Six tips to completing a successful HO layout

The previously posted videos of the upgrade to my Kansas City yard mark is an exciting -- and somewhat sad -- phase of my layout construction. It's probably the last major track installation on the layout. Until a few weeks ago, I wasn't even sure what the final iteration would look like at the yard or the new tracks installed that lead into it. While the scenery has a long way to go, the track is pretty much finished.

So what have I learned in the 10 years or so I've been working on the railroad? A lot. If you are thinking about building a model railroad or have already started, here are my tips to getting the job done:

• Planning is great -- to a point. You can do sketch after sketch after sketch and probably never find the "perfect" track plan. And unless you are using AutoCad or some high-end engineering program, your sketches may not survive contact with the real world. The flex track doesn't bend quite the way you had hoped, or the turnout is just slightly off, which throws off the whole deal. And sometimes you'll follow your plan, but while playing around with real track, you see a better configuration or something that just looks more pleasing to the eye. My advice: Create a plan, but only use it as a rough guide to your overall construction.

• Get the trains running. The first piece of flextrack you put down should have either feeder wires soldered to it or use the rail joiners with the feeder wires built in. Why? So you can run trains, the whole point of your layout. When you put a train on the tracks and watch it move for the first time -- even if it's just for three feet, your motivation will soar. If running on three feet is cool, imagine what six feet will be like! So in goes the next section of flex track. Wow! Six feet is really cool, now what if it were nine and had a turnout? The layout expands to nine and keeps moving from there. It's also nice to take a break from construction to run a train, even over a really short distance, to remind yourself why you are doing all this work.

• Focus on track first. Get all your track in and operating properly before you get sidetracked (bad pun, sorry) by detail projects. Why? Because there are a million details you can add to anything. It's easy to get lost on making an interior for your scale fruit stand. But when you are done, there's no place to put it, and odds are, by the time you get your track down, the plan will have changed and it will need to go somewhere else. So get all of your track down, get those trains rolling, then build your industry up around it. It also works better fitting your industries to your track rather than the other way around. Building are more tolerant of weird shapes and tight curves than track is, so lay rails first, build and detail second.

• Don't sweat the details. Once your track is in and you start to build, keep moving along. Again, you can detail a scene to death to get it to look the way you want it. But you'll end up running on the Plywood Great Western forever doing it this way. No one is impressed by a single super-detailed building at one end of your pink foam empire that is devoid of any other structures. I use an 80 percent rule. I get the structure built and detail it out to about 80 percent the way I want. The overall scene gets the same treatment. I might do some interior details, but the superfine stuff can wait. This keeps your scenery moving along at a steady pace and makes running the trains (because you have a fully operational layout, remember?) more fun, because now they are making deliveries to businesses. Once you hit about 80 percent for a building or scene, move to the next one. The other bonus to this strategy is that it keeps your inventory cleared out. Most of us accumulate lots of buildings that will have a place on the layout, but they take up valuable shelf space. If you keep building, those shelves get cleared off for other uses, like reference books and scenery supplies (plus the finer details you apply later).

• Set goals. Most things in life work this way. If you don't set a goal, you aren't going to achieve it. Look at how much time you have available and set a realistic goal for a particular calendar year. If it's a dense urban scene or a large factory with lots of out buildings, the structures will slow you down. A more rural scene tends to go faster. Taking this into consideration, figure out how much you can do in a year and aim to get that portion of your layout up to the 80 percent mentioned above. (If you are in the tracklaying phase, aim to finish complete sections of the layout, such as the track linking two yards.) Work hard to make sure you meet your goals each year. As an example, I chose to focus on finishing the scenery (to the 80 percent mark) on the eastern half of my Chicago peninsula (2.5 x 10 feet). There were a couple of the buildings done and another that was put together but not painted or detailed, so this was a realistic goal for the year. I've finished the peninsula portion and decided to include adding ballast and scenery to the Chicago yard this year as well. (And the track expansion wasn't even on the docket -- but since I was ahead of schedule with my regular goals, I added that in.) As you start meeting your goals, your railroad will start taking shape, which will encourage you to keep building. The cooler you think your layout looks, the more motivated you will be to finish it.

• Have fun. There are plenty of people out there willing to point out what you are doing is wrong or how you have too many rivets or not enough windows or whatever. Those are mostly people who have no layout. They're professional critics with nothing to show for it. Build your layout to your specs and what you want it to be. If you need help, ask. For every critic, there are two people out there willing to lend a hand. (And you can e-mail me questions as well.)