I'm just started my journey from the armchair modeler to an active modeling life in the basement. During the preparation for this transition I have acquired some (or better: a lot) tools. I basically got almost anything I read about or I thought it could be useful, or even better I just "needed". 

But how can all this get organized? As you see below I kind of suck at this. Period.

So how do you categorize, store and whatever your model railroad tools?

Placing this here as I'm definitely new to signals (slightly less new to the rest of the hobby, mind). 

I'm looking at adding a searchlight signal (at most two) to what is effectively a 'small n scale switching layout'. I put that in quotes because it's really a scenic area connected to quite a lot of bare staging, some of which may or may not be getting fully modeled later on. 

I've been an HO modeler all of my life and understand and have a good feel for track design (i.e. curve radius, turnout position, etc.).  I am currently a member of the local HO model railroad club and enjoy running my equipment at the club.  However, I still want to build my own layout and do not have too much room at home.  I'm considering N scale.  What I am finding is that all the knowledge I have gained over the past 40 years regarding model railroading and HO scale is quite a challenge to translate to N scale.

Hello. I am a total newbie to the model train hobby. We recently found an old train set in the garage and purchased some extra parts that I believed we needed to get it working from eBay but we are still having trouble. I apologize in advance for not using "proper" terms. 

After doing some online research: