Anyway, can anyone recommend any good books on how to get into the hobby? I've bought a few issues of Model Railroader and that seems a bit too advanced for me at this point.
Kalmbach publishing is probably the biggest source of model railroading books and magazines. They have a few beginners books, like
Basic Model Railroading: Getting Started in the Hobby. After that, they have several beginners books on specific areas of the hobby, such as
Basic Layouts,
Basic Trackwork,
Basic Wiring, etc. Any store that carries model railroading supplies should have these and more available.
You also need to decide early on what scale you want to use. The three most popular seem to be N, HO and O (from smallest to largest). There are others, but they lag behind these in both popularity and variety. HO is probably the most common, with lots of stuff for just about every time frame and railroad name available. N scale is the smallest of the three and is good if you are really squeezed for space, or want to put together a fairly complex layout in a modest sized space. O is the largest and is the size of the old Lionnel train sets our older members may remember. There has been something of a resurgence in O scale the last decade or so, and quite a bit of stuff is available now, but its probably still the most limited selection, and certainly the most expensive and space consuming.
The BIG problem with model railroading is the space requirements. You must have a whole room for your track; even if you make some sort of ceiling-stored track (working on wenches), it will demand free space. That's basically why I never adventured there.
Eh, while its true most people who get the bug seriously dream of a whole room (or more!) to devote to a huge layout and "prototypical operations" (where you actually move specific cars from place to place, instead of just around and around a loop), plenty of people get by with a simple layout on a 4x8 sheet of plywood (or even smaller with N or Z scale). I even had an O scale layout set up on a 4x8 sheet once, that had a enough curves and switches to be interesting. There are also many "modular" clubs, where the members each build one section of a layout (typically something like a 2x4 foot sections that are connected together to make a long thin layout, or a big loop). These are very popular with apartment dwellers and others without the space for their own layouts.
