It occurs to me this may be the defining characteristic of Homo Sapiens: we create puzzles and problems so that we may solve them. While we share a ton of DNA with other primates (99.5% with chimpanzees, and the orangutan is practically a cousin), no species at all does this anomaly, being too preoccupied with simple survival. Minah birds create what could be classified as "art," and some of it is remarkably elaborate. Yeah, I got a few questions for the Man Upstairs when this is all over. Or, with my luck, it'll be long distance.
If puzzles are created and solved for recreation, that's one thing. Many puzzles are created and solved to advance knowledge through testing. Sometimes puzzles help generalize knowledge from one domain to another. A puzzle may be a model for a life-situation, or it might be abstract. Most adult, non-human animals don't have time to dream up puzzles to solve; there are plenty of ready-made puzzles to solve just to survive, or to acquire the skills to survive. An orca may simplify a life-puzzle for its young by catching prey but not killing it, so they can figure out how to catch/kill it more easily, increasing the efficiency of the learning process. A common skill associated with intelligence is tool use, which has been demonstrated in the wild by many animal species (primates, birds, octopi dolphins, even wasps). .
anybody else wondering how you reach the middle parts of it? Looks like quite a bit of real estate without a walkaround! Very cool, though, and that collection in the cases!!
Yes. I would like reach the middle. That is a great collection. It's no wonder the rest of us can't find anymore. What scale/gauge is it? Definitely not N.
From the views shown, including the reflections in the glass doors of the display cabinets on the wall, it does appear to have walk-around access to all four sides. One of the views also shows what might be an access hatch to pop up in the middle of the layout, after crawling underneath the layout from the nearest edge. Note that there appears to be a lot of unfinished trackwork in the middle. But enough is complete for the guys to enjoy running trains around the layout! O gauge?
CSX Robert is correct. I am not a fan of Jimmy's decision to go with 8 x 16 format, and the aisle next to the baseboards is very narrow. The "hatch" is actually one of the boards warping. Scenicking the center area is going to be a nightmare. The elevated track is the most distant from the edges, so fortunately that Life Lock interlocking track is fairly reliable. For the most part.
Actually, I should have said that reliability is inversely proportional to difficulty of access, or that reliability is directly proportional to ease of access.
As amazing as that layout is, there's still something to be said for shelf-style, around-the-wall layouts. As we age, ease of access becomes more of an issue. But wow- all.....those...trees!