hello all

[METRO]

Welcome to the forum, and to railroading!

My humble words of advice would be:

1: Always spend the extra $10 to get the better locomotive, it will pay off in the end.

2: There's nothing wrong with starting small.

3: It's the feel, not the tiny details, like rivets, that really matter

4: Follow your own ideas

5: It's your railroad, you have the final say

6: At the end of the day, don't forget to run a train and enjoy it.

7: Urban modeling is expensive

Well that's about all I can think of off the top o my head. If you want a good idea of what's out there in terms of products, check out www.walthers.com and this forum is a great place to ask if you need any help

[Anonymous]

I'm here to help also! My email address is given, so don't be afraid to ask me directly, any questions you might have.

[Anonymous]

CNN has a railroad? well I'll be!

welcome abord and may your engines always stay on track.

Jay

[cacole]

Welcome to model railroading and this forum. One thing you asked right off is what to avoid, and my recommendation in that area is, don't start with a cheap Christmas train set from Bachmann, LifeLife, or Model Power. The power packs in these sets are poorly regulated and the locomotives don't run well at all. Avoid frustration and purchase a good power pack and Proto 2000, Kato, or Bachmann Spectrum engines as starters.

As for Web sties, when you go the the NMRA site, scroll down near the bottom of the screen to the Webmaster's Choice and look at the Cochise & Western Model Railroad club's layout. I designed this layout using Atlas Right Track software, which you can download for free from the Atlas Web site.

A faster link is http://users.ssvecnet.com/cacole

[Anonymous]

Some of my rules that I live by.

don't get to frustrated if things don't go exactly as planned.

don't plan to large a layout that will take forever to build.

start small and work your way up.

sectional layouts are a good place to start, because you can always add on.

things will always take 10 times longer than you plan for them to take.

Have fun, that's what the hobby is about, if you start looking at your layout as a chore, it's time to sit back and look at what needs to be changed so you're having fun.

[Anonymous]

[#ditto] to all of the above advice and including [#welcome]

I'm helping a fell in India get started in model railroading. He only has $150 in his budget. That really limits as to what he can build.
I don't know what you have in your budget and I don't know how much free time your dad has to work on a layout or how much experience you and him have. I have seen some nice layout projects in Model Railroader Magizine. Recently, starting with the JANUARY 2004 ISSUE, shows how to build a layout for $500 complete. Also there are some more PROJECT LAYOUTS on M.R. web site.
Woodland Scenics also has layout systems. WOODLAND SCENICS
If you look in an Atlas track plan book it shows you the size of the layout, a parts list and the size train you can run on it.
I recommend build something small (4 x 8) and easy to build and somthing that won't take a life time to build.
If you buy items on eBay, beware of brass track unless you want to clean it constantly. Also consider the cost of shipping. A good place to look for good prices for new and used sectional track and other items is at model railroad shows. Check your local hobby shop and the news papers for postings. Also at the train shows are fliers for other train shows.
Keep in touch and let us know how it's going.
Remember, we're all in this together. We're pull'n for ya'!

---

P.S. Read the replies to a question I posted "HOW MANY LAYOUTS HAVE YOU BUILT AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THEM" lots of good advice.

[Anonymous]

You might also want to take a look at Atlas' website: http://www.atlasrr.com/
There you can find some track plans with the name of the book it is featured in. There is also MR layout books (http://store.yahoo.com/kalmbachcatalog/model-railroading-books-home-layout-ideas.html).

But whatever you do, I suggest you take things slow and do some reading before jumping into it as there are several aspect of model railroading to learn (how to build a benchwork, how to lay track, how to wire your layout, what rolling stock to buy, how to build scenery) But remember, the most important thing is to just have fun [:)]

[Noah Hofrichter]

Hey CNNRAIL,

I can't help you much with what your looking for I'm sorry to say, but I'm curious, how old are you. There are several other members including me who are under 20, and we love to suport eachother. Do you have a theme in mind for your layout, as far as location and era?

[Anonymous]

[#welcome] CNNRAIL

You have found one of the best links for Model RailRoading (MRR) information by coming here.

Like locomotive3 says, come back and post your ideas BEFORE you spend your $$ the folks on this fourm WILL save you a lot of grief.

[Anonymous]

Welcome aboard.

There's lots to research, publications , read up on and learn about.
What s the time era you are interested in? In part that will determined your
equipment needs. Late steam/early diesel, 40s/50s, diesel era with
steam excursions etc, freight or passenger-both. What's your $ budget ?

On the our home page, www.trains.com click on Worlds Greatest Hobby.

For starters go to www.nmra.org and click on new beginners. A well sock
local hobby shop if one is available is a good start to see what's on hand.

Take a look at the 2004 Walther's reference book, a 1000 page catalog
of what's available. There are over 15 manufacturers of locomotives
listed plus many-many rolling stock vendors.

Before you make any major purchase come on back and post your ideas.

We can save you $ and grief. We too have a few lemons in the hobby.

Happy railroading

[Anonymous]

Hello all I am new to this forum. I am going to help my dad start a HO scale model train setup. I was wondering if anyone out there has any good links for HO scale layouts? I am looking for some good ideas for what kind for dissel and stream ho scale what brands to stay with etc.

I also was wondering if there is any cd for layouts out there for ho scale?

let me know

Thank You