Bare layouts on YouTube

Hi All.     I suppose that this question answers itself? But I see a lot of YouTube videos that are bare boards.And locos and stock which isn't weathered, are they deliberately left like that? Or are they just building to a 
Grand Finale? Is it likely that we will see the end result , and does it really take years and years to build a complete and final project? Or do the plans keep changing , in your experience ?  All the best. Kevin
P S.   Personal experience of "Faffing Around"

I guess it all depends on the size of the layout  when it gets "finished" ! The small plank layouts, yes possibly a few months but larger ones can and do take years.

Hi Ron.  Thank you for your reply, too true,but, showing bare wooden layouts, unless one does before and after, or a progress report from start to finish, it seems odd?  All the best. Kevin

Not really odd, Kevin - more sad really. It's all down to social media these days - Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Smartphones, et al. People seem to have an overwhelming need to be noticed.
It even creeps into forums. How many posts have you seen along the lines of 'Look at this new loco I've bought'…

Sign of the times I guess. Some say it's progress…

:hmm

Shaun.

Any names, or links to these 'bare wooden layouts' Kevin  quest:


Ed

Hi Kevin,

Some like it minimalist, some like it bucolic Constable, some won't weather locomotives for fear of decreasing their value, some like "shiny", others like it "grimey". We all do a bit of "show and tell".

Over here many railroad empires occupy basements of 30 x 40 feet or more with runs of 150+ feet, most of which is bare boards. The cost of scenery is a major expense, as is the time involved. The emphasis is often on operations (as close to the prototype as possible, a totally different world from the average plank end-to-end or 4 x 8 foot spare bedroom roundy-roundy affair), scenery is of secondary and often zero importance. Many layouts are works in progress, never to be finished, but that's not the point. (What do you do when it's finished? Silly question, build another one of course.) Showing the world that you just put a sound decoder in that locomotive and it's show-time on yootoob. Most of it is not useful, some of it is because it shows the rest of us what it (sort of) sounds like. Or how to do it. Or not as the case may be. Much of the stuff is of dubious value.

I recently picked up some great ideas on building a swing/lift gate in a 4 foot module, as well as as "that's definitely not the way to do it". Nearly all the clips were bare boards.*

All my modules (home and away) are currently bare boards. I like to get the track and wiring bullet-proof before starting in on the ballast, greenery and scenery.

Nigel

*One of the lesser joys of getting older and model railroading is that you rediscover crawling when  you need to get inside the layout. Getting down is the easy bit, going  vertical after crawling under a module while trying not to bang your  head against the underside is not. Lift gates or swing gates are highly desirable.

Hi Shaun.  Thank you, it is the many bare bones/wooden frames approach that bugs me, and even if it is a how to?they say something along the lines of " I will solder this" but the next shot, it is already done, and then they say
"Here it is" it is like Blue Peter sticky back plastic and toilet roll tubes. Then some give a big smile selfie shot.All the best. Kevin

Hi Ed.  Not really, but when I have found a few I will let you know, to be honest, with so many repeats and a lot of rubbish on the goggle box , I seem to find a certain topic and watch hours of the stuff.  All the best. Kevin

Hi Nigel.  Another thing I saw, somewhere? Was  a really long train going up a spiral track, I think there was more than one Loco and over 100 wagons. And of course that was bare bones. I can understand making a wagon look dirty may not be everyone's cup of tea, but who can expect to resell at a profit, unless of course it has been locked away in a vacuum until it makes a "Renaissance " and everyone and his dog bids for it on eBay Health and Safety should be considered a must with all aspects of model railways.  All the best. Kevin.

Hi Ed.  I have just remembered a particular series of videos that fits the bill, " Programming Tsuanami Decoders".Tsunami Decoders are not for me, and, I think they should carry a "Government Health Warning"
because they cause fans of their products to develop peculiar selfie close ups with piercing eyes.
All the best Kevin

I think I'm OK with bare boards, it's the layouts on the carpets that get me!! All the fluff and dust must be a nightmare that they just don't seem to see!! :thud

[user=1801]Passed Driver[/user] wrote:

Hi Ed.  I have just remembered a particular series of videos that fits the bill, " Programming Tsuanami Decoders".Tsunami Decoders are not for me, and, I think they should carry a "Government Health Warning"
because they cause fans of their products to develop peculiar selfie close ups with piercing eyes.
All the best Kevin
 

Begs the question, why on earth are you watching them Kevin  

If you haven't seen any of these yet, they should give you some better viewing (in no particular order).


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpOcgNqc3JFMhR2L3hHd4ww

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTVtApcafYXhNWAUddsY3IA

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2EWPutWnM1DFei7iMaUQxQ

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD5N1UI1KuAa-EiKUzV0_Bw

Loads of exhibitions

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPMNIok16J8vVeBO0qNI4AA

How long it takes to build any layout depends entirely on how many hours a day you put into it.


If you only put an hour a day into it and it takes twenty years it's exactly the same as putting ten hours a day into it and only taking a year.



So, build time should only be equated by the hours spent and not the years.



Generally, and working a full day, I can build an average branch line terminus in around 4 months quite easily. Or, I could spend just a few hours a week and take forever.



Allan

Hi Ron.   I'm so glad you brought that up. Getting out the track for a demonstration of ones new toy, like being back in the 1950's. Model Railways have moved on since then, "Deo Gratias". But is this the new "CB Radio" or should  I say"CB Television"? One particular "Box Opener/ Reviewer" does strange gestures with his fingers and says phrases like "Look what I've got" or "This has been on pre order" , and he takes it out of the box, I wonder what the real incentive is? Then again if one day I complete a project, heaven forbid, I may want to snow my workmanship, but not me!
All the best. Kevin

Hi Ed. "Begs the Question? I thought that I already outlined my feelings about the repeats and rubbish, that I am fed up with on the "Idiot Box", which reminds me "Do I renew my License or not next time"?One has to sort the "Wheat from the Chaff" and I am trying to catch up with 21st Century Model Railway Technology,
even though some of the models are based on 19th Century technology. And on that score I am like a Fish out of Water.    All the best. Kevin

Hi Allan.  Thank you for your reply, I have the time to put into model railways , but, not the necessary "1st Time get it Correct Skill", which leads me to "YouTube" to help me with my projects, i.e. in a recent thread of mine "DCC Electrics" that turned out to be a broken wire from an Electrofrog Point, which I had to bodge, rather than lifting the point, and starting again. Coincidentally I found a "Gizmo" that I knocked up, meant to sort out point polarity,
I am not sure whether or not it works? But with luck or judgment, I have rectified the problem. Unfortunately I do not have your building skills  All the best. Kevin

When I started off in railway modeling I spent more time getting it wrong than I did getting it right. Some people call it the 'learning curve' .I call it the cock up curve and, still after a life time in modeling, I'm still a frequent visitor to the 'learning curve' !

Many years ago I met the late Roy England with views to working for Pendon when he told me that though it only took him a few weeks to actually produce a cottage, two years would pass before he had !


I never got the job coz I didn't have his patience and certainly not his skill.


Allan

Their loss, I suspect, Allan!

I don't object to bare boards if it is shown as a work in progress or perhaps with questions asked over ways to proceed.  I do feel that bare boards is not the be all and end all however.  

That said each of us is a unique individual with differing aspirations, skills, time and space available.  

I have been very fortunate to have enjoyed generous layout space for over 10 years.  While the scenery is sometimes favourably commented upon it has taken a lot of time and money to create though I have been lucky to also have had those.  Albeit some of the time arose from a bout of poor health.  I never returned to full-time work despite now being fit to do so and have invested the time into developing as a modeller.

I choose to weather my stock because it looks more realistic (I hope!) and because at the time I started on that journey it was the next learning step readily available to me in the hobby.  I now find myself occasionally asked to weather items for other modellers; that might lead to some small income in the future as things develop.

Many layouts are also photographed and videoed as layouts with varying amounts of "off-edge" surrounds shown.  I have consciously tried in recent years to avoid that sort of view and to keep the frame 100% modelled scene.  It cannot always be done as there are some scenes too close to the edge to include without the surround.  The alternative would have been to build a layout with "convenient" forests at every corner whereas each of the four corners is actually treated very differently.

If people want to post bare-boards layouts then by all means do so but if you wish to attract my attention make sure it is noted that this is a work in progress. I am more than happy to see, and perhaps to offer constructive comment on, even the most basic and bare of projects if they are clearly in-build.  

I will very quickly move on from something which is claimed to be the bees knees yet could be presented by almost anyone with an oval of  track and a dining table.

Hi Rick.   Thank you for your reply. I am pleased you you understand my polnt of view, and if every demonstration on YouTube stated that it was "Work in Progress". and they actually showed one "How To" do a job, whether it be weathering with various sprays, wearing goggles and all, or how to do the wiring of anything , that would be okay.For serious YouTube video makers, I only wish they would invest in at least a "Tripod" or get a partner to do the camera work. As some videos rock about so much they could make one nauseous .Then bare boards would not seem so bad. All the best. Kevin