Nobody will ever be able to completely synthesize all the information you will need to build a successful track plan, but these episodes should hopefully give you a good primer. This episode will focus on layout design from a modeler perspective and in the context of a layout room. Other topics also covered are that of modeler personality, track planning software, and making a layout for your own interests.

Nobody will ever be able to completely synthesize all the information you will need to build a successful track plan, but these episodes should hopefully give you a good primer. This episode will focus on railroad operation, and the components there with associated, and the next episode will focus on space usage and design from the human perspective.

This episode gives an overview of and solutions to common beginner pitfalls, with an eye towards the future and planning properly for it. If you have any suggestions or additions that you'd like to recommend, please use the contact page on the website to submit your feedback, and I will make updated versions of this episode. Special thanks to the Scathing Atheist Podcast, found at https://scathingatheist.com or on iTunes

In this episode, I give an overview of what the beginner will find in a train set, and explain the difference between DC and DCC. This will hopefully help the beginner to understand if they should buy a train set or use DCC.

Okay, confession, for as long as I've been in the hobby, it has always driven me nuts when someone says "I model in O Gauge". No. Ultra no. Infinity no. Gauge is the distance between the rails, scale is how small the trains are with respect to the prototype. Several scales use the same gauge track to represent alternate gauges of that scale. For example, F scale uses G gauge track to represent 3ft narrow gauge, and On30 uses HO gauge track to model 30 inch narrow gauge, whereas both G and HO use their respective gauges to represent standard gauge. Thus, saying which gauge you model in can be very uninformative as to what you do with it. Hopefully, this episode will eliminate such confusion in the next generation of modelers.

In this episode, I will give you a history of model railroading as a hobby, explain a few key features about the hobby, and explain the general steps required to build a model railroad. Don't forget to check out our new website at www.bgtmrring.org

In this episode, I'll explain what BGTMRRING is all about and introduce myself. This first new episode is dedicated to the Amherst MA Train show fan that introduced himself to me and encouraged me to start up again!