Jobs you'd rather avoid

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

Ok, I've just finished scribing bricks onto my station building - a job I have been putting off for far too many years! What garden railway jobs do you really hate having to do?

[laalratty]

Anything mindless and repetitive, that seem like you've not got any closer to finishing after an hour of work. So scribing brickwork.... For some reason though, scribing planking on coaches I seem to manage fine. I also tend to dislike doing buildings in general, they never seem to give me any pleasure, and as a result get left unbuilt or part built for months at a time.

[philipy]

Ballasting is at the top of my 'groan' list. On the other hand, I love doing Buildings of all sorts, can't get enough of 'em.

[Peter Butler]

Weeding!!!!!!!
Mainly because I don't know which are the good guys and which are not. I have to leave the identification to my wife as she has the green fingers.

[steamie1]

My garden is on a slope and I hate laying concrete blocks. I built a railway in a play ground and mixed it all by hand again more blocks. To extend my line now I'll have to mix more cement and more blocks. I'm a weedy build and I can't face doing it.......
When we dig deep and do what we need to, we are proud and satisfied, when we shrug it off and procrastinate, we are less, deep inside somehow.

SO, I will do it...One day.

[bazzer42]

Relaying track. I use loose ballast on concrete blockc and iknow when I lift track grit will creep under the sleepers for feet either side. Got to do my engine shed approach at some point but I feel that might be 2015 (ish)

[andymctractor]

Weeding!!!!!!!

I agree but for different reasons.  I can handle many boring jobs that result in an improvement to the railway but weeding is just a hopeless effort to get things back to where they have already previously been.
Trimming trees and other plantings to develop lineside foliage is another matter and something I really enjoy.  Someone has to.  

[jay1976]

I let the weeds grow as i also didnt know what are weeds are flowers as my thought is if it has a flower bud and looks nice it can stay..needless to say i have some nice blue coloured weeds

[TonyW]

Stripping paint back to bare metal.

[kandnwlr]

Stripping paint back to bare metal.

Knowing that Tony is going to be stripping back a loco of mine (L&B "Exe") to bare metal ...

[laurence703]

Repairing wagons, cutting rail and gradients...

[Andrew]

Repairing wagons, cutting rail and gradients...

It was a complete revelation when I realised I could use a cutting disc in my Dremmel to cut rail - I'd almost go as far as to say I enjoy it now!

[listerboy]

My garden is on a slope and I hate laying concrete blocks. I built a  railway in a play ground and mixed it all by hand again more blocks. To extend my line now I'll have to mix more cement and more blocks. I'm a weedy build and I can't face doing it.......
When we dig deep and do what we need to, we are proud and satisfied, when we shrug it off and procrastinate, we are less, deep  inside somehow.

SO, I will do it...One day.

I hate making foundations too!

[daveyrd11]

Building points, it appears to take for ever and all a really want is to see my little railway get bigger!

Also, I have putting something right where I know I should have made a better job of it the first time around and avoided doing it twice!

[kandnwlr]

Let´s not forget "indoors". I´ve got to build a "shelf" for the Canterbury town gate associated buildings, which means demolishing some stuff at the back in the corner where it´s really hard to get at ... if only I had thought about it then.

K&NWLR: Canterbury street scene for installation behind viaduct by kandnwlr, on Flickr

Yeah, going where the half-relief buildings on the left wall are in this pic.  But it means installing a road and that needs a shelf, rather than simply fitting the buildings approx to the lie of the land.

K&NWLR: Kent - the Kentish corner with a mill building in the background. Watch this space for new Canterbury buildings soon. by kandnwlr, on Flickr

[Andrew]

Is the phrase "well begun is half done" even more annoying because it's so often true???

The job I'm currently avoiding is tidying the heaps of stuff filling several cardboard boxes in the cupboard under the stairs so that I can find some transfers I need - I think they're in there somewhere! In theory the boxes only contain work in progress and the associated tools and materials. In practice they're a hellish general dumping ground...

[bazzer42]

Is that a man thing or a railwayman thing? I'm too scared to let on to Mrs B that I can't find something when I know it's there somewhere.....an uncensored, one sided conversation will follow about tidy as you go etc
Those electronic scales have got to be in one of those utility cupboards.

[IrishPeter]

Handrails, air pipes, and footboards seem to be my main pet hates.  In the case of air pipes and footboards is has a lot to do with the fact I know I am going to be putting them back on again after the first serious derailment.  Thus my passenger stock tends to run without them for quite a long while before I finally bite the bullet and put them on; then runs without them for a long time before they get glued back on again!

I also tend to avoid tiled roofs and bricks if I can.  I find both exceedingly boring to try and replicate in Gummi scale.  As a result I tend to choose subjects where the vernacular building tradition is heavy on stone, cement rendering, wood, and tin roofs!

Peter in AZ

[Keith S]

I hate painting. I don't seem to be able to get etching primer in Canada, so I had to etch the brass parts of my engine in muriatic acid before using regular primer. It worked OK but my problem is that I just can't seem to prevent myself from trying to touch the item I've just painted before the paint is dry! It says on the tin that enamel should dry in 24 hours, well it DOESN'T and I had to paint and strip and paint again the boiler-jacket because I was too impatient to leave it to dry for any more than the time it said on the tin.

Finally I put the painted parts in a box and sealed it with duct tape and asked my wife to watch me and not allow me to touch the box for a week.

If I do another metal model I shall only paint it before going away for a few days. There is something wrong with me. I just can't paint anything without fiddling with it before the paint dries!

[GTB]

I hate painting.

.....et moi aussi.

I used to look forward to painting models, but the quality of most paints nowadays is crap, especially the model ranges. Largely due to that debating society in Brussels I suspect.

I don't seem to be able to get etching primer in Canada,

Here in Oz, You can get it from the local speed shop. Our local Super Cheap Auto carries 3 brands of spray can and more usefully, one brand in a tin. Not sure what you call them, Auto Accessory Shop? A quick squizz on Google suggests Canadian Tire stock the stuff in spray cans and you have one in Yellowknife....

It says on the tin that enamel should dry in 24 hours, well it DOESN'T

The industrial enamel I use is touch dry overnight usually, but even that isn't fully cured for a week. Humbrol takes days to even touch dry.....

Where you live won't help, I guess. Here, the temperature doesn't get below 5degC on a cold winter night. On a 35degC day in summer, with a northerly wind blowing straight out of the desert, paint dries before it leaves the airbrush nozzle.........

For metal loco parts, I spray them, let them sit a few minutes for the solvent to flash off, then put them in the oven. The etch primer I use only needs 20 mins at 80DegC before it can be topcoated. The enamel topcoat gets 1hour at 80degC. After that, even Humbrol will be as hard as it will ever get.

Depending on your significant other's sense of humour, you may need to be careful about planning when you will bake painted parts, that or get a toaster oven for the workshop.

For wood or plastic rollinstock, the duct taped box is probably your best bet. Look at it this way, at least you won't get dust on the paint......

Regards,
Graeme