BEGINNER question (i stress the first word)

[kamikaze]

hey guys, i was going through my dad's attic, (well, actually my dad's attic was placed in a storage unit, but whatever) and in the unit was a mysterious box i did not recognize. I opened teh box to find teh remnants of our model train set. it is a Bachmann HO Union Pacific modern train set, with a diesel 866 loco. most of the cars were in peices, but i put them together. teh box only had about 5 lengths of track, a power supply, and some signage and grade elevation parts. needless to say... its mostly junk. (the caboose, 2 box cars, and a tanker is usable... but the rest has seen better days, the loco, a UP 866,  is ruined.), after discovering this, i remembered how much fun we had with it (he had a layout built 20 years ago but the box just has the leftovers from that) and wanted to bring it all back. so i guess i'm going to spend the next decade of my life persuing railroad modeling. but since i was 6 when we did this.. i dont remember hardly anything. and he wasnt a professional by any means, so i'm sure you guys would have way advanced what we were even doing. heh.

my frist question is this... i want this model of loco, http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=523, however i see there is a dcc model of the same here http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=1476. question is, right now my 'set' (lol) is not dcc. it is just regular old school 80s power. will a dcc loco work on the old setup (are they backwards compatible?) or will i have to get a regular loco for now, and wait a couple years until i have a grasp on teh fundementals before i switch to dcc, then get the dcc loco? and i've seen mention of dcc supporting sound... that one didnt say... would anyone know of a UP GP40 that supports sound? or is that a completely seperate deal? i want to start of with a regular power set-up, learn how to do tracks and stuff, learn some scenery fundamentals, and otehr things, then do another set-up in DCC after i figure out what i'm doing

next question, i am leaning FAR more to the modern era modeling, than yesteryear. as far as modern era goe sthere are a couple a techniques of weathering i want to apply (graffiti, heavy rust, oil spillage, and so on) is there a book, or video, or website or something that details a good amount of how to achieve certain looks? types of paint and techniques and so on? anything would help.

last question, i want my set-up build to be highly focused on white-collar america. huge skyscrapers and what not, and have teh trains be more a fixture of the wolrd, not the blatant focus. i came up with an idea of having the set-up be double layers. the top layer would have a train yard at the back, which does loop around the town for fun, and a trolley system that runs through the heart of downtown, but the main empahsis would be the bottom layer, i want to have a plexiglass window around the thenre bottom layer, and have a bustling subway system running under the city. with several stations, gang hide-outs, and so on. however i thought it would be interesting if i added 1 station on the top, and had that particular subway dip down through a tun to go under teh city, and then back up to hit teh station again, i'm getting teh idea from teh Runaway Mine Cart ride at Six Flags Over Tx. if anyone has ridden it, you know how at teh end it drops out, if you havent ridden it, a video is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fPMZ4l8Y4w, anyway, i realize that the rollercoaster cars are all like, 3 feet in lngth, whereas a loco and train cars are liek 80 ft or so, so you have to have an extremley gradual grade.... would there be a way to do this without having a 12 inch wide hole? i guess it sounds 'toy like,' and if it comes to it, i may have teh city built up, and have it like teh station is at teh bottom of a 70 foot wide 20 ft. deep starcase (ho scale of course), and have the train just come out of a tunnel, and back in. bothw ould be decent, the latter being more realistic but the former sounds more fun. heh. i guess thats all. peace.
-keith

[Hunt]

For a beginner, the following link is a good place to start accumulating information about model railroading and what is required. Read all the articles.

http://www.trains.com/mrr/default.aspx?c=art&id=15

What you actually do in this hobby will be determined mostly by,
  •   Sustained interest
  •   Space you have for your model railroad layout
  •   Money available to spend
  •   Time you can devote to the hobby
  •   Necessary skills you have and the ones you are willing and capable of developing

[SteamGene]

Keith,
I think the layout you describe should be your second or third layout - at a minimum.  Begin simply and learn the basics.  Perhaps the original layout, or parts of it, can be incorporated in layout two or three.  Since you want to go modern, something a bit larger than 4X8 is necessary, but a table layout of 5X10 in a gargage or basement/attic would be a good start. 
Gene

[pdlethbridge]

You have to start somewhere. Small to start with it as part of a larger plan. One Railroader from a while back, John Allen, had a railroad called the Gorre & Daphetid. It started as a small 4' x 6' ( it may have been smaller ) and grew to fill his basement. There have been many articles about this railroad.
Another is the current Railroad of George Sellios, the Franklin & South Manchester, the founder on Fine Scale Miniature kits. He also started small but has a beautiful layout now. A little google research for both these layouts will give you access to lots of photos and tons of ideas.
http://www.horailroad.com/fsm/fsmlayout0.html
http://www.gdlines.com/

[Conrail Quality]

As for the whole DCC issue, I would spend the extra $20 or so to get the DCC equipped locomotive. Most DCC equipped locomotives (including all the ones Bachmann sells) are backwards compatible with regular DC. But if you decide later to switch over to DCC, you will not need to rewire the locomotive. Sound is a completely different thing altogether. If you do not have a DCC system, you will not be able to fully use the sound feature, which costs around $100 or so additional. So I would forget about sound for now.

Timothy

[kamikaze]

all good info. thanks =)

[wjstix]

Well there are a fair number of models out there that are sound-equipped and will work either on DC or DCC. You might not be able to adjust and access everything, but if you're OK for now just being able to honk the horn and ring the bell along with the 'automatic' diesel rumble sounds you should be OK. I'd lean towards getting one or two really good quality sound equipped engines rather than 6-8 "OK" (cheap) engines.