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After planning my new layout for two years, I began construction last week. The benchwork is done and I'm laying down foam and track this week. In the process I have noticed I am beginning to spend a pretty penny. My bill for track was over $500 and that was only for the mainline and 6 turnouts. It will be three times that to get all my track. I have already spent about $300 for the wood and foam. $160 for DCC startup and another $200 in DCC decoders (stationary and mobile). An inventory of my old rolling stock and engines revealed that virtually none of it is useful on my new layout. So, I've spent $100 on new Walthers coaches with lighting kits and another $100 on about ten new freight cars and hoppers to get started. Got a new BLI Hudson on e-bay for $179 and a couple of Kato RS-2s for about $100 and an Atlas RS-1 for $75 and lastly a Proto 2000 S-3 for about $60. I saved alot of money on these engines but they still collectively cost over $400 and only one has a DCC decoder so I will have to spend for new decoders as well. Basically, I have spent about $1500 already and have not run a single train or even laid a single track yet. Ouch! Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? I estimate this layout could cost me in the neighborhood of $4000-$5000 at this rate. I am not necessarily complaining as I knew it would cost some bucks to build a new layout. I guess I just didn't realize how many bucks it was going to take. Anybody else experiencing these startup costs?
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