Newbie who hasn't touched a train in almost 20 years....just bought a small set-up!


J

JackReacher

New Member
When I was very small (maybe 4-5 until I was about 10?) I remember having a fairly extensive HO set-up that my dad and I used to mess around with. I remember we had a complete Amtrak train, a trolley set-up, several other locomotives, lots of rolling stock, including some unique cars, as well as a handful of buildings and cars. I am not sure, but I think all of it got sold at a garage sale at some point when we moved.

Anyway, fast forwarding to yesterday, I spotted a thread on another forum I frequent about someone getting gifted an old HO train set that a neighbor was looking to get rid of before moving. That got me thinking about my old train stuff and the fun I used to have. I recently moved into a new home that has about 1700' of unfinished basement that I have no immediate plans for, and it occurred to me that it'd be perfect space to see if the hobby had the same draw as it once did.

Today at lunch I went to a local hobby shop and wandered around. I picked up a box set that had two locomotives, an E-Z Command DCC Controller, a few pieces of rolling stock, and enough track for a small oval (maybe 32" x 56"? ) with one short siding. I also bought a couple other cars separately, one to haul steel coils and one to haul steel bars (I'm in the steel industry). Then I went to Menards and bought a few pieces of 2'x4' hobby sheeting and some 2"x4"s. When I got home I whipped up a 4'x6' table and put the track together. Nothing exciting or complex, but enough to get an itch.

So now I figure I better do some research before spending too much money!! So I ask you for any beginner tips or pieces of advice. I will say this, I never expect to be an extreme perfectionist. I just want to have some fun and enjoy a hobby that is good for Midwest winters that keep me inside too much.

Here are some topics I'd like input on right away, if you all would be so kind to oblige. :D

1) What are your thoughts on EZ track? Am I cheating by using it?

2) Are there any specific brands/things to stay AWAY from?

3) Any great resources I should know about for getting good deals, or determining what is a good price to pay for something?

4) What newbie mistakes do I need to beware of?

5) Any comprehensive threads from the past here that are "must reads" for someone like myself just starting out?


Thanks guys.:cool:
 
Welcome back to the hobby, Jack. You actually picked up a good starter set. The E-Z Command system is very basic but more than good enough to get your feet wet with DCC. Part of my layout is E-Z track just because I got it in a set my wife bought me two years ago Christmas. There's nothing at all wrong with the track and it's a great for a starter set since the electrical connections are more reliable than the rail joiners on typical sectional track. I haven't been happy with the E-Z track switches. You'll find you need to get a fine flat file and get the switch points as sharp as possible so they lay flat against the stock rails. As they come from the box, the train has the tendency to pick the points because the the points aren't held tightly against the stock rail and the points are too blunt. Mine are pretty reliable now but it took a little work.

The very next thing you should do is read the beginners guide written by one of members here, Chip (Spacemouse), at http://www.chipengelmann.com/trains/Beginner/BeginnersGuide01.html. It's a very short read but it will get you started on thinking about exactly what you want your model railroad to be. Next, go to http://kalmbachcatalog.stores.yahoo.net/model-railroading-model-railroad-planning.html and order the last three years of Model Railroading Planning. You'll get lots of good ideas and tips from these magazines.

As far as brands and things to stay away from, the only general rule is don't buy things with horn hook couplers. These are almost always poor quality and not well detailed. The Bachmann set has cars and engines with knuckle couplers and that's the minimum you should look for. For anything else you're thinking of buying, post it here and at least a few of us will have had it and can give you our opinions.

There are several good internet sites for trains that most of our members have had good luck using. They all discount prices but there's no one site that has the cheapest prices all the time. The three I use most commonly are www.hobbylinc.com, www.modeltrainstuff.com, and www.toytrainheaven.com. The only site I would warn you away from for sure is www.internettrains.com. Although their prices are good, the service is awful, with slow deliveries and tons of back orders.

The primary newbie mistake is rushing into building your first layout for the sake of getting trains running. That works for about three months until you get bored or frustrated with the poor running quality of the track. You'll then either give up the hobby after throwing a bunch of money down the drain or tear it down and start on layout #2. If you plan and build carefully, layout #1 can be one you will be happy with and stick with for a long time. The best tool for layout planning is free. XtrkCAD can be downloaded at http://www.xtrkcad.org/Wikka/HomePage. It does have a learning curve if you've never used a CAD program but take the tutorials at the web site and use their very extensive help system and you'll figure it out. Plan your layout on XtrkCAD and then post your ideas here. We can look them over and let you know what looks good and what may need changing. Much easier to do it on a computer than ripping up track. :)

There is no one thread with references to threads that would be useful to newcomers although that would be a good project for us to undertake. For now, if you search on a term like "layout planning", you'll come up with plenty of threads that apply to where you're at now. Another one of our members, Josh (jbaakko) has done a great job of starting a web site with lots of useful tips at http://modelrailroadtips.com/index....5eb55221e1699e65a16832&op=Articles;sa=archive so it's well worth reading through.

Just take it slow and deliberately and you'll have a much better model railroading experience. Now that you've got an oval to run your trains, let that satisfy you until you start building the real thing.
 
Thanks for the detailed response! I checked out Spacemouse's layout tutorial last night. I'm sure I'll be referring to it more in the future.

I'll check out some of the other resources you mentioned as well, thank you.
 
I've set up a table in my basement. Actually I have three tables that I have butted up to one another (all the same height). Two are 4'x6' and one is 4'x4'. Right now I think I'm going to set them up in an "L" shape. So I'll have 10' of length on the long sides to work with.

I'm thinking I want some industry at one end (leaning towards a partial steel mill set-up) blending through some warehouses with a small town at the opposite end. Now I'm going to have to work on a track layout.

I'm also already realizing I'm going to have to be scouring the internet and local hobby shops (fortunately I have a couple decent ones within 15 minutes) for deals, this stuff is getting expensive fast. :D



One other question if anyone can help. I have a Bachmann E-Z Command DCC Controller System, and I'm not seeing how I can operate any track switches with it. Do I have to get a different transformer for that, or is there something else I have to get to allow it to switch my tracks?
 
Hello Jack. Glad to see you got one of the better starter sets. I've been in this hobby for over 40 years and my layout is all nickel-silver EZ-Track. On the subject of EZ-Track. There's nothing wrong with using it as long as it laid properly. Contrary to popular opinion it can't just be plopped down and expected to work flawlessly. This is a mistake made by many newbies in their first encounter with the product. The best EZ-Track is the nickel-silver variety on gray roadbed. It costs a bit more but it's easier to keep clean and there's fewer maintenance problems down the road. There are three types of switches (turnouts) you can get. The manual type which is operated directly by you and locks in the direction it's set to, the remote type which can be operated manually or by an electric switch supplied with the turnout and the DCC turnout which is operated by the DCC system. Being that you have an EZ-Command DCC system I would recommend avoiding the DCC turnouts for now. They'll be eating up valuable track power which you'll need for your locos. On the remote turnouts, you'll need an AC power source to power them so they'll switch back and forth. Any regular trainset power pack (DC with AC accessory connectors) will work. The red wire that comes with the turnout connects to the AC terminals on the power pack. The other end of the red wire connects to the electrical switch that came with the turnout. It connects only one way so it's pretty hard to improperly connect it. The green wire attached to the turnout connects to the other connector on the selector switch, the one with three tabs in it. With the power pack plugged in and turned on (if it has a power switch) you should be able to switch the turnout points from one position to the other by simply moving the selector to the position and pressing it down for just a split second, not too long or you'll damage the turnout. On the newer selector switches you need only move the switch to make the turnout change. On the subject of your locos, they're good enough for just starting out but you'll want to get something that's more robust. Here are some brands to check out. Athearn, Atlas, Proto 2000 (Walther's), Walther's. I'm sure others will suggest many more including some that are real wallet busters. Avoid anything that has an MRC decoder in it. If you see a loco that you like that comes with the aforementioned type of decoder see if you can get that type loco without a decoder and have a better brand decoder installed in it.
 
Jack, yes, it does get expensive fast. :eek: Sounds like you're making progress. Steel mills are really cool but they are really expensive and take up a lot of space.

I take it you're askgin about the Bachmann E-Z Command switches. You can run them from 12 volt DC in plug on the back of the command station but I don't recommend it since it's a low powered DCC system to begin with. Buy a cheap used MRC power pack off e-bay and use that for powering switches and lighting. You would cut off the end plug of the switches and wire them to a terminal block. You'd then wire from the teminal block to each slide switch for the railroad switches. The power for the teminal strip would come from the 16 volt AC terminals on the MRC power pack. You can rig up a simple plywood board to mount the terminal strip and the switch controllers. The three shelf wood units they sell at Walmart work well for this since you can mount the terminal strip on the side and mount switch machine controls and put the E-Z Command station and the MRC power pack on the top. You then have a few shelves below to hold extra things like track cleaning stuff and small tools.

I hope I haven't overly confused you. :)
 
Thank you both for the insight. That addressed my question completely, and I'm pretty sure I understand now what I need to do, starting with getting another power pack. :)


I'm not sure yet how much of the steel mill I'll be able to include, due to space and budget, but I'd at least like to have something representing the finish end of things and have some coil cars coming out, as well as ore cars and other appropriate rolling stock on sidings at that end. The main attraction is that is the business I'm in, and there are quite a bit of items at my local shops available to fit my needs, since I'm in a steel making area. We'll see how it goes. I'm sure it will be a very long work in process!!
 
Some modelers have a large backdrop photo or painting of a steel mill with the only physical part being right out at the track. My layout is surrounded on three sides by a repeating cell of a small town. It runs so far then is reversed and runs even farther. People looking at it generally don't realize that half of the backdrop is a mirror image of the other half.
 
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