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Space Mouse nailed it, one of the great advantages of old time modeling is that you can get by with much tighter curvers, sharper turnouts and shorter sidings and trains.Unless you're really up for building a lot of your rolling stock, I would suggest you consider HO over N.  There's simply a lot more that's is and has been available.  You can get by pretty well with 4-4-0's for motive power.  In HO, the Bachman Golden Spike 4-40s can be worked over to run well and look right.  If you are willing to do some hunting at swap meets and ebay you can come up with some great kits for this era:  Central Valley, Red Ball, Binkley, ang High Ballers are names to look for, but there are many others.As far as RTR equipment goes Mantua (Tyco) made some Civil War period cars as well as a few others such as their bobber caboose and Dovers Caboose that can be worked over for your period.  AHM made some nice freight and passenger cars that are easily available and right for this era.  The present day IHC  old time cars are also a good option.To put the frosting on the cake, the old HighBaller/Alexander working link and pin couplers are back in production and listed in the Walthers catalog (Admittedly oversized, but not too much more than the standard #5 Kadees)You'll find the Europeans have made a lot of neat buildings and equipment for this period.  They've been fascinated with the Wild West ever since Buffalo Bill took the Wild West show on tour over there.  Regardless of scale, for more ideas run down a copy of John White's book, The American Railroad Freight Car. (your local libray can get it thru inter library loan).  Lots and lots of great old photos of both cars and locomotives.  It will give you a crash course on what was used when, and what it looked like.  Many wonderful modeling ideas there.Personaly I've been modeling old time railroading since the 60's., both in HO and O.  My main interest is the development of motive power and rolling stock, so I've got stuff from the 1830s thru the late 19"teens".  It's a fascinating era to work with.Hope this helpsJBB
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