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cmajor, If you haven't yet decided what to buy, here are some ideas. If you're anything like me when I got into the hobby, you may not have a clear idea of what you want to model, and a train set can be a good way to get started. The downside of sets is that they don't give you enough track to make an interesting layout, and the track may not be the kind you want anyway. I ended up using the track from my start set for staging, and bought Atlas track instead - but track is quite cheap anyway. People love to badmouth Bachmann, and a lot of their products aren't all that great, however their Spectrum line in my mind beats everything hands down in terms of quality vs price. If I were you, I would consider a Spectrum set - they have two with their 2-8-0 Consolidation which is a great loco - they also have diesels, but I don't know much about their quality. Check out the Nscale loco encyclopedia (www.visi.com/~spookshow/locos.html) for reviews of a lot of engines; not all of it recent. Kato and Atlas may make great locos, but they sure know to charge for them. I think you'll find that a really good power pack makes more of a difference; I built one myself for about $30 (including a handset) that provides amazing low speed control, based on a design on the web (www.awrr.com). Even my worst Bachmann loco runs perfect with this pack. It was a little tricky given that I have never done electronics before but quite feasible for a novice. Or buy an MRC pack on ebay, though I have no idea how well they perform. I generally think it's a better idea to start cheap and simple rather than buying top of the line from the beginning - as long as you avoid the real junk (e.g. low-end Bachmann). If you decide in a year from now that you want to do things differently, you won't have invested hundreds of $$ in stuff that isn't what you want.
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