Or, how do we get more model railroading done? A big difference between then and now is less screen time. In the peak time for American OO gauge there was no TV and no Internet.

It is a good idea overall to control your screen time. In real life I am a university professor, and I saw an article come up based on a study done at my university, “Study: Too much screen time harmful on molecular level.” The basic suggestion from this article, which summarizes a recent study, is to limit screen time to less than 75 minutes in a day. Or at least try not to go over 2 hours. From the article,

The World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend no more than one hour of screen time per day for children 5 and under. There is no consensus on a safe amount of screen time for adults, but connections between well-being and digital technology use show harmful effects on individuals engaging in more than two hours of daily screen time.

Of course you are reading these words and I think that is good! But I’ve been working to limit screen time lately. It creeps up on you. I’m now making an effort to listen to the radio, podcasts, or music, and to read physical books and magazines. Do more analog things. One evidence of too much screen time in recent years is I managed to get way behind on reading current magazine issues. More context being I spent years reading many back issues, taking notes on OO items found, that is how I could write the book.

Back to a more serious point, too much screen time actually is harmful to your health. From the conclusion of the article, quoting the study,

Our results indicate that individuals with more than 75 minutes of daily screen time had microbiome and metabolome profiles consistent with obesity, Type I diabetes, myocardial infarction, chronic fatigue syndrome and a host of digestive disorders.

Yikes! So not only will you get more done on your trains by reducing your screen time, also you will live longer and better! Sounds like a win-win to me, reducing screen time and increasing train time. The OOldtimers knew best on this. It takes time to build a model like this completely from scratch. (More on this model by Jimi (James) Trout here).