Shortcuts due to physical disabilities?

As we age the body gets weaker and we have less agility. It becomes necessary to make changes that enable us to deal with jobs that we once found easy and are now hard.
For instance when we lift heavy items new methods become necessary. My layout was built using 1 x 4 pine for the frame and 1/2"plywood for the top. That goes back 20 years. I can still handle the 1x4 pine but large pieces of plywood I ask to be cut in two before they can be loaded on my truck. If I did this today I would probably use insulation board for the top. Your method using plastic shelving sounds great for use seniors.

My basement layout is 3/4-inch plywood over 1x4 framing on 2x4 legs. It sits 40 inches off the floor and is covered in gray short-pile indoor/outdoor carpet. I built it 25 years ago (at least), and I'm not changing it (although it needs a bit of rewiring, which I'm not looking forward to doing). I run conventional, so three loops gives you three trains of action.

I've lost about sixty pounds over the last year, and that has made a big difference in mobility. Luckily, no major physical (orthopedic) issues yet. The knee problem that kept me out of the Navy slowly worsens, but probably five or six years away from having to do anything about it. Storage is my biggest problem...I've got too much "stuff". 

I've built many layouts from "N", "HO", to "O". One thing I have never done or seen the need for is 3/4" plywood. Its heavy and really used in flooring in your home and in my case also an outdoor 10X14 storage shed, I don't believe I will ever put a full size refrigerator or washer and dryer on my layout. I've also found that 3/8" or if needed 1/2". At present I used 3/8" with foam boards on top and cut 2x4s into 2x2", (actually smaller then 2x2s since lumber is not dimensionally a given). I can walk and knee; and stand on my tables with no problems. I use screws and not nails and they are stainless since water and moisture is used in scenery, so as not to rust. I have my 4x8 plywood sheets cut in half at the lumber yard. Easy to transport and lighter.
As to wiring, I use a lot of connectors, the slide in male and female. This also avoids shorts and go to a bridge or bank. Makes work easier to disconnect a structure if wanting to change or replace lights. My wiring is now a 1/4 of a mess compared to previous layouts. All wiring is coded as to structures, tracks, accessories, signals, also DC and AC, since I have some DC in 4.5Volts.

I would not call them shortcuts, more innovations.

In earlier days when the layout was more scale than toy, I found the need to occasionally climb up there and crawl around or stand on it. I was a bigger boy back then and wanted something substantial to support my weight. Definitely over-engineered given current requirements. I will say 3/4-inch plywood with a thick indoor/outdoor covering helps deaden the rumble quite a bit, even considering the track is screwed down through the carpet and into the plywood. It's not perfectly quiet, but the drum-effect is much less as compared to 3/8-inch or 1/2-inch. 

I'd be the first to admit I need to add to and neaten my wiring. Right now it's shambolic in places, inadequate in others. I should really rip it all out and go with a bus circuit end-to-end.

Vince, I like your system, and glad it works out for you. Alfred

Good point about crawling. The layout itself is forty inches off the floor, so good access underneath, but the Hell Gate is paired with a Korber truss bridge to form the duck-under for access. I regret doing that now.