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Welcome aboard, i sugesst you get a copy of John Armstrong's "Track Planning For Realistic Operation" Available through Kalmbach Publishing, http://www.kalmbach.com/ , or Amazon.com as well as other outlets. They also have several other books that may be of intrest to you to help you get started. A 4x8' layout is perfect for learning, but will not allow the 60-100 car runs you desire. If you want to jump in and learn the various aspects of the Hobby, you could pick up one of Woodland Scenics, http://www.woodlandscenics.com/ , 4x8' Kits. I'd recommend the "River Pass - Complete Layout" package, as this will introduce you to almost every aspect of the layout you'll ever need and is a fine beginning of a lifelong hobby. Also see you haven't mentioned a timeframe to run, this will influence what is recommended in terms of Locomotives (steam, deisel, Electrics) and rolling stock for you, since a 36' boxcar would not be used in a 1980's setting, and conversly a 50' boxcar wouldn't be seen in 1890. As for DCC, I would recommend it, the intial investment is high, but well worth it. but you don't need it right away, and you can work towards it, there are several books on how to wire for DCC to get you preset for it as well as Digitrax's big book of DCC to read up on first. In looking at the initial investment, if you bought the above mentioned River Pass kit, a good quality DCC system, 3 quality Loco's and 20 cars, you'd be looking at an initial investment of around $1500 US. Yes it sounds big, but again you can work towards it, the River Pass complete set is around $700, but you could buy the individual pieces (like the track plan for the river pass for $60) and maybe 1 Loco and 5 or 6 cars to start out with and work up from there. Good luck and please post any thoughts ideas and questions as you need them, we're all here to help. Also, if you haven't already done it, visit the Atlas forums, http://www.atlasrr.com/ ,as there's even more people there that are willing tio help, as well as the best DCC forums there is.
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