Figured I would stop in and bid all a good morning. Time is 7:38am here in SW Florida. My wife and I picked up a set last night during my dad’s auction. It was the same set I had when I was a kid. The part that set off the memory was the blinking trestle bridge. Anyway, it’s a Bachman Golden Spike set. Nothing major or important, but enough to let Brandi and I get started on our own layout.
What is concerning me is the number of changes now since I was a “youngin’”. I see all this DCC and such, anyone want to give a crash course on this? I see all this remote controlled items and new things out that makes my head swim. Our plan is a larger (half of a two car garage) size layout with maybe 3 to 4 trains on it. I’ll make a “as I go” thread if anyone wants to follow along. I have had a love for trains since I can remember. There was a train that ran up on the hill from my grandmothers house. I think that is what got me hooked on them. Unfortunatley, there are none down here where I live now.
Anyway, enough rambling. I’ll post a picture of the set we got last night. Like I said, it’s nothing super fancy, but I am hoping it’s enough to get us started.
Greetings from Central Florida (Clearwater) at 08:08. Welcome back to the hobby, hope you’re in the States for good. Lots of changes but lots of helpful literature and sites. I’m not a DCC’er (I’m old school DC). You’ve got a huge area to work with, plan well and have lots o’ fun!
Lou
Hello from Southwest PA. Confronting all the new stuff is somewhat daunting if you try to do it all at once. I suggest that you start by getting your feet wet with a simple analog DC setup while you are learning about DCC and all the new stuff. There are a lot of sources on the web and this forum is an excellent place to get your questions answered. Start small and let things develop slowly. Joe
Greetings Troop and welcome to the board . One thing you need to know about DCC is that it isn’t this three headed monster as it may first appear. It’s still a relatively new technology comparatively speaking to the rest of the hobby. Heck scenery techniques your father and mine and even our grand fathers sued are still in use today and are viable ways of doing things. Some things change but many remain the same. all that horse hockey aside why not see if there is a model railroad club some where close by and drop in on them and see what system they use and ask some questions. If there is one thing all model railroaders seem to have in common is their willingness to share information.There ain’t no well guarded secrets in this hobby thats for sure.
It’s my O/P DCC is the only way to go.It has many advantages over DC a few of which are simplified wiring of your layout, consisting of locomotives, with precise, speed control, sound features, the ability to run multiple trains on the same line without the sue of block control just to name a few. One big mistake I made when getting back in to the hobby was not taking the advice of some senior members of a well known model railroad club when I asked what should i look for etc. getting back into the hobby. They all said go DCC you won’t regret it. Trust me if you can operate some of the new com gear and any other gizmos the military has now DCC is going to be like using your cell phone and it will really become that easy.
Sounds like you have a nice layout space to be working in and you should have a blast especially if your wife is into the hobby with you. You’ve been bitten by the bug you are now one of us so don’t try and fight it…lol Glad to have you on the board and to have you back in the hobby.
Welcome to the site trooper. I am guessing you where at Bragg? I am pretty sure the 1st Cav was there when I was in the XVIII my self. Been a long time, wore a steel pot and broke starch back then. [:D]
Do a lot of reading, many things have changed, yet some are still the same. My self, I went DCC about 4 years ago and love it.
Cuda Ken
Actually I was stationed at Ft Hood, TX. I was assigned to C Co 1-12 Cavalry as an M1A2 Abrams crewman. I stayed in the tanks a few years then got moved to operations sgt where I ran the mobile command post (M113A3) for our company. I wound up staying with that same unit from the time I left basic until after I got home from Baghdad. Unfortunatley I got mad as hell at the top chain of command and such due to the losses we took and took my honorable discharge. Found out later that I have all sorts of problems now (Knees, back, vision, etc) so they put me on disability.
As for my train, of course I set it up and played with it most of the day (annoyed the wife who was trying to watch TV LOL). I’ll see if I can post some video of it.