New guy from Ohio.


Hunter2678

Member
Hello, from wonderful sunny central Ohio!...jk, we are just coming out of the polar vortex here actually. After going through some boxes recently that contained my childhood dreams and memories, I rediscovered my beloved Bachman John Bull train set. This triggered the glory days as a kid for me and reignited my interest in the hobby, especially since I have 2 small kids now. What better excuse do I need to use when talking with the wife that they "need" and "want" a train set right!!...Any ways Im planning on starting out a little n scale layout in the basement as a test concept for the kids to see if they are interested in it. I'm going with N scale for now due to limited space of around 24" x 60" approx. I have some used Kato rail cars coming along with a non DCC Kato EMD-E9A Union Pacific loco. I'd like to be able to modify this layout in future to DCC so Im looking for tips and advice on the best power supply units, feeders, any other new layout advice,etc. I think Im going to go with Unitrack as well as it seems to be pretty easy and reliable to setup.
 
Welcome to the forum. Plenty of people to help you here. I've never "been" to Ohio, other than to driving through on I-70.

I rediscovered my beloved Bachman John Bull train set.
I really applaud Bachmann for making those vintage era steamers. I have the De Whitt Clinton and the Pegasus.

This triggered the glory days as a kid for me and reignited my interest in the hobby, especially since I have 2 small kids now. What better excuse do I need to use when talking with the wife that they "need" and "want" a train set right!!
I have used model railroading as an educational tool for science, math, history, engineering and even English. So it is a good choice.

Im planning on starting out a little n scale layout in the basement as a test concept for the kids to see if they are interested in it.
Have they been exposed to and do they watch Thomas the Tank Engine shows?

I'm going with N scale for now due to limited space of around 24" x 60" approx. I have some used Kato rail cars coming along with a non DCC Kato EMD-E9A Union Pacific loco. I'd like to be able to modify this layout in future to DCC so Im looking for tips and advice on the best power supply units, feeders, any other new layout advice,etc.
On a layout that small, for n-gauge, just two wires to the track will most likely be fine, but if you want to be certain just put two sets of feeders to the track so they are 1/2 way of the main line away from each other. That way any train would never be more than 3 feet from a feeder. Unless there is something out of the ordinary going on, more than that is overkill.

Check out the electronics area, there have been many prior discussions on wiring for DCC there. Check out the Layouts or N-gauge section, I believe there have been several discussions of Kato Unitrack there.
 
Thanks IronHorse...both kids watch Thomas the train and have the books to boot. My 3.5 yr old daughter actually asked about trains the other day when the local line sounded its crossing horn, so it got me thinking, hey this might be a good time to start a nice little layout for them to enjoy..my son is 1.5 (my avatar) so he's still too young to really understand anything other than the visual part of all this. Thanks for the feeder advice I was figuring on adding 2 like you said just to be safe with the thought of having the ability to add more track later and allowing enough power to run them.
 
Welcome to our forum Hunter. For your space, N scale is probably the best choice. Additionally, check out some of the HO forum threads, as most of that information is also applicable to N scale.
 



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