Some 5 years ago, I suffered a spinal cord injury which rendered me a tetraplegic. Consequently, my wife and I had to move house and my extensive 00 gauge steam railway layout had to be dismantled and packed away and stored for some 3 years in a container. We are now in a bungalow which has a very large spare room, 19' x 19' in which I am considering having a new layout built for me. Prior to my injury I had amassed a massive collection of locos, carriages and wagons. The layout was operated by DC. It had 5 mainlines and one branch line and occupied the entire loft, size 24' x 10'.
The question which I would appreciate your answers to is 'how viable would it be for me in my wheelchair to operate a similar layout in my new room of 19' x 19'? 'I should add that I would always have a carer with me but he/she would not be up to speed on such matters as speed control and point switching, the latter being particularly extensive due to the large number of tracks in a fiddle yard (or rather, loops). On the latter topic, I have heard of the Cbus system which can switch all of the points necessary to select an entire route; such a system is perhaps worthy of consideration? Should I seriously consider converting possibly 300 locos to DCC? Or would the new Hornby 12 V DC system (I can't remember it's designation) do the job of starting up, running and then slowing to a stop (since I would never have 2 locos in the same section) ?
Please advise as you think fit. If you think that it is far too ambitious for me to run 4 trains on the mainlines and 2 trains on 2 branch lines, even with the help of a carer, then please say so. Obviously, I am looking for advice from any other wheelchair bound modeller, but I would welcome advice from able-bodied modellers also. Is a layout of 19' x 19' just far too big for one person to control, enjoy? Is it far too big for me to maintain (albeit I could call in the man who I would use to build a layout in the 1st place - but not instantaneously of course)? The same question applies to fault finding and fault correcting of course.
May I thank you in advance for all the advice you can offer me.
Alan