Reflecting on 2006, how was it for you


Steve B

Steve B

Firefighter
Let's take a look at 2006 and see what the highlight's were in our model railroad world.
Did you get done all you set out to do at the begining of the year.

For me it was a bumpy year were nothing except the house extension got done untill September, i have made some great progress from then on but not as much as i wanted to do
 
Well, let's see.... 2006 found us doing major modifications on the house we bought in August 2005. New back door where there wasn't one, a back deck for the door, an 8x8 garden shed, re-doing the entire 35 foot front deck in composites, quite a bit of landscaping, replacing two major appliances...

The railroad layout was just starting to go up at the beginning of the year, with the 2x8 "module" that moved with us from our apartment. Now it occupies all the otherwise unused walls of what used to be the garage...maybe a run of 45 feet now? It will continue to extend into the middle of the garage in a large island that will contain more mainline as well as double ended staging. Hopefully the benchwork (and most of the trackwork) for that will be done by the end of 2007.

I transferred back to the "active reserve" from the inactive reserves in August, and graduated from a 3 week course in Wisconsin for my new job in the Army just this past week. That's model railroad money....
 
One thing we got plenty of this year was sunshine, and in the sunshine we also got plenty of Steam trains running through, hope next years as good
 
My railroad journey was in many ways very guelling. About October of last year I decided that I didn't like the height of my EZ track in relation to the building docks. So I took out all the scenery and built up the adjacent foam by 3/16". While it was torn apart, I took the time to ballast the track and install my rockwork. In the process, I managed to damage a couple turnouts.

In March I changed my business and went back to school to become a naturopath. By July, I all but stopped working on the layout. Now I seem to have gotten a little steam back and am moving forward again. All-in-all, my best work was done this year. The highlight was this church and graveyard.

church02.gif

traincity50.gif

traincity49.gif


Considering it looked like this to start the year.

EZnot.gif
 
Well it was pretty evntful year for us. We had three family members pass away, I had problems with my heart which still is not fixed. But for the good things got loads of outside work done around the house this summer , The train layout was expanded and overhauled still lots of work to do. Family is doing pretty well, My daughter in Colorado wants to move back to Buffalo next year so looking forward to that . Son graduated from college Magna Cum Laude so now he's looking for a real job and his masters degree, But still waiting for some granchildren to fill the house! who knows , But above all hope we can find some peace in this world .
 
Its been a good year for me, I regret not saving a little more money for the holiday season.

Model Railroading wise, its great, got my first modules started, and lots of projects finished.

Got married, left the Marine Corps...
 
This year has definatly been one full of ups and downs. Changed jobs within the company back in Jan, due to some physical confrontation. That lasted only a few months and changed again. Im pretty happy with what I ended up doing.
Got my Restoration project on the road, and to quite a few shows, Picked up a new Hobby, BBQ'in, you get to eat those results.. MMMM Tasty!

Railroad wise, well its been slow. Reading, learning, watching dreaming. Although I am definatly making up for the lack of activity this year now. Pictures this weekend. I Have a vacation coming up, hope to be doin the scenery around new years!

To all the armed forces, past and present, from the bottom of my heart, a big thank you.
 
From a railroading perspective, I finished the Behemoth Helix just before Thanksgiving, and have barely touched the railroad since (recharging the battteries, I think).
06-11-22%20Completed%20Helix%2017%20-%20Temporary%20Glenrock%20Connector.jpg


Around the house, we started painting the exterior in the summer, continued work on the addition interior all year, and started replacing the floor in my wife to-be office on the 3rd floor. We also prepared some old cast iron radiators for installation - we're backdating from hot water baseboard to hot water radiators. Much Better!

I expect to get started on the trains again during the Christmas-to-New-Year's-Day break (today is my last day of work until 2 January).
 
Chip, it's good to see you here for a change, I guess you're on holiday break...

It's been a basically good year for me. I learned and practiced a number of MRR skills that until now I had only read about; managed to get my layout to a point where it's 80% finished scenery-wise. The high point was early summer, when I was preparing for my Independence Junction presentation; the low point was when I lost a close [co-worker] friend of mine after he went myocardial on Nov 22.

My expectations were somewhat unrealistic earlier in the year, so I've had to adjust them downward. A few financial setbacks have forced me to delay my conversion to DCC. However, as long as I remember the MRR-related things that brought me the greatest enjoyment in the past and focus on repeating those, I'll do just fine. After all, this is a lifetime hobby, not a 1-year project...
 
WOW Brunton!! Thats AWESOME!!!..There's more track in that helix than any layout I ever built!!!! Love the all-thead you used...That gives easy access for adjustments!...VERY NICE WORK!!!

SpaceMouse: Nice work on the church,cemetary, and the toilet paper on the shoe guy!,....Thats classic!

Sorry for others misfortunes and happy for others good fortunes!...I know what ya mean about saving holiday money Jbaakko!...Me, I am looking forward to next year!...Hopefully things will change as a loan will be paid off in a couple months...(MORE TRAIN MONEY!!!) 'I spend alot of money on trains,,,,The rest I wasted"!!!
 
This year the railroad didn't change much other to add a number of stationary decoders, signals, sensors, etc. In addition I did finally got Panel Pro working on the railroad so now I have a new dispatch Panel.

The rest of this past fall was trying to keep up with the contractor while he worked on my Camp. It's been 3+ months so far and it is still not done. Hopefully in time for New Years.
 
Very uneventful year for me, except buying more stuff from eBay and the like. Even skipped the NMRA convention this year...

Kennedy
 
Chip, been a long time. Good to see you back over here! Hope you have a great break from the studies even if only for a few weeks. This is a great thread and a good thing to get us looking back on what we have accomplished over the last year.

For me, part of my basement went from this:

NewRoom1a.png


To this:

FasciaLights03a.png


Also got quite a bit of scenery done in the old room:

MalletUpGrade03aw.png


Installed some bridges and poured a stone wall:

StoneWall3a.png


I guess I've been busy with the layout.........
 
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It's been a pretty good year for me. I haven't done too much with my layout but I rejoined the local model railroad club so now I'm getting into HO Scale a bit. Also, I got a digital camera this year so now I can take much better model railroad photos.
 
This year was terrible for me for a number of reasons, but the cause of most of those reasons was a car accident back in June. I've sold nearly everything I've done this year to raise extra money and even sold some older stuff I hadn't planned on selling for that same reason. Of course, I had to take a second job at a major shipper* for the holidays, so all modeling (and most forum reading/posting) has come to a halt. This hour in the morning, three hours at night sleep schedule comes to an end Friday, and boy I can't wait!

Not many acquisitions this year, except paying for a substantial order of Cannon parts for 9 locomotive projects. It was three orders that I tried to time so I'd have plenty of cash on hand when each order showed up, but they all came at once!

I hope 2007 is the year I finally get my diesel modeling up to the level I have been reaching for all these years. And I want to start keeping some of the freight cars I build and weather this year, too. The incredible shrinking fleet was fine when there was a glut of locomotives and freight cars, but now it's getting pretty lean. :(

Merry Christmas to all.

*Never skimp on the packing material - you don't want to know what your packages go through on the way to their destination.
 
This has been a interesting year for me..I added some details to my locos,finished up several projects,joined a N Scale club,rejoin a HO club and been track side almost daily thanks to my(almost) daily morning or afternoon walk.I took pictures of several locomotives,some fallen flag railroad cars and a derailment here in town.My CDB Industries gain another short line-the Huron River.
2007 should see a new industrial switching layout.
 
Great Thread Steve!!

For me a little less active than normal, but I haven't read my name in the obituaries lately!;) As for new projects, well I started the American Freedom Train 1975-1976 version(there were two-the other in 1949) and it has turned out to be an interesting project to say the least. I find myself doing more research on the train than actually modelling, but slowly and surely it's coming along.

Hopes for a Happy New Year!!

Johnny
 
Marc B that is one awesome Helix,chip glad to see you back, Ray really nice work on your layout !!!
 
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