I can’t believe the amount of help and input I’ve gotten from this place in 2 days. All kinds of input, different perspectives, and all with good attitude. I’m glad I found this place. Thanks for making it what it is.

Aloha!

I’m just getting started with model trains and am trying to figure out what brand track to get. I apologize if this has been asked a million times, I did try searching for awhile before joining and posting.

I’m going to start with a small layout with conventional track, but will have a side track to expand off which leads to my questions:

Can different brands be joined together if they are the same code? Do some work better with particular brands?

I guess I am biased once in a while.  I think that doing DCC without a multimeter is like walking in the dark in the woods at night with no moon.  If it beeps, even softly, tells me when the wire is connected, tells me that I’ve got power, tells me how many ohms an unreadable resistor is, or checks to see if I’ve burned out an LED, then I could be happy.  If it costs one tenth of what mine cost maybe it could make someone else happy too.

So we've moved into a new house and I have a 13.5' x 16.5' workshop in the basement.  I've built one side of the workshop, and, if you look at the attached photo, you'll see that I have an 8-foot workbench that is 42" from the floor.  At the far end of the room, you can see my laser cutter and its stand, which is about 48" wide.