Starter Advice You Would Give a Novice Olden Days In the olden days the first layout might have been: An HO boxed train set An oval of 'Atlas Snap' track Passing siding On a 4'X8' sheet of plywood These Days, ((stretching back to say 1990) An N-scale boxed tran set An oval of 'Kato Unitrak' A passing siding Mounted on sheet of pink insulation foam from 2'x4' to 2'x8' or perhaps 4'x4'. Long term plans could double or quadruple that size. What Advice (and why), Would you Give a Novice? Beginning track? Beginning track plan? Just a description / concept / purpose DC vs DCC (and why) Long term advice Scenery? Terrain? Tools? Information source? I personally would suggest based on my experience in high school in the early 70s and since 2004 here at Trainboard. Start small and keep it simple. 2"x2'x4', (maybe 2"x2'x8' on *pink* insulation foam. Consider a 1/2" thick piece of foam to layer on top of it, (see notes) Kato Unitrak just to get up and running An oval, small siding, 2 to 3 spurs An extra sheet of 2" pink foam for scenery Practice scenery and running / switching cars / building structures Notes: Foam: Blue 2"X2'X8' foam has an 'overlap' cut along each edge. This makes it very difficult to use for our purposes. A top layer of 1/2" foam allows for a little more depth to the scenery and the burying of wires. It can also be used later for 'inclines'. It is very easy to lay the track down on it and trace the size / shape you need. DC vs DCC Go with DC for starters but make sure they are 'Drop In Ready' for DCC. While building the current layout study DCC and learn about the pros and cons. For me DCC would provide sound and an easier control of remote switches One person running 3 trains at once? Sure, if the layout is big enough. Let's get this conversation started and perhaps spin off threads for specific subjects and possibly put the link in here.
First thing is to make sure you have enough of what's necessary. Space, knowledge and most important the money to do it.
Very good summary advice! Owens Corning "Foamular" (Pink Stuff, XPS) foam insulation board is available at Home Depot in pre-scored 4x8 panels that snap into either two 2x8 or three 16" x 8' panels, with square edges. I strongly recommend XPS (eXtruded PolyStyrene) over EPS (Expanded Poly Styrene, expanded beads, white like styrofoam cups) type insulation boards. XPS is stronger and easier to shape. Hint: if your vehicle cannot take 8' long sheets, then take a utility knife and straight edge with you to score and snap it to length that will fit in your vehicle. It helps if there is an open space in the parking lot next to your vehicle for this operation. I would skip the "just to get up and running" guidance on the Unitrack. Unitrack is far easier to wire, especially if you do not have wiring/soldering skills yet, using their pre-wired Unijoiner power cables, 3-way wye cables, and even a spade lug adapter for the power pack or DCC booster. It also includes the road bed, and can be ballasted after installation if desired. It is also practically bullet proof, and comes in a wider variety of lengths and radii, single and double track, than any other sectional track product. It's also available in viaduct and bridge pieces for elevated tracks/flyovers without/until terrain. Unitrack pieces can be easily removed from the viaduct structures when you get the terrain in place. There are also graduated incline pier sets available until you have the terrain in place. Start with DCC if you can afford it. It's where you will end up anyway, and it makes model railroading much more fun. I recommend developing a layout plan using track planning software, even if it is "just an oval" with a few sidings/spurs. I use a free package called XTrackCAD that I really like, but there are other good packages too, both free and not. You can even make up a train and run it on the layout in software. Track planning software, especially when using sectional track like Unitrack, helps ensure that everything actually fits correctly, rather than being forced, which can lead to problems and mishaps on the real layout. And it produces a bill of materials for the track pieces, so you know exactly what you need to have to build your layout. I imported the bill of materials into a spreadsheet, so I could bounce it off my existing list of Unitrack pieces, and automatically build a list of only what I needed to buy. I also highly recommend JMRI, an excellent free SW package that, with appropriate USB adapter for your DCC system, really makes programming your locomotives, and managing their parameters, much easier. It also includes a Wi Throttle server function that allows you to use free throttle apps on your phone or tablet (as well as on-screen throttles on the computer). There are also a few different dedicated WiFi throttles available. And that's not even the tip of the JMRI iceberg... JMRI runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux (including inexpensive little Raspberry Pi computers). JMRI has tons of other features for running your railroad.
Thanks to you all for starting this thread/contributing to it. I’m stationed overseas, so I built a temporary layout last year, know I’ll have to tear it down to move next year. It is my first layout-so I’m learning everyday. That said-I’ll keep reading this to plan for a more permanent layout when I get back. Thanks again! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
