My recent victory over a long-held fear of adding ditch lights has prompted me to think about a number of similar concerns I've had over the years and, once they were behind me, the great rewards I discovered hiding on the other side.  In hopes of encouraging others who might be letting their own phobias get in the way of their hobby enjoyment as I too often do, here are a few of my fears and the lessons they taught me:

My daughter in law gave me a set of G scale equipment, cars, a beautiful wooden homebuilt tension rod truss bridge, some track, etc.  While my interest has been in HO and O, always wanted to try an outdoor setting, but really didn't want to dilute my meager hobby funding.  I intend to build my own track sections as the cost is prohibitive to me to buy them preassembled, but I'm a bit confused on track codes for G, how does Code 148 do with stock G scale flange clearances?  Read where code 332 is best for outside where animals and people will step on it, and code 250 i

If your trains are in the basement, make darn sure you have a good alarm on the sump pump system! Both the primary and secondary pump failed due to some sort of a (still undiagnosed) problem in the discharge pipe. The sure way I could have known there was a problem before it was too late was an alarm.

Alas, trains got wet, so did parts and supplies. I lost some of those cherished boxes and neat old books from the 50s and 60s.

In the most recent NMRA magazine, president Charlie Getz has committed to cease commenting about or making reference to his perceived demise/decline of the hobby.

He took a roundabout means to deliver the news, and he still believes that the lack of new product announcements in MR compared to the 1980s augers ill for the hobby. (Does he see the new products in MRH, pages upon pages of them?) But at least he'll leave the issue of "decline" alone.