For the sake of keeping this guide simple I will only deal with the use of curves and straight track pieces and when talking about the layout I will only talk about the use of circles and ovals.  There is a lot more you can do inside of the circle or oval once you have the outer area of the layout in place by using switches and X shaped crossings.  With enough room to work with you can make L or T shaped layouts.  Ideas are endless and the list of ideas can go forever but without a good starting point how do you make an idea come true?  I’ll try and help you out with the information below.

When an adult in the family already has an interest in model trains it helps when the younger ones find an interest in working with model trains.  However what happens when the young one finds his/her interest in model trains first before the adult knows much about model trains?  The first thing that people can find is sticker shock when they try and go purchase the required equipment in getting a nice layout started.  When getting help at a local train store do not let them talk you into buying something just because it is the thing to buy.  They made just be trying to sell what is good for them to sell and not what is good for you and your situation.  Also, there is the variety of sizes that model trains come in and the different types of track that you can use which ultimately can run into buying and returning items as you try and learn as you go.  Here is simple but yet effective set of guidelines in getting a train set layout going for your kids to enjoy, and even get some enjoyment out of it yourself.

One of the smarter rules you can use when starting with nothing is that it is easier to upgrade than downgrade.  Unless you have already sat down and did your research and you know what type of layout you want and what pieces you want to have the best thing is to start small and work up.  Once you have bought the biggest most expensive, lifetime lasting, unbreakable piece of equipment and after a month or two you decide that it does not fit into your plans of the right layout you are sort of stuck with it.  There is always trying to resell it or maybe some train stores will buy it from you.  Having to resell items either on EBay or selling it back to a train store, most of the time but not always, all you are left with is one less train item and less money than you started with.  However, there are a few items that will resell at near what you put into it new if the items are well kept, so when buying it is ok to ask about an items resale value.

The first thing you might start wondering once you have found the need to upgrade is not only the additional cost, but then you start collecting items that are just sitting and collecting dust.  There are a couple of ways to deal with that situation; 1) You can store those items and keep them for backup purposes, it does hurt to have an additional power supply on hand for that bad weather evening when the power supply you are using suddenly stops working whether it be due to wiring or the control handle would happen to lock up or break off.  Without power the train just does not go very far.  2) There is always selling them here on EBay and take that money you have made and put it towards newer items.

While starting small, don’t start too small and only get the bare minimum of what you need to run your beginning layout.  That plan will only lead to more costs and more upgrades as your layout progresses.  Work on thinking ahead with items like your power pack and get something that will be suitable in handling double of what you are starting with.  It does not hurt to invest a little more in the item that will be what controls whether or not your train runs.

First here is a list of the different sizes that model trains come in and a small description of each;

Z Scale (1:220) while it works for people with limited space these trains are not designed for the young.  For an HO scale layout of 4' x 8' that equals just an area of 1'6" x 3'2" for Z scale.  For this scale a 30 foot high tree will be approximately only 1 & 3/4 inches tall.  A standard 40 foot box car will only measure about 2 and 1/4 inches long.

N Scale (1:160) is a good start for those who have the ability to work with and handle items like hot wheels.  For this scale a 30 foot high tree will be approximately 2 & 1/4 inches tall.  A standard 40 foot box car will measure about 3 inches long.

HO Scale (1:87) is an ok scale for those with smaller young ones and after looking at the next size up (that being O scale) is a viable option to keep kids happy without spending a lot of money for additional pieces.  For this scale a 30 foot high tree will be approximately 4 & 1/8 inches tall.  A standard 40 foot box car will measure about 5 and 1/2 inches long.

S Scale (or S gauge)—American Flyer trains by Lionel (1:64) does not have the needed items like engines and cars to keep the kids or you happy.  I did a brief check on the Lionel site for S gauge items and did not see one engine listed.  No engine means no way to run your train.  While Lionel is not the only S gauge maker out there, the S gauge is not made by very many manufacturers.  One benefit of the S gauge is that the 1:64 scale is the scaled size of the blister pack Hot Wheels, i.e. the first edition and the treasure hunt cars.  It’s one cheaper way to add items to an S gauge layout if you want to use this scale.

O Scale (1:48) are very popular toy trains. Lionel continues to make trains for this scale as do a few others like Atlas. MTH also makes model trains in O and other scales.  While O scale trains are easily handled by children they are pricey and that needs to be considered when putting a layout of this scale together.  Also there are 2 different styles of O Scale trains; there is the trains that run on a 2 rail system and those that run on a 3 rail system.  The third rail runs in the middle of the outer rails and is used for power.  Once you decide to run this scale there are additional decisions you need to make, but for now I will not go into that.

G Scale (1:22.5) are for indoor use, but are especially suited for a garden train that is setup outside.  This scale is a great idea for a “life-like” setup in a play room that the kids can have their own made up town with crossings and use their imagination to create buildings like houses with cardboard that they can fit into and watch the train go by.  Other manufacturers that make this large scale are Aristo-Craft, Bachmann, and USA Trains among others.  However, with this scale it is very expensive to get a “town” size layout going as I described above.

 

Having those pieces of knowledge in place, just where do I start?  There are a couple of places you can start depending on what you have to work with;

• If you have a 10 foot by 10 foot area to work with than you are in fairly good shape to do whatever it is you decided to do for whatever scale from Z to O.
• If you only have an area of about 5 foot by 5 foot than you become limited on what you can do with your layout.  If you are at this point or less you should be considering starting an N Scale layout.
• The minimum amount of space that you can run a circle layout for the HO Scale is a square area of 38 inches by 38 inches.  The below description gives you an idea on the room needed for a small circle or oval layout.

In the picture each square is 1 by 1 foot.  The 3 inner circles/ovals are that of HO Scale track with 18 inch radius curves and 9 inch straights when used.  The outer most circle is that of O Scale track using 40.5 inch radius curves.  As you can see the amount of room the most basic O Scale setup takes.  While the smallest HO Scale circle in blue is just over 3 foot by 3 foot square, the smallest O Scale circle takes up a 7 foot by 7 foot square.  The middle 2 ovals are the HO Scale circle with one piece of straight track on each side (brown) and the HO Scale circle with two pieces of straight track on each side (red).  When you add the 2 pieces of 9 inch straights to each side of the HO circle you do not even take up a 5 foot by 5 foot square.  Even without an N Scale circle in that picture you have an idea of its smaller size when comparing the HO Scale circle to the O Scale circle.

Are you confused yet?   If not, you might want the Aspirin and Rolaids.  Once you have decided on how much room you have to work with then you have to decide on what size train you want to run, or go by what is safest for your kids to run.  The biggest thing to remember is that the smaller the train is the more small parts there are to handle, and if it applies to your kid(s) ages that will be around the trains the more parts to put in their mouth.  So just what is right for you and your kids to work with?  Have you decided that those involved are old enough and like the N Scale size and its possibilities, or are you looking for a larger scale?  For those who are not yet sure what scale to start with or for those who are looking to learn a little more, then let’s continue on.

Working from small on up the basic idea of the N and HO scales are the same and more often than not when something is made in N scale it is due to be made in HO scale and vise-versa.  The hardest thing to decide with these 2 scales is what track you want to use.  Each manufacturer makes their own track and it is better to think that track from one company will not match up with track from another company without the use of an adapter that will connect the 2 different tracks together.  The other consideration is to what your track will be sitting on.  If you are going to place it on the floor with nothing under it than getting a track with roadbed on it is the better choice.  Though roadbed track is slightly more everyone will get more enjoyment of running the train over running to get the tweezers to pick out the carpet fibers that get caught up in the wheels as it goes around the floor on track without roadbed.

There are a few things you can start with besides a basic the basic flat circle or oval.  You can consider things like trestles or bridges or a crossing gate when starting your layout to add a little fun to watching the train go around.

If you have the room to create a layout where you will be able to have more than one train on your track you have one more decision to make.  When selecting the engines, especially for N scale, the biggest consideration is whether or not to invest in the DCC style engines.  With DCC engines, and the right type of controller, you have the ability to run several trains at once on your layout.

Without getting technical the basic idea of the way a DCC engine and the DCC controller work is like having a radio transmitter and the radio.  If you look at the Bachmann E-Z DCC Controller it looks like a 10 channel remote control.

The engine’s DCC chip will be programmed by the controller into one of the 10 spots on the controller.  The controller then works like a transmitter with each engine on the layout listening for its code to be sent to it and from there that engine that heard its code sent to it will be controlled by the controller until a different channel is selected and the controller starts to control another engine on the layout.

Most HO Scale engines that are produced now are DCC ready and you can install a DCC Decoder without too much hassle.  However if you come across an engine you like that was produced 3 to 5 years ago you might need to check to see if it was made DCC ready. 

The other engine consideration that goes along with DCC is sound.  Sound is separate from DCC, but you need DCC to have sound from the engine itself.  Having a sound chip within the engine can add up to another $100 per engine.  For simple layouts having a sound system, like that of MRC, is a more cost efficient way to have sound on your layout.

When selecting train cars to place on your layout you will find there are two types to purchase.  One is a ready to run (RTR for short) style that you take out of the box and put straight on the track and go.  The other style is in kit form.  The kits are definitely cheaper than a ready to run car, but as the word says, the kit means you have to assemble it.  For a beginner and for just starting a layout the basic kits from a manufacturer like Athearn for boxcars and their tankers are simple enough to assemble that the little extra work is a big money saver.  Depending on what you purchase you can at times get 3 kits, if not 4 kits when you buy on sale, for the price of 1 ready to run car.  With the simple boxcar, tanker kits all you need is a little super glue, mostly to secure a metal weight to part of the car, and a screw driver to attach the wheels and the coupler in place.  In case you are not too familiar with train terms, the coupler is what attaches the cars to each other.  The metal weight that comes in both ready to run and kit train cars helps in keeping the cars on the track and decreases the chance of a derailment.

You will find that train engines also come in these two forms of ready to run and kits.  The engine however is most often pre-assembled with the motor and wheels attached to the frame.  You may or may not find an engine kit that you really have to assemble from scratch and screw the motor and wheels onto the frame.  The engines in kit form are still ready to run, however you have to put the railings on and depending on the kit you will need to also install the little number boards that trains have on the front and back that usually show the trains number on them as well as the horn (as shown above the cab in the picture below) if your engine comes with this feature and possibly some other parts that are for looks.  Also, with an engine kit the railings, if they are metal, will not be painted as the ready to run engines are.

With metal railings you have to actually assemble the railing before you can attach it to the engine.  A metal railing comes with the long bar, that is the hand part of the railing, and then each vertical support railing comes with an eye like a needle and you need to slide the support railings on the long hand rail.  From there you can start putting the railing on the engine and when you have the railing on you can clamp the needle eye shut so the vertical railings stay straight and in place.

Athearn is one manufacturer now that is using plastic railings instead of the old metal style.  The plastic railings do come painted and in one piece and once on the engine it looks like you purchased a ready to run model.  While you do save money on kit style engines, it’s not always the best way to get a layout started.  There are some engines that are ready to run that are cheap enough (around $50 and under) especially here on EBay that for beginners to use are just as good as the engines that run around $150.

So you have an idea about how you are going to set up the track and an idea about the engines and the cars, but these engines are not battery powered.  So just how do you get the train to move?  Not all manufacturers make a power supply and not all manufacturers that make power supplies make the engines and cars. So where does that leave you and your decisions?  A good place to start with the N and HO scales is MRC and for the O and G scales Lionel are two of the more popular manufacturers when you do a search for "power supply" or "power pack".  Bachmann and NCE also do a good job with their power supplies.

The last piece of this complex puzzle is what type of train do you like?  Do you like all boxcar trains, tankers, coal trains or a mix and match of various types of train cars?  Certain types of cars are harder to find than others.  If you are interested in coal cars and are interested in specific road names, i.e. Union Pacific or Burlington Northern, you are limited to a point to which manufacturer you can get those types of cars from.  If you are more interested in tank cars and boxcars it allows you to find and purchase items from just about any manufacturer.  While it may or may not matter to you or even your kids, one last thing to consider is what types of engines pull what types of cargo.  Coal trains have a set of engines that pull the coal cars; passenger cars have their type of engines that pull those cars and so on and so forth.

While there are still some other considerations, particularly once you get into the O and G scales, the above information should help in your understanding of the room need and what you need to get the layout and train started from scratch for the first time.  While I hope you find this helpful you should still find the need to ask questions with your local train store when getting things started.  When choosing items remember to take into consideration what your young one can handle while running a train. When adding the additional features that are out there don't overwhelm the young ones.