I like N scale a lot. I had N for about 10 years but switched back to O in October 2014. I have an inherited condition where my hands shake and I found it impossible to continue to work on N. Simple tasks became difficult and frustrating. We had moved in 2010 and I had a bigger space than I did when I started with N in 2005. We moved to Florida last year and I have a pretty good size space now. Sometimes I imagine how big an N scale empire I could build but my shaky hands have only gotten worse with time, plus I really like the big size of O.
Thanks to diabetic vision and nephropathy I will end up experiencing some of the same things you are. It would be nice to have an O scale layout to operate.
Tremors? Many folks have some amount of these as they age. But other folks have medical conditions which increase them. Or have endured some insult to their spinal column... I have natural tremors, multiplied by a broken neck and other physical hits through life. I am hanging with N as long as possible, as well as HOn30. But I know my condition will only continue to slowly decline. So somewhere down the road, some day......
You don't need that much room for a small O gauge layout. My layout in NY was 6x9 in a spare bedroom. It's nice to have a big layout but I know from experience that a small layout is a million times better than no layout. I'm fortunate that my condition is benign with no other or more serious effects. Eating soup is an adventure. I was going to tough it out and stick with N but my wife persuaded me to change to O. I'm glad she did. I was really struggling with N while O is big enough that I can easily handle and see it.
Yup. I know all about this type of situation. There are essentially two types of medication which can be tried. A physician put me on the weaker of the two, several years ago. One dose almost put me in the hospital. Yes, the side effects were that disastrous. Ugh. So the other one, stronger, was obviously a no-go. So, I muddle onward...
My doctor said they can implant a device like a pacemaker that sends electric current to the part of the brain that controls this. It would have a dial so it could be adjusted. When adjusted properly the shakes go away. I'm not ready to try that or to take any more medications than I have to. For now I'll live with the shakes and play with O gauge rather than N or HO.
You just might have me convinced. How about a around the front room layout somewhat overhead? Let's see I'll need a small yard, a passing siding, tunnel and a place for the cat's to nap. Grin!
Sounds good to me, Rick. You have to have a place for the cat. I love cats but unfortunately my wife is very allergic to them.
The few cat's I have are all rescue's from the kids here in the trailer park, attempting to kill them. I'm somewhat allergic to them but with a decongestant or benedryl I'm good to go.
I added a 4'x7.5' second level and modified the lower level a little over the last few days. These pictures show the progress I have made. The buildings are just placed to give me some ideas for scenery. My wife suggested not expanding it as in the plan above. I will live with it like this for a while and see how I like it. I modified the lower level by removing the passing siding. I took out the switch on the left of the middle of the E but left the one on the right making an industrial siding. This makes 5 sidings for a way freight to switch cars on the main level. That's it for now.
Joe, Photobucket seems to be not letting me post on this and other sites. Something about charging $399 for that privilege. I notice photobucket mentioned in the 'Properties' section of your photos and yet I can see yours an no one can see mine. Any thoughts on how that can be possible? Jim
Thanks Rick. It makes it very difficult to see the whole layout from one place. The train on the bottom disappear for a while and that makes the layout seem bigger and more interesting. Hi Jim, the only thing I can think of is that your Photobucket storage is full. While that would prevent you from uploading more photos I don't see why it would prevent you from posting those already on Photobucket. Every time I go to Photobucket I get an ad from them to buy more storage for $99.99 a year even though I've only used 12% of my free storage. From what I can see that is the most expensive plan they have. At the bottom of the page they have a section "Website Help". I would click on that and see if they can help. Let me know if that works.
Some sites have "hot linking" protection set up. So photos in your albums could possibly be blocked from what they consider to be bandwidth users such as us. Which is really goofy, as if you go directly to their site and look at the same stuff, the same amount of bandwidth is consumed.....
Jim, I found this link on another forum: https://www.pcmag.com/news/354711/photobucket-breaks-image-links-across-the-internet It looks like you're not the only one, just among the first. I just checked Photobucket and all is normal for me but according to the article it won't be for long.
Yikes. This policy REEKS. I hope they lose a lot of subscribers! You can get your own web site for half that, and have complete control. I have my own, and since 2008 it has been money well spent!
I just went to PB and it still works for me. I get the same ad that I've gotten every time I go there offering 100GB of extra storage for $99.99 a year. I get 10GB free and I've used almost 13% of that thus far and I've had my account for years. If they lock me out and break the links to my photos I'll go elsewhere. There is no way I will pay them $399 a year just to post photos.
Just be certain you have copies of your photos elsewhere. Such as a thumb drive or data disks. So they will not be lost if locked out of PB.
That is good advice. All of my photos and videos are backed up. I just use PB to share photos and Youtube to share videos.
