OK - thanks for the info!

It is fixed, my avatar that is.
Les

So it is, and it's very nice, too.

Hi Lester,
Very sage advice, I concur with you totally. i don't have a layout at present, but any layout that I plan for the future will certainly take my medical condition into account. I suffer from Parkinsons Disease, which severely limits my mobility and no I don't have the shakes, but I do have great difficulty in getting up and down to the floor or with ducking under obstacles.
I wish you all the best for the future.

Cheers, Simon

This is a great thread!

Sometimes I feel more like a carpenter than a model railroader. I enjoy building benchwork, stringing buswires and framing.

My Wife was crippled and uses a walker and scooter to get around.

The wide isles aren't an issue because the eventual layout will be around the walls so that the rest of the room is open for access and other projects....

In order to close the loop for possible continuous running, I'll have to build a bridge across the doorway.

I saw a suggestion that you keep a small office chair with casters handy. Sit down on the chair and roll under the duck-under and stand back up. Not a bad idea.

Once upon a time I thought that I'd have a duck-under, but not now.

Firstly, the door to the room opens inward, so I'd have to leave enough room for the door to swing. And secondly, my Wife would not be able to get into the room with a duck-under.

So, anything going across the doorway will have to be built as a swing-out or lift-out.

I was thinking that layout height would be somewhere between 40 to 60 inches, but lower end of this range might be better...

I've always thought that it would be best to build the layout in modules or sections so that I can take parts of it out to train shows and meets.

Also, it means that parts can be worked on at a workbench an that the operating height can be adjusted.

One last thought on the subject of accessibility... Mounting hidden staging on drawer glides so that they can be pulled out into the aisle for access and servicing. A big Traverser instead of all those turnouts..

Your comment about hidden staging is very apropo. I'm designing my layout right now, and just realized while reading this that I haven't worst-cased my hidden staging plans. I'm also thinking about building in a height adjustment that would allow me to lower the entire layout to chair height if necessary.

I just received a call from the company that is giving me my electric mobility device. I have finally been approved by Medicare. I hope to recieve it the early part of next week. I will definetly build my layout to accomodate it. I will let you all know how that works out for me.

Interesting Thread! I'm only 33 but threw out my back this past weekend (muscle spasm picking up a 6 month old one too many times too often). In my profession I deal with guilt and grief and planning for the future, as in the afterlife kindof future. Makes a body think...

In the past few years I have been pleased to receive magazines, kits, track, etc. from aging modelers at a point in their lives where they are ready to pass things on. This has had me thinking about what I'll do with my railroad stuff down the road (hopefully FAR down the road). Should I die suddenly would my spouse or family or friends know what to do with them? Are they insured or included in a will?

What if my boys don't want them? hock: I know, that last one sounds like crazy talk to me too, but I have 'inherited' trains from folks whose kids and even grandkids don't want to bother with grandpa's trains. Sad but true.

I think part of the solution is to build a good network of younger, railroad-minded friends who will be willing and able to treasure your treasures as you now treasure them or pass them on to others who will. My advice to folks who worry about what will happen to their stuff when they age is to give it away now, while they can enjoy the pleasure of sharing it with others, instead of later when they can't for whatever reason (death, disability, etc.).

You never see a U-haul behind a hearse. :!:

Galen