Overcoming Inertia

I have been wrestling with my model railroad demons as of late. My desires to build a layout have been overshadowed by my lack of space. I managed build an HO switching layout when I lived in a townhouse which I setup in our house when we moved 3 years ago. It allowed me to say I had a layout in progress.

The layout was built from the benchwork of a 1'x8' test layout saved from the trash when I worked at a large model railroad manfacturer. I basically added 4ft support legs to the 1x4 framing. It was a simple shelf covered with plywood and homasote. I quickly grew tired of moving the cars back and forth and it collected more dust than I thought humanly possible. I modified the layout a few times to add interest to the switching, but how many times can you move the same 12 cars before it gets old? I wanted more than I was able to do with that layout configuration.

In January 2006, I made the difficult decision to change scales from HO to N after a trip to the B&O museum and seeing the BANTRAK layout display. Suddenly my limited space had potential for much more than a simple shuffling of cars back and forth. I bought motive power and rolling stock, and managed to build an N-Trak module that fall.

I drew up several plans for possible N scale layouts, but every idea seemed to lack an essential ingredient to make the layout perfect. Then everything was put on hold while we contemplated relocating out of state. A few weeks ago I decided to move ahead with a switching layout that could be easily dismantled when we eventually move. Not having a layout is worse than building a layout which will have to be dismantled. I had an itch that needed scratching.

Over the Labor Day weekend, I moved furniture in the basement and procured wood, track and turnouts, and got started building the layout. I managed to get the bulk of the track in place and connected up a throttle. I was officially running trains in the basement.

I could have had this layout up and running for over a year had I not let inertia keep me from moving forward. Sometimes, the hardest part of this hobby is starting a project. Once started, the rest just falls into place. Isn't it time you stopped being a passive model railroader and starting building a layout? Something is better than nothing, but in N scale, you can have much more of that something...

Don't let inertia stop you from building a layout.