Starting-out Need Advice

[myhotrs]

I am planning to build a 4x8 HO set-up. I want some hills and maybe a river. I'm a complete newbie. What do you guys use to make hills and terrain elevations? Is everything glued down? I may need to move the set-up.
Thanks!!
Greg

 

[Gary S.]

I'm just getting into the hobby myself. My first suggestion is for you to get some "beginner's" books. There are plenty of good ones out there. Then, read, read, read. The books are very interesting and have tons of ideas in them.

 

[myhotrs]

I'm just very excited and want to start on something before I get over this. This weekend I'm building my table and want to do "stuff" already

 

[nachoman]

I suggest taking things in steps. Start by building the 4x8 table, and experiment and have fun with different track arrangements. Don't worry about scenery until you get things running the way you like. For minor elevation changes on a layout that may need to be moved - I suggest using styrofoam. You can make your entire tabletop out of styrofoam on a frame of 1x2s, or you can glue the styrofoam to the plywood tabletop. use the pink or blue styrofoam sheets rather than the white stuff - it is much less messy. the styrofoam is great because it is light and can be carved with knives. For elevations above track level - stack foam pieces up and carve them. For negative elevation (below track) - carve the foam base down to the level of your tabletop.

kevin

 

[myhotrs]

Thats great kevin, thanks. Where do I get sheets of the blue or pink styrofoam?

 

[ezdays]

One suggestion is to visit the NMRA website. There's lots of basic info there. Like Gary said, there are plenty of good books ranging from how to build you benchwork to track layouts and scenery techniques. There's even been a couple of series on TV that take you through building a layout.

The point is that it pays to do a bit a research before you find yourself redoing a bunch of stuff.