franmichele

WOW! First off I want to thank all of you who are taking time with a newbie (both on the board and as a modeler) to give me a little advice. First off, I don't think we're going to make model trains a 'heavy' hobby. We both have a lot of other things going and just want to make a simple layout (if that's possible these days... lol) We have a few beginners books on the way and they may help, but there is way too much information out there and it gets pretty overwhelming. Storzech, as far as your advice to stay away from the Power-Loc track, you're a little late. After getting thoroughly screwed on a Bachman N-guage set (which is for sale if anyone's interested) we decided to go with HO and the set we bought was LL with their track - which we like, because it's easy to snap together to get rails aligned properly. Fortunately, we weren't planning to do a large layout w/ reverse loops, etc. At least for the time being, this is going to be very much a KISS setup, with more accent on the layout than the rolling stock. We weren't planning to spend more than a K for the whole setup (which is nothing these days) but that might change if we were to get really involved in the hobby. Babydoc, I'm sending you my Yahoo email addy. Please don't feel obligated to hold the baby's hand all through this project, but maybe we can establish a little dialogue and communicate occasionally. In the meantime, I'll stay in touch on the board too. Big baby hugs to all! Fran

Thanks for the reply. It's great to find someone willing to help a little on this. We just want to have some fun with model raailroading, using trains, buildings and scenery that are realistic and duplicate several 'real-life' places we remember from the past. One thing we've already noticed is that there are a lot of different brands and types of HO trains out there and some of them can get pretty expensive. With the bad experience we've already had with the original N-scale set we bought, we're a little leery about getting in too deep with equipment. As novices it's easy to make costly mostakes when you don't really know what certain trains and equipment are really worth, where the bargains are, which internet companies can be trusted, etc, etc. We were thinking that with all the questions we have about the hobby and the ongoing interaction between us might get a little boring to the other babies out here, so if you want to move it off the board and into email, let us know and we'll giver you an email addy to write to. Thanks again. Fran

Well, this is interesting. I registered here awhile back, but hadn't been on or made any posts for a long time. When I logged in tonite I noticed this thread right away - because we got back into trains about 2 weeks ago after many years w/o a set.. I has a set in my first childhood (this is my second) but hadn't done any model RR for many, many years. Very recently my wife (Mommy) and I decided to get into model railroading because we want to build several locales, including an area where I used to live where the track ran right by my front yard. I used to love hearing those trains roll by. I quickly learned that I'm a total novice now - I don't know DC from DCC or Southern Pacific from Shinola and everything is buku expensive and there's so much out there to choose from that we don't know where to start. We got burned on a Bachman N scale set, then went out and got a Life Like HO set and are currently waiting for some supplies to start our layout. If anyone wants to talk to a total 'train dummy' in diapers, here I am. I need all the help I can get! Fran