I'm 72 now and have never not done model railroading. I started with wooden track as a child and then all the glorious action of post war Lionel! My Dad was a very skilled cabinetmaker/sign painter and craftsman who was an early HO modeler in the '50's. I learned by watching everything he did on his layouts. At the same time he was a pioneer in R/C airplanes and I followed suit competing in that arena as well. You see, modeling in many forms has always been present in me. He died young but I continued modeling and my train focus became HO and also N. I had multiple layouts in both those scales over many, many rears (decades!). Then in 2009 I lost all my collections of HO, N and Lionel in a whole house fire plus the last HO layout. I built a new house with a dedicated train room (lighting, electrical, backdrop, climate control etc,) This time I went with the very fine scale On30 loving the larger size and heft. Yes, another very nice layout! Now retired, the house and large property just got to be too much work, headaches and $$'s and I downsized last year to a small townhouse/apartment. This time I've decided to go back to roots with 3-rail O in a spare bedroom! I mention all of the above to underscore that I love model engineering. No not "driving" trains but the challenge and fun of miniature creations and imagining how I will accomplish my current goal. Mistakes? Yea, lots of them in trains and R/C soaring. But it's all part of the game! Part of the fun! Less seems more now; simplicity paramount. My new O layout iteration will be modular, around the room walls, well detailed and using LC+ type equipment. (maybe a DCC On30 loop too!). No "mistake" has ever deterred me from modeling which has always been a part of my life. Trains in the cold months, golf in the warm months, delivering Meals on Wheels all year long and my dog Charlie spell mostly mistake free simplicity for me. So I have no modeling regrets really. I do however have gratitude that my life has always been a creative one with modeling of all kinds as a familiar and beautiful anchor.
Actually started on a permanent layout before 30 years goes by .
