Starting from scratch

[Traingrandad]

Hi and thanks for letting me join.
I am a complete newbie to this and not had a layout of any kind for many years.
I have done quite a bit of research on G scale and hope to build a garden layout of about 60 metres without a lottery win. I am looking at analogue and steam as a preference. Any guidance or tips appreciated.

 

[PhilP]

Welcome!

A lottery win would be most helpful. - Even something from a Premium Bond.

You are amongst friends here.

PhilP.

 

[maxi-model]

Welcome Traingrandad. Where to start ? Don't try to do too much all in one go, ease yourself into this hobby. Depending on your age go for radio control and battery power, not track power, if past retirement age. Trust me, we have all gone on that journey. Live steam is fun and involving but don't stint on cost there and only buy from reliable sources. Join one of the established societies, "G Scale" and "16mm NGM", gets you in touch with others with knowledge to share and established garden railways you can visit, it gives you a chance to "try before you buy". More views will be along shortly.

 

[Hal Farsed]

Welcome. Depending on your age, you might like to think about raising the line off the floor.

 

[dunnyrail]

Welcome to the Forum, as a beginner one of your first thoughts should be Ground or Raised line. Presumably with your handle this is an appropriate thing to be in your mind, my line is predominantly 4ft high but if you have younger ones perhaps half or just over that is a thought. Also access to a shed or garage for your line with tracks running in, makes setting up much easier. Sensible security on those places should keep your stock safe, but expensive locomotives live indoors. The third big one is track power or battery radio control, track cleaning does come with a lot of work as the line grows (particularly if live steam involved) and that decision from the start a makes battery a goos choice. Oh finally have a look at my build linked in blue below, big line but lots of ideas though many of the earlier pics have gone.

So to summarize;-
Ground or raised
Lines running into shed/garage
Track or battery power

 

[Northsider]

Welcome to the Forum @Traingrandad -do you have a name we can call you? It seems odd to call you grandad when you could well be younger than many of us!
As you may know, G-Scale is a catch-all term, so another consideration is track gauge: for most of us, that means 45mm, but you can run on 32mm gauge at roughly the same scale. The choice may be based on  what you want to model: 45mm gauge gives you manufacturers who offer locomotives and rolling stock representing Continental, American, Irish and Manx metre/3ft gauge, while 32mm tends to be British narrow gauge on and around 2ft prototypes. There is perhaps more of an tradition of kit-building wagons and coaches with 32mm, although ready to run (RTR) stock  is available.
There's not a massive difference, but 32mm gauge track and stock tends to be a little cheaper -and kit-building obviously helps in this regard.

 

[Nodrog1826]

Adding to the above, and as far as the actual track is concerned, go for the larger radius curves and points that you can fit in, many a person starts off with Radius 1 points and curves and then regrets the choice, and goes bigger. Don't get me wrong they have their place in storage (shed) sidings, but out on the mainline the larger the better.

 

[Zerogee]

Pretty much all the starter advice I could give has already been offered above, so mostly I'll just say "Welcome to the Forum" and the wonderful world of G scale modelling! You'll get all the help and advice here that you could want (and more...) and there is no shortage of People Wot Know Stuff on here to answer the more technical questions. As you've probably realised, G Scale is a very broad church that covers a range of scales and styles - there are very few absolute "rights" and "wrongs", and it's your railway to do and run what you want.

One thing I will say is that when many of us were beginners (me included, guilty as charged...) there is a temptation to have a rather "scattergun" approach to buying stuff, especially things that look too good to pass up - and we all end up with a more or less random collection of stock from various countries and lines... which is all just fine if that's what you want (unlike some of the smaller scales, no-one is going to throw a hissy fit because you're running American wagons behind a Swiss loco if you're happy with that!) - but as we progress, for many of us our interests tend to become a bit more focussed, and we gradually shed any stuff that doesn't fit a particular area of interest - if you know from the start that you have a keen interest in a particular country's railways then it can sometimes help to keep to that theme from the off, and try to resist "random" purchases...

Above all, have fun, always remember we're all just blokes playing with toy trains, and ask anything you want to - the only stupid question is the one that goes un-asked!

Jon.

 

[dunnyrail]

Pretty much all the starter advice I could give has already been offered above, so mostly I'll just say "Welcome to the Forum" and the wonderful world of G scale modelling! You'll get all the help and advice here that you could want (and more...) and there is no shortage of People Wot Know Stuff on here to answer the more technical questions. As you've probably realised, G Scale is a very broad church that covers a range of scales and styles - there are very few absolute "rights" and "wrongs", and it's your railway to do and run what you want.

One thing I will say is that when many of us were beginners (me included, guilty as charged...) there is a temptation to have a rather "scattergun" approach to buying stuff, especially things that look too good to pass up - and we all end up with a more or less random collection of stock from various countries and lines... which is all just fine if that's what you want (unlike some of the smaller scales, no-one is going to throw a hissy fit because you're running American wagons behind a Swiss loco if you're happy with that!) - but as we progress, for many of us our interests tend to become a bit more focussed, and we gradually shed any stuff that doesn't fit a particular area of interest - if you know from the start that you have a keen interest in a particular country's railways then it can sometimes help to keep to that theme from the off, and try to resist "random" purchases...

Above all, have fun, always remember we're all just blokes playing with toy trains, and ask anything you want to - the only stupid question is the one that goes un-asked!

Jon.

Well said I forgot to add ‘theme’ in my summary.