HO Trains Are a Great Hobby

In the early 1970's when my four children were young, I started a hobby with HO model trains. I began making buildings for my train out of kits. I also bought a number of small "people" for my train and painted them. Painting their eyes with a single brush bristle was a challenge. Being a dentist, I was used to doing very small things. I also had some good magnification to use. I spent around two years making things for my train without ever getting an engine, cars or track.

Finally we moved and had a basement. I built a 4' x 7' plywood base for the train. I built a six inch offset along the 7' side and used hinges to attach it to the base. Then I attached the six inch offset to the wall. Adding two legs on the outside of the length of the base allowed me to have the layout down to play with it and raise it up and hook it to the ceiling to put it away. That left more room in the laundry room to my wife's delight.

You learn by doing and by making mistakes. The curves on my railroad were severe enough that I could only run switcher engines. But I still had a blast and now I had a place for my buildings and my people. All of them had to be glued down in order to let me raise the layout up to put it away. When I did this I had to remove all the railroad cars and the engine.