Hello Everyone:

I have had a lot of people over the years ask me questions about building a train layout.

in HO scale the most common layout is the simple 4' x 8', you can do a lot in this space and it is a great starter.

When building a layout, there is a lot of factors that you have decide upon when building a layout.

what era do you wish to focus on for the layout, steam?, diesel?.

then you have to decide on the radius of the curves being used for the layout 22" or 18" these are the most common ones used, there is smaller ones and larger ones.

is the layout going to stay at 4' x 8'? or are you going to add on later?.

on a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood you can have two ovals, one 22" radius curved oval, and a 18" radius curved oval.

but a big decision on all of this is the engines.

some engines can run on 18" and larger radius curves, while some engines require 22" and larger radius curves, the same thing goes for freight and passenger cars.

Green Frog Productions puts out a nice dvd set on how to build a train layout, it is for a 6' x 10' layout, but the basic ideas are all there.

Atlas Trains has a free downloadable program called RTS, it helps you design a layout using code 83 or code 100 track, it even has the basic table outlines to help out.

Atlas and Walthers produce all sorts of books to help in building a layout.

The main factor is the space you are going to use, after you figure that out, you can decide the rest.

as a recommendation nickel silver track is great if you are doing a permanent layout, the reason I state this is the fact that most steel alloy truck corrodes and rusts, you are constantly cleaning it, where the nickel silver track is easy to clean.

as for track, code 100 is the most common track being used with most train sets, and bachmann e-z track is the most popular.

E-Z track is train tracks that simply snap together, they have a molded roadbed that really helps when building a layout.

there is two types of e-z track.

the grey roadbed e-z track is the nickel silver e-z track.

the black roadbed is the steel alloy e-z track.

there is a lot of other companies like Kato, Marklin and others that produce tracks with roadbed, but the most common is E-Z track by Bachmann.

a lot of people who are serious about details and such will lay their own roadbed then put the track on it, this requires a lot of patience and time, you literally have to make sure all of the tracks are lined up and connected properly as well as the roadbed being done evenly.

now if you plan on buying a starter train set for the layout, most bachmann sets have decent trains to run on the layout, then you have Athearn, Walthers, and Life Like Proto Series.

All of the above mentioned sets are decent if you get the starter ones, if you get a bachmann one, get a set that was produced after the year 2000, most of the bachmann sets produced before 2000 are junk in my opinion.

the older bachmann locos used a pancake motor on their diesels and on some of their steam engines, the motor has a lot of issues and it is hard to get parts for.

also the older steam engines by bachmann produced before 2000 have a bad problem where the drive wheels get loose, there is a crappy plastic tube that connects the wheels and due to age they crack and break.

the nice part is the fact bachmann has a replacement program, for a small fee they will replace the locomotive, if you purcahsed it new, fill out the warranty card, most of the newer items are covered under the warranty which does not require any service charges.

Life Like train sets, Tyco train sets, these are not train sets for layout use, these trains are more toy like than anything, great for kids to play with or collectors who want something for the shelf.

also there is a new thing called dcc, a lot of people really like it, Digital Command Control.

basically there is a micro chip inside each engine and you control them by a programmable train controller.

it controls the speed, the sound if you have a sound unit installed, lighting and more.

this is great if you plan on using it, it is a good option, but not all engines are DCC.

you have analog which is controlled by any basic train controller, where DCC requires a special controller.

you cannot run both on the same track at the same time unless you have a dual mode decoder on the dcc engine, dual mode will let an engine run in non dcc mode.

no dcc mode is what most older engines and some newer engines are, DC analog.

you can convert most engines to dcc provided the motor is isolated, one place that is great for dcc stuff is Loys Toys, that place is very helpful.

I don't use DCC on my layout yet, I am old fashioned, so it will be a while before I actually try.

See my layout is 6' x 10' and I really don't see a need for dcc in that space.

I posted all of this as helpful info for someone who wants to build a layout.

take care and enjoy your hobbies.