As we get into our 40’s and 50’s our close-up vision gradually worsens and I have been no exception. Working on the HO railroad is increasingly frustrating and I don’t enjoy super-detailing as much as I used to. Even watching trains run is not quite as fun as it used to be as I can’t see the details as much as I used to. Veralux glasses have helped some but as much as I would like.
Not surprisingly, I am now thinking about moving to On30 or O scale or even garden railroading. My question is to those that have changed scales to the larger ones due to vision problems. Did it work? Are you happy that you did it? Did it help your enjoyment of the hobby? How big a change in size did you make? - Nevin
O Scale would be my choice if I had the space for it, which I don’t, so I’m stuck in HO. O Scale requires a lot of space if you’re going for a scale effect.
I don’t know, Jeffrey. If I had more space than I do now, I think I’d till stick with HO because I’d be able to do more with the additional space.
Nevin, have you thought about S-scale (1:64?)? Availability of stock isn’t as nice as HO or O but it also wouldn’t be such an abrupt change in scale. Unless you have abundant room for O-scale, I would consider S-scale instead.
I’d suggest a visit to an eye doctor before making the leap to a larger scale. Age can be a factor in diminishing eyesight but may not be the only cause. Only someone with training and a diploma on the wall can know for sure and you only have one set of eyes to last you for life. I know too many people who ignored vision problems until it was too late to do much about them.
First I am 62 and can still model in N or HO but,IF I was force to change scales due to fading eyesight(that will happen sooner or later) I would need to rethink my stand…Do I go to On30 or do I “retire” from the hobby and just railfan? As of now I don’t know the answer…
Now as far as changing scales I can share this with you.I was growing “stale” in the hobby and was begining to lose interest because a 1’ x 7’ ISL isn’t very much in HO so,I sold 70% of my HO and change my primary scale from HO to N Scale and that rekindled my zest for the hobby and I don’t regret the change…
Everyone I’ve ever talked to about laser surgery to correct vision problems has been extremely happy with the results. Unfortunately, most health insurance doesn’t cover the procedure. However, prices for it have come down, and they’re now at the point where it may be cheaper to fix your eyes than to sell your HO stuff and start over in another scale.
I’m 63, and I’ve been back in the hobby about 6 years now. In that time, my hands have gotten more steady through practice painting and detailing. My eyes have gone downhill a bit, but at a slower rate than they were in my 40s. I now wear bi-focals, and I use a magnifying lamp for fine work when necessary. These are all fairly simple solutions, and I’m still quite happy to work in HO.
I think YOU are the only one who can accurately answer your question. Just a couple things to ponder- have you skipped running the trains, just because you were frustrated with seeing them? Have you gone to the hobby store and got all giddie like a schoolgirl when the one particular kit you’ve always wanted was there on clearance sale, but you slowly walked away because it might have small parts, and you probably wouldn’t be able to appreciate it anyways?? If you have to think hard about these questions, then maybe it would be in your best interest to go bigger. Even if you have to settle for the micro-short line in O over the mega mainline empire in HO, you cannot appreciate it sitting in the next room in front of a big tv with the volume turned all the way up. If you have a lot of HO, maybe it won’t be as expensive as you’d have thought, since you don’t need nearly as much stock in a larger scale given the same amount of room. I guess what I really want to get across is that it won’t get any easier by waiting, and if you blow off your interests in RRing now, you may not be able to enjoy in the future. Avoid the "I wish I would have… " OR “If I had only…” .
Please, if you find your eyesight diminishing, find a good opthalmogist and get a good eye exam. My eyesight was deteriorating so bad that I couldn’t see a house number from the street. I had a curable eye desease and after cornea transplants both eyes and sight is back to 20/25. Lot better than the corrected 20/70 before. Was thinking of getting out of the hobbie all together but since the surgeries, have started a new layout. Take care of your eyes. Sight is precious.
MisterBeasley makes a lot of sense (as usual!) and brings up many good points about the therapy of model railroading helping with coordination and steady hands. Getting old isn’t for the timid by any means!
I just turned 60 and my eyesight isn’t what it was. I have modeled in HO since about 1956 with a couple shifts into S scale. My experience with S was that it’s far superior to HO as to operation and my enjoyment of the physical running of the trains. The shear size difference makes handling and working on the equipment a little easier. I was fairly content with my change from HO to S and then I got cancer in 1986 and the quack said I wasn’t going to make it. I fooled him and pulled through fine however the resulting terror caused me to sell off everything so my wife didn’t have to deal with it.
After surviving, I naturally wanted to get railroading again so I started back with S. Fortunately (unfortunately?) for me about that time everything I wanted to model became available in HO. Not being fully happy with the limited S scale selection and having to deal with many manufacturers that prefer to sell through the back door to friends making things unavailable to many of us I decided to go back to HO.
I’m happy with the choice as I can now model exactly the railroad and type of operation I want rather than having to settle for something less appealing to me.
Changing scales or railroads can also get expensive. I’m still trying to sell some of my S scale stuff to a very limited group of buyers. I’m stuck with a lot of expensive items that I can’t turn into HO trains. That can be a problem for some to have their money tied up on a non-usable collection.I’m fortunate in that my modeling budget is large compared to most and I also was doing a lot of custom painting which fed my habit with a lot of free cash.
I would say, “Go for it!”, as to changing scale provided you can get enough equipment and things to build the railroad you desire otherwise it can be very fr
I can appreciate your situation, as the same thing is happening to me. I am changing from N to On30 for that exact reason. As to whether this is for you, only you can decide. I think some of the questions you should ask yourself are:
1 - How much space do I have?
2 - How much does being “Prototype Specific” mean to you?
3 - How willing will I be to learn new and different concepts?
If you decide to go On30, basically you will NOT have a prototype. You can still use prototype practices but the distance between the rails will bother some. O Scale buildings are HUGE, but if you follow the current practice of reducing the total number of scenes you model, you can still have a nice, well detailed layout with fewer buildings and scenes that are well detailed. Your space requirements for trackage actually decreases since may of the On30 equipment can be successfully operated on as little as 18 inch radius (That is Bachman’s claim and it is true in my experience for most of it, but obviously larger radii will give you a better overall performance and appearance).
I asked myself these questions several years ago and then made the switch. And as a previous poster mentioned, I would invest the time and money to go to an Ophthalmologist to have my eyes checked.
I started in HO and changed to O because I found the HO parts were too small. But O takes up too much room so I switched to S. I find S to be the happy place for big enough to see and work with and small enough to have a layout. S doesn’t have the selection of other scales but it has quite a bit especially for the 50’s and 60’s.
If I were doing narrow gauge I would do On30 where the trains are about S in size.
Not everyone has trouble seeing up close details as they age. I am very near-sighted and happy to be, as at least I can take my glasses off to see fine printing or fine details up closer to my eyes than I can see far away-even with corrective lenses. I have trouble reading roadsigns, though, until I am close enough to them!
As far as changing scales, only you can make that decision. THe major issue in going to a larger scale is: do you have the room for a larger scale?
I would, as others suggested, see an eye doc or two {second or third opinions} about what can be done first for your eyes before switching scales. I wouldn’t give up the hobby or change scales until I exhausted that avenue first.
I appreciate the comments so far. I am a physician and do get regular eye exams. So far it has all just been presbyopia due to getting older. I have an eye exam on august 30 scheduled.
It would be relatively easy to switch my HO Tonopah & Tidewater RR to an On30 Death Valley RR layout. The scenery would be the same just bigger buildings and wider sidings. I am concerned that it would be not be enough of a difference to make it worthwhile which why I started this post. - Nevin
Nevin,I think it would be worth the switch-as I mention that thought has cross my mind…On30 is much bigger and in some cases could be a tad better then HO or N if one likes to add detail parts…
I even have a general idea on the narrow gauge railroad name-Ohio Valley Ry.
I am 74 years old and near sighted. I have been in HO since I was 18 and have never changed that. I do have a garden railroad out back, but the big boy in the basement is HO. I have been wearing glasses for the near sightedness since I was 24, and quite frankly, I have kept my eye doctor visits up, he made a correction last time 8 years ago and I do just fine. I still do some building, a little scenery, but the layout is finished and I have no intention in changing it or rebuilding it so not a problem.
You can’t generalize in answering a question like you asked because circumstances vary for each one of us. Ask your eye guy.
I’m in the camp with the folks who suggest getting your eyes checked, first. Also, besides corrective lenses, better lighting can help a lot. More light reduces your pupil opening and gives you greater depth of field. It really makes a difference.
My father scratch-built R/C planes (scale models with full interiors, etc. and all the stuff that made them actually fly) and he kept at it until he died at age 78. He had a VERY well lit shop (kind of like a TV studio), but he never complained that it was hard to see - and his work was top notch. For me, that’s enough evidence that good lighting helps a ton.
Without question I am one that definitely needs to go pay a visit tot he eye doctor and get my eyes check.A while back after the furnace blowout which put an untimely end to the old 98% completed layout, I was standing in my now completely clean open space and for a brief moment I thought to myself, self with this size space I cold have an ok HO layout or a really really nice sized N scale layout. I walked into the work shop and picked up one of the n scale diesels that was sitting on the workbench that my step son was working on. I looked at it looked out at the train room looked back at the locomotive sitting in the fat fingered, semi arthritic bear paw that I call a hand and laughed out loud and said you’ve got to be kidding.
I’m an HO modeler always have been always will be, not to say I don’t enjoy the n scale around the room mini shelf layout we built in the shop office or the garden railway that I hope some day will take over the wife’s flower gardens and entire 1-1/2 acre back yard but one has to ask himself whats the eye sight to fat finger manual dexterity ratio. I believe I would decimate n scale trains in a matter of seconds, Godzilla would have nothing on the destruction I could cause.So as things got worse would i have to keep moving up the line from HO to S to O or ON30 to G? heck they ain’t never gonna let me play with the real ones So I guess it’s most cost effective to stay with HO and get my eyes checked/fixed. My hands well thats a lost cause.
I recently celebrated my 73rd birthday, and have been modeling in 16.5mm gauge for 62 years. The change from 1:87 to 1:80 (HOj) was prompted by my choice of prototype, not by vision problems.
Five years ago, my steadily-worsening asigmatism was corrected by Lasik surgery - with immediate and dramatic improvement. I still need reading glasses for close work, but only for focus adjustment, not vision correction. Detailing and small-parts work are a challenge, but more because of arthritic fingers rather than inadequate vision. How long this will last, and whether my vision will once again deteriorate, is a mystery. I expect to have about 27 years to find out.
One responder said something about a lack of prototypes in On30. In my case, if I decide to switch I will play directly into my strongest suite - my two favorite prototypes (inadequately represented on my present 1:80 scale layout) are 762mm gauge railroads with miniature equipment and massively overengineered main lines. The Kiso Forest Railway (shut down in 1975) and the Kurobe Gorge Railway (still operating) were built through vertical countryside, and I have a lot of data and photos of both. My present benchwork would easily accommodate the change if I ever find it necessary.