Hello, all! I grew up on Lionel trains. After I left for college, my younger brother and Dad spent a couple of years making a respectable HO railroad. My sons have fond memories of playing with that HO set with their uncle and now love trains. We just returned from a trip to Alaska and all fell in love with the Alaska Railroad. So here's our plan: turn a good portion of my son's bedroom into an HO version of the Alaska Railroad with the highlights from our trip miniaturized in the display. Sounds good, so far, right?
Well, frankly, I'm feeling overwhelmed. I merely played with trains as a boy and never tackled any serious train modeling or electrical work. After reading through many, many pages on this website (a great resource, by the way!), I've got a few big questions:
(1) Electrical plan: Would love to have independent control of two trains. I think that means DCC, right? If so, is there a really, really simplified how-to out there so I don't have to spend hundreds of hours with a soldering iron and have to go back to school to get an electrical engineering degree? If DCC can't be simplified, then maybe old-school DC is the way go. Is that ok to do in 2014? What percent of engines sold today are DC vs DCC? Electrical work is not the part of modeling that I'm looking forward to- it's a necessity, I understand, but the fun part will be running the train with my son and working on scenery, etc. Need simplest, possible way to get reliable electricity working and would prefer as complete a kit purchase option as possible.
(2) Track plan: I want to minimize the time necessary to get to the stage where a train is actually running. I really like the idea of buying a package deal that has already been planned out, refined, and the parts collected, like that Altas offers. However, I've read here that track availability and quality may not be the best with Atlas. I don't have to have "the best" and my goal is not to have a mirror image of real life, but rather enjoy a fun project that my son can really participate in while remembering great family time in Alaska. That means the train and track must work, but don't have to made of solid gold, if you catch my drift. In particular, we were looking at Atlas plans HO-10, 22, or maybe 16. I'm sure there are many other options, too- the important thing is that it should fit in the room (room dimensions 13' x 12') and still allow for bed and furniture, so I'm thinking maximum table size is 13' x 6'. Also, it would be nice to be able to run two trains on it at once so both sons can participate. Also, we plan on passenger cars so need adequate space for those turns, whatever "adequate" might be!
One son is 6 and he really is excited about this project, but if the trains don't actually run before he's 17, I think he'll lose interest and the project will be a failure. I don't want that. Would appreciate any and all advice regarding "getting started" information and resources, and maybe some estimation of time commitment to get to a running status. Many thanks!
Well, frankly, I'm feeling overwhelmed. I merely played with trains as a boy and never tackled any serious train modeling or electrical work. After reading through many, many pages on this website (a great resource, by the way!), I've got a few big questions:
(1) Electrical plan: Would love to have independent control of two trains. I think that means DCC, right? If so, is there a really, really simplified how-to out there so I don't have to spend hundreds of hours with a soldering iron and have to go back to school to get an electrical engineering degree? If DCC can't be simplified, then maybe old-school DC is the way go. Is that ok to do in 2014? What percent of engines sold today are DC vs DCC? Electrical work is not the part of modeling that I'm looking forward to- it's a necessity, I understand, but the fun part will be running the train with my son and working on scenery, etc. Need simplest, possible way to get reliable electricity working and would prefer as complete a kit purchase option as possible.
(2) Track plan: I want to minimize the time necessary to get to the stage where a train is actually running. I really like the idea of buying a package deal that has already been planned out, refined, and the parts collected, like that Altas offers. However, I've read here that track availability and quality may not be the best with Atlas. I don't have to have "the best" and my goal is not to have a mirror image of real life, but rather enjoy a fun project that my son can really participate in while remembering great family time in Alaska. That means the train and track must work, but don't have to made of solid gold, if you catch my drift. In particular, we were looking at Atlas plans HO-10, 22, or maybe 16. I'm sure there are many other options, too- the important thing is that it should fit in the room (room dimensions 13' x 12') and still allow for bed and furniture, so I'm thinking maximum table size is 13' x 6'. Also, it would be nice to be able to run two trains on it at once so both sons can participate. Also, we plan on passenger cars so need adequate space for those turns, whatever "adequate" might be!
One son is 6 and he really is excited about this project, but if the trains don't actually run before he's 17, I think he'll lose interest and the project will be a failure. I don't want that. Would appreciate any and all advice regarding "getting started" information and resources, and maybe some estimation of time commitment to get to a running status. Many thanks!