If you could do it all over again. . .

[Sturgeon-Phish]

Negotiate for more space!

Jim 

[traindaddy1]

Be more selective and go for quality instead of quantity.  Thanks for asking.

[thor]

Lots of good stuff in this thread! Definitely worth doing a compilation of various peoples observations, which is what I'm doing now and how come I revisited this.

Another one of my 'mistakes' was to try and avoid buying a 'proper' transformer/controller. If, like me, you're new to this gauge/scale be aware that the power requirements are HUGE compared to HO if that's where you're coming from as I was.

I kept putting it off because my hobby money budget is tiny and everytime I went shopping I saw two or three 'must-haves' I could get for the amount needed for a big power pack, so I got them instead and then regretted it next operating session.

So if you started off with a train set and the usual just barely adequate power pack it came with, take a deep breath and make your next expenditure a whopping great 'dualie' even if it means going for the next 6 months without any more trains! The little power pack will do fine for an isolated block or better yet for powering accessories.