Amazingly, I see that my thoughts on what scale I would like to persue as I slowly got back into the hobby was a posting I made nearly two years ago. Since that post I have welcomed the arrival of a grandson into my life. He has a brother on the way due around Thanksgiving. I have come to accept the fact that in my current economic circumstance and work schedule I can get the most pleasure from the hobby by creating something for my grandson to enjoy and not necessarily starting the dream layout. I have put my desire to go in the direction of N scale on hold for now. I broke out some boxes of HO scale trains that were mine from my childhood and some newer items that my father gave me. I've won a few eBay auctions for some rolling stock that would be fun for my grandson to watch.

I slapped together an oval on the kitchen table with one of those hokey foam tunnels, a few "plasticville" stuctures from Bachman, a couple of "Hot Wheels" cars, a 'yard limit' sign or two and it's a virtual playground for a 2 year old kid. It really got my thoughts racing about what I wanted to do with this setup in terms of what the kid in me would like to play with. I know that funds and time are limited right now but Papa and grandson can have a really good time just watching the train run and rolling the cars through the 'streets' and crashing into a few things a time or two. It doesn't take much in the way of realism to spark the imagination of a child. Seeing his wide eyes and baby tooth smile are more than enough to give me satisfaction on the completion of my new "layout".