At long last... Southern Pacific in a garage!

[sirenwerks]

I get the same thing in my garage, light moisture spots in the concrete along the two walls that are external to the house. The house itself is about three feet above street, where the roof drainage is routed to, and both of the external walls have about six feet more graded poured concrete surface to route drainage away from the house. I chalk it up to the fact that those two walls are a concrete hip wall (which draws in moisture) and the garage door/wall. Meh, it's Oregon, everything gets wet at some point. My plan is to paint it and the hip walls with Drylok next summer, when all of the other major painting projects in the house are done and I can make space. I have to figure out how to paint under the water heater and ventilation unit though.

[SirTainly]

Could be, you'd think in places like the UK and Oregon, which both get more than their fair share of rain, these sorts of issues would be sorted, but I guess not.

I'm still waiting for a drive paving/tarmacing contractor to return my calls, so that's on hold, but I have painted the walls and ceiling a nice light green. Muted Sage by Dulux if anyone cares!

Hoping to get a bit more work done tonight so I can start dropping the rubber floor mats in this weekend after I've been to the modular club on Saturday. Racing to get things progressed as I'm likely to be getting carpal tunnel surgery done very soon, and  I'll not be able to do much for a period afterwards.

In other news, I had planned to use Peco track and points as they are cheaper, more easy to obtain here, and the flex track is longer (36" vs 30"). However I have found I have a load of Atlas code 55 flex that I didn't know I had, and since I prefer the look of it, and I don't want to waste what I have, I'll be using that for the layout. This does mean I'll need to bulk order in advance to reduce the horrendous handling charges that get slapped on imports, often higher than the tax charged on the items.

[SirTainly]

Well it's been 3 years since I did the garage, in that time I've gone through 3 relationships which have eaten up all my time (in one case dangerously so) and hence nothing much more than was shown in the last photo. I don't like to leave things open ended, I should say where this leaves my model railway dreams going forward. Relationship number 3 has become serious - engagement planned for next month, and which means I'll likely be moving. Where I'll be living for the next few years has no space for trains, but after that I'm hoping to be able to custom build a new room on the house for a pretty awesome setup. For those that are used to farming setups, we'll hopefully be getting one of the bigger properties on the farm once we have children, rather than the 2 bed cottage which will be the immediate step. The good news is that I can add both a N scale and O scale garden layout once we get that - good times. In the interim, I may have a go at a module if I find there's an spare storage space in the shed - fingers crossed!

[Mark5]

Sux about the layout, but congrats!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Congrats!

In the meantime, at least you live in the land of the beautiful small portable layout!

[ednadolski]

Also could be an opportunity to do some weathering, detailing, sound installs, etc.

[SirTainly]

thanks Mark, it's just a delay, but the planned new space will be almost twice the size so there's that, and the garden is enormous, so we'll be able to run the outside layout is a much bigger space too.

Ed K - true, but there the reason I like the NA prototype is long trains with powerful engines, so modules have to be the way forward, especially as I can then add them to the home layout later.

Ed N - definitely true, I'll be looking at getting some more DCC installs done definitely, and finishing off the some of the smaller stock/loco projects once I have a work space again. 

[SirTainly]

Again it's been a long time - I got married, bought a farm, and had plans to build a decent layout in the garage. Except that's not how it's going to be. The day we moved into our new place I lost my job and the replacement meant hours of commuting, and virtually no free time for anything much. Roll on 2.5 years, my pregnant wife is filing for divorce and I've got to move again. I have one shot at a local place with a good deal of space (approx 40'x12'), or failing that I'll be shelving plans to ever have a layout as the other properties I can afford are shoe boxes and small layouts just don't scratch an itch for me.

[mcjaco]

Hang in there!

I went through a divorce, started a terrible relationship right after, then got downsized twice all in the matter of 30 months.  Trains were the last thing on my mind with all the chaos of just trying to stay afloat financially, and mentally.

Found a wonderful girlfriend that is pushing me to get active again in the hobby.  Sounds cliche, but it does always seem to work out.

[jon612]

Have you been playing with another women's locomotives?

[davefoxx]

I actually found model railroading to be therapeutic when times were tough during a divorce in the mid-1990s, education and job stress over the past few decades, and a pandemic.

DFF

[Dave V]

I actually found model railroading to be therapeutic when times were tough during a divorce in the mid-1990s, education and job stress over the past few decades, and a pandemic.

DFF

This. While I haven't had the relationship troubles you're suffering, a bunch of my own demons caught up to me in early 2018. It was very tough. In retrospect I understand now why I had anxiety, depression, and PTSD (the veteran hat-trick) but I didn't recognize it at the time for what it was. A big part of my recovery from that darkest of times was starting construction on the HOn3 Rio Grande Southern.

Model railroading won't solve all your problems for sure. But it's a world in which you exercise control even when it seems everything else is out of your control.

I really hope you can find some peace and stability, whether that includes model railroading or not. I wouldn't go selling everything off just yet, though (unless you need to liquidate your stash for cash), because once things do settle down, you may get that itch again.

[GaryHinshaw]

Wow Simon, really sorry to hear this!  Hang in there and keep in touch.

[Mark5]

I hope we'll see @SirTainly again. Rough times.

[SirTainly]

Well the shot at a decent sized place failed, so looking very likely I'll be moving to somewhere very much smaller.

mcjaco glad you found someone, well played for keeping faith after all that crap before!

jon612 no I've been too busy working and commuting to have any time or energy for that. Two incompatible people got together, and now the inevitable has happened.

davefoxx definitely, especially if I have to move to a new area where I won't know folk, I can just crack on with a project at home.

Dave V, I hope you've managed to get a long way along that recovery road. No plans to sell the trains at the moment.

Gary, thanks will do

Mark, I'll be around watching what you guys cook up!