im 41 and my step son is 3, i bought a "n" scale explorer set to set up for him and now i think im the kid.. anyway i want to start setting up a more perminent layout. well im looking for a starting point. any ideas out there for "n" scale? i have been reading your posts on here and looked at a few web pages but cant get any thing with out paying for it. and yes i know "make it my own" is the best way and it will be. but i never had a train before and now im hooked after looking at all the cool stuff out there for train modeling. as for my step son he owns 2 wooden train sets and the thomas plastic set. well worth the money to see the look on his face and watch him play for hours with it. Looks like me just smaller 

Welcome to the hobby!

I'm 40 and though I've been in the hobby for 38 of those years, I'm just starting into N-scale myself. The best advice I can offer is advice I'm trying to follow myself: start small with an experimental layout. I'm building a 36"x69" (3'x5'9") layout with a loop of track and a couple of sidings. No electrical blocks nor DCC control -- if you don't know what those are, don't worry, you soon will. It's a test bed to explore new scenery methods, and just get a feel for N-scale. In the past, I modeled in HO (which is double the size of N), and I'm finding that 1) I love that I can do so much more in less space, and 2) a cheap pair of drugstore reading glasses are an absolute must for seeing what I'm doing!

I would recommend subscribing to a model railroad magazine or two - such as Model Railroader (http://mrr.trains.com) or Railroad Model Craftsman (http://www.rrmodelcraftsman.com). Both of their publishers also carry magazines on real (prototype) railroads and they publish various books on prototype and model railroads. Your local public library *might* have some of these books, but that can be hit or miss.

There are also free electronic magazines / blogs - such as Model Railroad Hobbyist (http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com) and Model160 (http://www.model160.com) you can read.

You don't say where you live. Depending on the area, you might also have such resources as your local model railroad hobby shop, a model railroad club, train shows, etc.

I wish I could offer more free resources, but I've come up a bit dry on them too.

I hope that is of some help.

~AJ~

my suggestions are to make the widest curve you can because when you start buying bigger engines they might derail and to make the track as level as possible this will save you a pile of headaches later on if any of you would like to see photo's of my model railroad clubs layout email me, my adress is [email protected] as i am only 15 i don't know everything but can give you some advise

thank you both for the welcome and the info i will look at the web pages and try to get an idea. also alot of people i talk to say keep them flat they don't climb good. but i am looking for a bridge that i can use for the E-Z track system and ideas. i am from buffalo new york. thank you again...

for the bridge i would suggest using the rail joiners to change to snap track in the same code then get an atlas bridge (has track on it already) use another piece of snap track then go back to the E-Z track as for one that is already compatible i don't know