considering llagas creek aluminum track since its 1 dollar per foot much cheaper then LGB track

[musket the dog]

Just something else to consider that hasn't come up yet, do you need to buy it all at once? Obviously cost is a driving factor here, but as has already been said if that is to the detriment of quality you might come to regret it in the long run. I think of it like tools, buy cheap, buy twice. I have made that mistake enough times in the past.

Would it be possible to build your desired layout in stages and spread the cost of good quality, used track over a longer period? I still don't have a permanent layout but I keep my eye out on here and eBay/Facebook for people selling off large stocks of track at reasonable prices. Slowly I' collecting a decent layout's worth without bankrupting myself. Especially important are points/turnouts, these are very costly brand new for the larger sizes, so when someone advertises one at a decent price it's worth jumping on.

Besides the track once you start building in the larger scales and certainly when outside, you might find the budget for the civil engineering works starts to become more constraining than what you had first imagined too.

 

[dunnyrail]

Just something else to consider that hasn't come up yet, do you need to buy it all at once? Obviously cost is a driving factor here, but as has already been said if that is to the detriment of quality you might come to regret it in the long run. I think of it like tools, buy cheap, buy twice. I have made that mistake enough times in the past.

Would it be possible to build your desired layout in stages and spread the cost of good quality, used track over a longer period? I still don't have a permanent layout but I keep my eye out on here and eBay/Facebook for people selling off large stocks of track at reasonable prices. Slowly I' collecting a decent layout's worth without bankrupting myself. Especially important are points/turnouts, these are very costly brand new for the larger sizes, so when someone advertises one at a decent price it's worth jumping on.

Besides the track once you start building in the larger scales and certainly when outside, you might find the budget for the civil engineering works starts to become more constraining than what you had first imagined too.

I have not mentioned that in this thread but have often in others over the years. It is too easy to look at a big layout and think yes that is for me without the knowledge on starting how much time and effort can be involved in the creation of that empire. We have seen over the years how some have started quite modest and I propose Jimmy in Somerset as just one case of someone (I think) new to the garden railway game starting out modest then building on that as he now is. Few of us are rich enough to emulate another mentioned in the forum from USA who had contractors build his empire and be able to afford rectification of some of the errors that occurred. I was thinking track replacement as one of the worse noted.

Start modest, learn your trade and grow.

 

[JimmyB]

I started mine in 2018, enough for my circuit, including R1s, but as the opportunities arose for track and R3 points I have bought in readiness for expansion.

 

[Paul M]

Start modest, learn your trade and grow.

To be honest, it's probably more fun like that. Once you've filled your space up with track, there's nowhere else to go, so you may as well go slowly