I thought I'd take another's suggestion and keep the starting post short, since it will (optimistically :) be on the top of all of the pages to come.

I started railroading when I convinced my family to build a 4'x4' N-scale cookie-cutter layout in high school in the mid 70's. College intervened, and in ~2000 I bought a bunch of Athern HO kits from a hobby shop going out of business. A lot has changed since even 2000. So how can I get myself oriented? What would you suggest?

Now I have a son and an attic just begging for a railroad, actually at least two roads, since he has always wanted a permanent place to set up his Lionel train. The other is likely to be an N-gauge train because of the space available.

Well you have made the first step by asking questions, I would suggest a visit to the local library to see if they have any "How To" books on the shelves and if so have a quick browse through them and if you consider them useful head for the local hobby shop and purchase/order them. also researching on the net is definately worth the time spent, there are a lot of sites out there with helpful articles, hints and tips and of course keep coming back here as there is a mine of information to be had, answers to your questions and opinions offered. I have found this to be a great and friendly community which is always willing to help and inspire those either new to the hobby or just returning to it after a long hiatus and I speak from experience because it has done so for me.

Top ten books to get? Depends on what scale you elect to model in.

For example, our own Marty McGuirk's updated book on modeling in N scale is a good beginner's option if you're modeling in N.

Here's a good book on basic model railroading from Kalmbach - but you can get it on Amazon used for as little as $3 and some change.

Once you get to the scenery stage, there's our own scenery DVD volumes 4 & 5. This series shows you going from bare benchwork to a completely finished scene, step by step.

That's not ten, and it's not all books, but it's a good start.

I agree with Joe about knowing what scale to deal with. From your questions, it's obvious that you want to educate the newcomer in HO model railroading. The World's Greatest Hobby has a good video to introduce follks to the hobby in general and that would be the best way to begin and once a scale is selected, go on from there to more specific material.

The best advice I have in general is that this hobby is a journey, not a destination - sure, we all aim for the finished product, but that finished product alone is really nothing more than the proverbial model on a hill. [Ahhhh Camelot!]  It's really dull without the community behind it.

You already have access to the greatest resource for learning about model railroading, becasue today the community is strong on the internet - the well is deep and you will not drain it in a lifetime, maybe not even ten lifetimes, if you take the journey as your way of life.  In the old days I'd say the best beginning is to pick up a subscription of RMC or MR, and let the pages get you to where you want to go.  Now, you can get ten years and ten differnet mags worth of information in a single afternoon!

Catalogs are easier.  If you want the qick and dirty, get the Walthers.  it gives you a pretty good market cap - the upper price you might pay for things!  From there places like ebay will surely liberate your greenbacks form your leatherbacks!!

Everything comes with a learning curv; those who seem frustrated or annoyed by this fact seem to be the people who don't go to far, or finish the hobby awfully quick before oving on to another interest.  You're going to have to learn everything - somethings you'll learn by reading other's experience, some things you'll learn by your own expense.  That's where the journey will take you!  In time, you'll be a better judge of roads and conditions and conveyance; in the meanwhile, be prepared for a couple hard knocks here and there.  We've all been there!

There isn't a universal set of ten books or any number of books; If you're into books, you'll be building your own library just as we all built our libraries.  In time you'll know which books you want and which aren't worth your time.I found Armstrong's trackplanning book to be very strong in practical arrangments, though it isn't the most inspiring in the ways of creative new trackplans - it's a set of rules!  But it's a good set of rules, once you understand how it all goes together!

I also enjoyed the MR articles form John Allen, but it may be difficult to find those - though I bet anybody here and there with access might make a copy for you. 

Do you have or know of a FAQ for getting started in model railroading? I'm wondering about things like:

Starting with the advertisers here is a great start - once you get your feet wet with the internet I think you'll discover the options are almost overwhelming!  Most suppliers now have their own websites too, you'll just have to learn the power of Google!

The makers you used to know are in many different places now, and there's new suppliers in their place.  Athearn is still around, under horizon.  You might have good luck at trainshows, and if you learn how to use ebay [and get to like it] you'll find you just about have access to everything you could ever imagine.

This is a journey - budget wisely - and enjoy reading!  There's ten years of material on the intenet now that I think about it!

That's my advice... :D

I consider this to by my Essential Library:

"Track Planning for Realistic Operation", John Armstrong

"How to Build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery, 3rd ed", Dave Frary (2nd is great too, and cheap on ebay)

"How To Build Model Railroad Benchwork", Linn Wescott

"Realistic Model Railroad Operations", Tony Koester

"A Modeler's Guide to Freight Yards", Andy Sperandeo

"The Railroad, What It Is, What It Does", John Armstrong (out of print)

Model Railroad Planning Magazine.. any year you can get your hands on.

"222 tips" and "303 tips" by Dave Frary. Available as cheap pdf downloads on his website. I bought these as a kid when they came out and they still provide me useful ideas.

I would also recommend shelling out $5 for an online membership to OPSIG for one year.. it includes 4 downloadable PDF issues as well giving access to a list of people who host operating sessions open to OPSIG members. Its how I got into the local "Op Till You Drop" annual operating weekend in my area.

I would supplement these books with scale specific books and books that feature project model railroads from soup to nuts that are recent enough to cover current techniques. For DCC I recommend the web. If you are interested in DCC theory, the book "Digital Command Control - the comprehensive guide to DCC" Ames, Friberg & Loizeaux (I recently discovered Ames is the same Stan Ames whose garden railroad I visit regularly!). Its an older book so is not as useful for product info.

Chris

though I do remember reading your long thread on scenery building. I'm surprised that N scale is different enough to need its own book. I'll check it out.

Even though most of my stock is HO, I am leaning toward N because of the space/features I want to work with.

These are the books I have been reading or re-reading, most bought over the years. A bit heavy on John Armstrong, wot?

• Track Planning for Realistic Operation - John Armstrong
• Freight Yards - Andy Sperandeo
• Model Railroad Scenery - Dave Frary
• The Classic Layout Designs of John Armstrong
• 20 Custom Designed Track Plans - John Armstrong
• How to Build Model Railroad Benchwork - Linn Wescott
• One Hundred and One Track Plans for Model Railroaders - Linn Wescott

I was a little surprised about that last one. From what I had read, I thought it would just be 101 plans. But it goes into detail about how to pick a plan, modify it, join two or more. Quite an education. On the other hand,the designs look a little old, with lots of access hatches and not much of the walk around approach I have been seeing lately. Has anyone done a similar job more recently? Still, I'd recommend it.

PS I should have read ChrisNH's post before writing this. Still, confirmation of good books.

Don't buy a lot of equipment until you decide what you want to model.  I wanted to do everything at once when I staerted and at the time there was no internet, but there was discount mail order train stores mostly in NYC with big three page ads in Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman.  I ordered a bunch of locomotives before I decided what railroad I wanted to model, and even after I decided on the Santa Fe, I ordered more before I found out what locomotives the SF had or what era various locomotives ran in.  The result was that over 1/2 of the locomotives I bought in those early days were not even Santa Fe prototypes.  Of course as a SF modeler, I've since learned that many manufacturers offer a version of virtually every locomotive they make in red & silver warbonnet whether the SF had that type or whether they actually painted it red & silver or not.  It is much cheaper to buy books and do research on the net before you start buying locomotives and rolling stock.

Well, Ken, I'll partly answer your first question, and half-answer your third question:

#1. I'm not too sure about 10 books, but I know at least 3 right off the back of my hand.  All 3 are written by Pelle K.Soeberg (the model railroading guru of our time) : First is Mountain to Desert (Out of print,still avalable through some on-line retailor and hobbyshops) , where he goes into detail on how he built his fictional Union Pacific Danville & Donner Pass layout then there is Done in a Day where he covers all of the techniques on how to wether his locomotives and rolling stock ( I did some of his techniques, and got great results) and Essential Model Railroading Scenery & Techniques (exactly that, it teaches you how to build land-forms, trees and vegatation, and waterways)

#2. ( I'm not too sure about this question. The best I can think of is to start with what's advertized in the magazines.) I will say, if you want to see something different, then go to smaller companies, like what is listed below:

1. Cannon and Company - http://www.cannonandco.net/ - Lots of exelent detail parts for diesel locomotives. You could basically scratchbuild a locomotive from the frame up with just these parts and some styrene
2. Railyard Models - http://railyardmodels.com/  - exelent resin craftsmen kits, comparable to the Walthers railcar kits. Very easy to build (as long as you follow directions) I would reccomend the Penn Central X-79  boxcar kit for your first build. It's the easiest.

#3. Nothing has happened to Athern. Yes they were bought out by Horizon Hobbies a few years ago, but are still in buisness (Don't look for the blue box kits,though. Unless if you go to a model train show, you won't find them, as Athern discontinued them last year)

I too bought a bunch of stuff, mostly off of e-bay, before I really decided what I wanted to model!  So I'm giving some stuff away to the neighborhood kids, looking at other stuff to see how I can make it less modern (1865-1900 steam)  Heck, I even bought some stuff in the wrong scale!  I'm doing HO! 

But it's being really fun to unpack all the stuff I haven't seen in 5 years, see what I have, what doesn't fit, what can be adapted, what can't.  And in the process the neighbors are starting their own layouts!