would be the hardest most labor intensive, so I could get that part out of the way first.
I'm planning on building a scratch-built version of something like this based upon photos I have of the Union Lumbe Co.
That sounds like good news right? Well I guess it is. It's just that my next project in the basement will be to build the benchwork/video storage area for the new layout. Then, I have to organize a bunch of Junk and rip out a couple walls and reroute the house's wiring, cable and phone lines. Then I have to build a laundry room and another wall and my work benches.
All of this while, I'm trying to finish up the Rock Ridge and Train City layout--which I figure, with no basement construction, I have another 6 months or so. But with the construction, I'm going nuts because I haven't gotten anything done in 6 weeks or so and before that I was working on club projects.
I'll have the benchwork in place for 12-18 months before I can lay track on just the first phase of the layout. Well, I guess that gives me a lot of time for planning.
I just need some good quality layout time. Maybe when the room is done and before the benchwork is done, I'll take a couple weeks off.
Thanks for letting me rant. I kinda feel like the Microsoft engineer with the virgin wife after three years of marriage. He just sat on the edge of the bed and told her how good it was going to be.