Consider the number of people who hang glide, perform gnarly stunts on moving mountains of salt water, sky dive or simply jaywalk in heavy downtown traffic, then see if you can repeat this thread’s title with a straight face.
Since both my natural inclination and my military service have made me VERY sensitive to possible life-threatening situations, I can honestly say that I’ve never had anything worse than a minor cut or spot burn while building rail-related models for the last 60-odd years. My visits to medical facilities for damage control were the result of other, rather more hazardous activities.
Consider the beautiful sport of gymnastics if you want to talk about hazards to life and limb. A seriously damaged hip caused one of my acquaintances (former Olympian and National Champion) to retire from the sport at the ripe old age of seventeen. If you ever go to an NCAA gymnastics meet you will be amazed at the number of joint braces and the miles of elastic bandage the competitors use to keep from aggravating chronic injuries. Far more gymnasts are sidelined by injury than by advancing age.
On a hazard scale of 1 to 10, model railroading is, at most, a three.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - carefully)
My optometrist wore a pair of usside down bifocals as he had to keep lookinf up at his “machine” when doing eye exams so your Dr could prescribe them or your eye glass center may even be able to make them without a prescription.
Mr. B… Thanks for the advice but I have other complications so i want to avoid the knife if possible.
I tore my Rotator Cuff back in '98 or '99 when I hit a chunk of ice while shoveling snow. After almost 5 months of physio 3 times a week, I could ALMOST lift my arm straight out to the front and to about 45 degrees out to the side. The sports Orthopedic Surgeon that I was seeing decided that surgery was the only alternative. The surgery back then consisted of THREE 1/4" slits around my left shoulder and the repairs were made using micro surgery. After several more months of Physio, my shoulder was as good as new, if not better.
By the way, I went into the Hospital at 7:00AM, surgery was at 8:30AM, in the recovery room until 11:30AM and the wife drove me home in time for lunch the same day.
Talk to your optometrist. My father-in-law was a sheet metal worker, constantly looking over his head at the work. He had a pair made and they worked great for him. What I do when working under the layout is wear a pair of cheap reading glasses ($1 at the dollar store). I have two or three different magnifications for various types of work.
After shattering my left heel bone into seven pieces this past July (wakeboarding) I had to slow down quite a bit. Casts and physical therapy will do that to you. Doing so has made me a lot more patient. Guess what, no injuries from model railroading.
#1 best piece of advice is mentioned above - Feeling tired and/or frustrated…stop!
Over the years I have learned that if I think “this is pretty stupid” I stop and think about how I can do it safer, though I do sometimes ignore my own rule and that is when bad things happen…last week a pry bar slipped and sliced into my thumb. Thats why I always have bandaids and masking tape close by.
Four years ago I moved from a house to a condo and, of course, decided I could disassemble the layout and move it as well. Not a good idea - especially when I decided one day to move the sections from my current garage to the basement by myself. Can anyone spell hernia??
the side of my primary hand was 2nd degree burned when i ran the fire engulfed pan outside so it didn’t burn down the apartment, which the fire was trying to do. today when changing dressings i noticed a little less movemoment from that hand.
moral of the story, all you guys are comparing injuries FROM modeling when i may not even be ABLE to model. i longer know where my rr modeling stands. i was set on n scale but if i end up not even being able to close my hand around a soldering iron…i don’t know.
i’ve never got that feeling before something bad happens. just the feeling afterwards of “i shouldn’t have done that now should i”. my thumb healed right up but i still have the y-shaped scar on the index finger to remind to be careful whenst using Xacto’s [%-)]
Nah. It’s all relative to how safety consious you are.
Farming is said to be one of the most dangerous occupations here in Canada but the fact is that most farm accidents are the result of doing stupid things like;
-Sticking your arm into running machinery.
-Moving a grain auger under the power lines while it is in a raised position because it takes too much time to lower it just to raise it again and it looks like it might clear the lines.
-Ignoring safety warnings on tools and chemicals
The list goes on. The company my spouse works for has trashed the word accident alltogether because they have found that all incidents could be avoided by following safety guidlines and using safety equipment properly.
In short, this hobby, or any hobby, is only as dangerous as you make it.
Why is it that it seems like you have finer control of an exacto knife when you’re cutting toward you than when you’re cutting away from you? Given how many people, including me, hurt by Exacto knives, they should be considered weapons of mass destruction.
You and I have a similar problem. You have issues with your left hand due to damage caused by fire and I have limited use of both hands because of severe nerve damage from diabetes. That rules out N Scale for me so I had to move up to HO. One day I’ll have to move up to O for the same reason. I just hope it doesn’t come for at least several more years. I really don’t have enough space for a good run in O Scale.
it’s actually my right hand, but I am sp dependent on that hand that even using the restroom is hard now. i can handle it now but when it first happened last friday afterwards i had to have my wife zip up my fly [V] it sure is giving me a different appreciation for others that are worse off. even if I regain full use of my hand I will still be teaching myself to be more ambitexrus and definitley teaching any future kids of mine the same. you can already see where some scarring is going to happen. i can show if you like, i’ve been taking pictures, although some of them may be too medically graphic for younger viewers and those with weak stomachs.
Adhesives are what usually does me in; and since I don’t like to wear gloves, I think I need a better approach to gluing - there’s been many times where I’ve almost glued my fingers together.
Otherwise, electrical, soldering, knives, and all the rest haven’t caused me any harm (yet). Knock on wood!
The worst incident was when the Exacto knife with brand new #11 blade rolled off the bench and aerodynamically rocketed into the top of my foot and stuck there. Right into a foot bone. That was way back when I was into building model cars and was doing lionel trains. Forty years later I am into HO and could really use the reading glasses for the fine work.
I realized the other day that I still have a scar from when I was wiring my current layout. I was screwing down connections on a terminal strip when the flat head screwdriver slipped and fell down to the floor where I was sitting. I was wearing shorts, and the screwdriver went down sharp business end first into the side of my knee, right about at the kneecap. Didn’t bleed too badly, just enough that my neighbors in the townhouses on either side of mine were probably wondering what was happening with the profanities in my basement (they’d already questioned my taking in sheets of foamboard, thinking I’d wrecked a wall or something). That was back in 2004, and the mark is still on my leg.
I’m just glad I never followed the advice I got in a clip of The Red Green Show when he was trying to figure out how to change a car headlight and got out a circular saw to cut it out: “When in doubt, switch to power tools!”