It is a small room. but for now I'm going to work on the layout I've started.After I've gained more experience I will consider a change.I've had two 4 by 8 layouts in the past,one when I was a kid and one I built for my son ( and now that I think of it it's been over thirty years ,more like forty) and a small n scale when I lived in an apartment. I think I'll be happy with the one I've started now as I (like most most railroaders) never plan to finish.

At the present I have the layout on metal horses and have it set about a foot away from the wall so I have access to both sides.Maybe at a later date I'll go to a wooden frame with casters.I also wanted to thank Hunt for the wiring diagram. It is very clear and I printed it out.
Once I start getting locos I'll have a bunch more questions.You guys are real lifesavers as I don't know what I'd have done without all your advice.

All great suggestions the only one I can't do is expand the layout because of limited space.Thats why it's 7.5 instead of 8 feet, and I had to reduce the last foot to 4 feet in order to get around the layout without running into it.Guess you'd have to see the room to understand.

First I can't thank all of you enough for your very helpful replies.You've answered my wireing questions.I now understand what those connections are on the Bachman switch controllers that came with the track pack.I may replace these later depending on how well they work.My railroad is 7 and a half feet long by 5 feet wide narrowing to 4 feet at one end.It's plywood I scavenged from an old bed and a glass window packing crate.I have it on medal sawhorses and it's pretty sturdy but a little uneven which I hope to fix with track bed from Walthers.It's in a back bedroom so it's nice and dry.
I'm kind of freelanceing. as for as era and operation ,as I figure this is my own little world, but I am going to concentrate on the railroads that ran through town when I was young(about a hundred years ago).These are the B&O, and some others that showed up after the B&O went belly up.
I'll run both steam and diesel in an urban setting.
I spent over 43 years working in a refinery( with some time out in the Army) and have loaded and unloaded hunderds of tank cars( and like anyone who ever loaded them ,ran a few over,not fun)
Any way I'm sure to have many more questions and thank all of you again for being so helpful.

Your right in that it is a DC layout as that is what the Bachman Track Pack is.Thank you for clearing up how to connect from the terminal track to the power pack I actually understood your explanation, now I have to fully understand how to wire the switches to their controllers to the power pack. Do I have to have a terminal strip to do this? It would seem that thats the only way to go from multiple switch controllers to one connection on the power pack.I'm only interested in running one train at a time so that simplifies things , and DCC is a bit too pricy for me.

Thank you so much for your reply ,I'm still a little confused as to how to hook things up,(I'm pretty dense) but there is a book in the Bachman catalog "Easy Model Railroads" that I'm going to get which I hope will help.

I am just getting back into model railroading after a thirty year absence (I'm retired now).I just purchased the Bachman Worlds Greatest Hobby track pack, and am planning to get an MRC power pack and add a couple of extra switches ,but I haven't a clue how to connect the power pack to the terminal track or wire the switches up to the power pack. The instructions that came with the track pack assume you already have a Bachman controller and give little information on how to connect the switches to the controller.It looks like even with a Bachman controller you only have two terminals for accessories and since the wires from the switches have three contacts I'm lost.
I watched all three videos, plus the dvd that came with the set, but these were no help.If someone could steer me in the right direction I'd be very grateful.Oh yeah this is HO scale. Thankyou