Monk Subdivision - Lessons Learned in 3 Months

In January 2024, I wrote in a post that Mike Confalone was right about his “Act first, think later” approach (https://hedley-junction.blogspot.com/2024/01/monk-subdivision-mike-confalone-was.html). Sure, Mike isn’t a reckless modeler as he puts a lot of thoughts into his work, but the ideas are always tested in the physical world and if they fail or lose their purpose, they get adjusted, fixed or replaced by newer ones are better.

I’m have been following that mantra for more than three months now. Going down to the basement, leaving the computer behind and working my little share each single day since then. What I have in front of my eyes now is a functional layout, sufficiently wired to be operated and with basic controls, both DC and DCC. I also have a large bridge already in place.

In my previous “life”, I would have worked by basically doing nothing for months, working like a madman a few entire days, then hit a roadblock, go back to that forsaken computer and find a new funny train related distraction until I would change my mind a go back working on the layout after forgetting the reason I was working on it.

Relying only on will power alone is a sure plan for failure. Only discipline can help to achieve results. As I will state in a future post, I still have a lot of things to do before starting scenery, but at the same time, I wouldn’t be there if I hadn’t put a few minutes each day on the layout.

And don’t believe it was a walk in the park over the last few months. I made a lot of mistakes, had to demolish and rebuild from scratch. Wiring had to be modified more than once to get it as clean as possible when it will be time to expand it. On my bucket list, there is a lot of rebuilding in my future. But when done piece by piece, step by step, everyday, it’s no longer a dreadful chore but simply leisure.

Part of me want it perfect, particularly the running qualities and the scenery, but I need to take my time and work on it a little bit everyday. I had planned for the layout to be fully operational by mid-September and I reached that point by early October due to some technical issues with the lift bridge. It may not yet be steam power friendly, but it is for diesel power and I will take that win any day!