newbie

[shambells]

hi guys just to introduce myself I am from Australia Queensland and had a back injury at work. my specialist said to take up a hobby to stop myself from going crazy as I cannot work any more. I use to have a Hornby train set as a kid so at the age of 50 I am going to start. I want to start of scratch so I am looking at track layouts and every thing has probably change so if any body got any hints or where to start could you please point me in the right direction.

[selector]

Welcome.  Introduce yourself at the Model Railroader sub-forum on this site.  You'll get lots of help.

They'll want to know if you have selected a scale.  Also, which era (early, early 1900's, transition and war, post WW II, modern).  How much space do you have?  Do you have a club or other help nearby?

Have you heard of digital command control?  It's shortened to DCC.  Locomotives need a microchip installed to control the DC motor so that power is full on the rails all the time.  The decoder installed detects your command signals and makes the loco do what you want.  You don't have to reverse the DC current to the rails any more.

That's just a short intro to get you thinking.  Again, go to the scale trains forum.  There are others around the www, too.

-Crandell