In the Beginning

or why did I decide on Z-Scale model railroad. 

    I had been dabbling in N Gauge off and on since 1974, when I gave my dad a Postage Stamp train set for Christmas. During those 40 years, I had 16 different "homes" and no real rooms for a railroad layout. Well I am now retired and in the next to last home I will have, (the last being a hole in the ground.)  I have a actual room that I am allowed to do (almost) anything that I want.  It's my little 80 sq foot of sloping ceiling space that houses my hobbies.

   I have been building kits and collecting cars for the last 10 years in hopes that I would have space to display them. 80 Sq feet of sloping ceiling space isn't a lot when part of it is taken up by a swing in door, a 6 ft work table, a rack of ham radio equipment, and boxes & boxes of "toys."  I don't have enough space for all of the track & buildings & stuff to do justice to N, so I made an executive decision to sell of all my other hobbies (except ham radio) and start all over in Z.

  I am well past middle age so my eyes are not as good as the use to be, and I have a little shakiness in my hands. The joy of Z to me is that I have to go into a full concentration mode (a Zen like state)  that overcomes the scourge of getting old, to build and run this railroad.