Want to start but not sure if I should
- Thread starter Dominick
- Start date
How long is eventually? If it's longer than a few years, go ahead and start planning. You'll probably outgrow your first layout by then anyway and you can salvage parts of the first layout to use on second layout. If it's within a year or so, I'd set up a small shelf layout for now and plan for the new room. Wheeling layouts through doors to new rooms rarely works out well.
Selector
Well-Known Member
I would echo what Jim suggests. Pretty much all of us find that our first layout is a short-timer for a number of reasons. It doesn't have to be that way, but the fact is we all find soon enough that we'd rather start afresh with some new information we have gleaned in the first 10-15 hours of using the first one. So, if we're talking about the reno coming in four years, chances are you'll be a year or more into layout #2 by then.
If you'd like to retain the use of a carefully designed and sentimentally valuable section, you can always build a module that you can incorporate into a newer design later on. Of course, that means having something like a grander idea to begin with. Maybe it could be a staging yard, or a classification yard, or the engine servicing area, maybe a really cool mountain and two tunnel portals on either side of it...all on one module that you intend to bolt into place in the second or third plan.
But, as Jim and others will tell you, most of us would like to get to running trains sooner rather than six months from now...so set up an easy and fun temporary layout, just a track plan (hey, you could test out track plans to see if they have some staying power!), and run some nice quality engines and rolling stock. You play a bit, work on the layout a bit, think a bit, play some more.
It's the nature of the hobby.
If you'd like to retain the use of a carefully designed and sentimentally valuable section, you can always build a module that you can incorporate into a newer design later on. Of course, that means having something like a grander idea to begin with. Maybe it could be a staging yard, or a classification yard, or the engine servicing area, maybe a really cool mountain and two tunnel portals on either side of it...all on one module that you intend to bolt into place in the second or third plan.
But, as Jim and others will tell you, most of us would like to get to running trains sooner rather than six months from now...so set up an easy and fun temporary layout, just a track plan (hey, you could test out track plans to see if they have some staying power!), and run some nice quality engines and rolling stock. You play a bit, work on the layout a bit, think a bit, play some more.
It's the nature of the hobby.
