The hobby shop didn't have any rerailer tracks and I'm not paying ~$35 for a single turnout, so I picked up the bumpers.
I'll get the rest from halfpricehobbies, I guess...

I found a couple packs of track lying around from the last time I went to the hobby store. I'd been searching for them for about 17 days! It's all curve track since my first plan was an all-curve dogbone shape, but it's the same radius.

Now I need a switch track, the bumper, and the rerailers. I will pick up the switch track this weekend, and maybe the bumper. It would be great if I can pick up all the track I need, but money does need to go to real life as well.

The cheapest thing to do is go to a swap meet or a "local" hobby shop to see if they have an 80s or 90s power pack from either Bachmann, Tyco, or LifeLike.
As long as it has 2 dc terminals and 2 ac terminals and a knob to control dc power, it'll work.
Usually they will be less than $5.
And you can use the ac terminals for some lighting or action accessories.

It looks like it has been used. The boxes have been taken out of the main box at the very least.

It's going to take them a while to rust out here in Arizona, where the average humidity is under 25% and the rainfall is miniscule

When the engine came to Roselle, IL a few years ago...
I was in such a spot that as it came into the station that if the intrusive thoughts had won for even a moment, I could've reached out and touched the running gear.
I didn't, of course, but there were no protections around.

My one and only DCC engine doesn't have sound.

Thanks guys. I was leaning towards DC anyway. I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing any super functionality to DCC.

I think I'll keep it at DC then, since I just have the one train.
It's really just some background thing to go around my computer monitor (I have a topic on it with track plans in the N-scale board).

I'm working in N-scale, but this question could apply to all scales.

I'm making a simple, small oval with 1 turnout to a passenger station.

I've heard that long-term, it's not exactly great to run DC locos on DCC track, but I was wondering if you can damage a DCC loco by running it on DC track.

Should I double-isolate the track off the turnout and use it double-duty as a programming track, or just keep the whole loop as a single and run it DC?
The loco I would use has DCC but no sound. There is also no room at all to make this loop a part of a bigger system later.

It has the engine/tender, two passenger cars, and the trolley. I know it has some track, but I don't know if it's all there. In theory, I suppose the trolley goes on the 4' circle of track, and the train goes on the 6'x10' loop.
And yes, the plan was to put at least the circle and trolley around the Christmas tree. You caught me!
Would a Bright Boy bring life back into the track?

G stuff is soooo expensive.

A store in my town is selling a Big Hauler Christmas 2-train set, no. 90054. At first glance it seems to be mostly there, except for the white controller. There may be some track missing if I look closer.
Point is, it's $60. Should I get it? I'll see if I can plug it in and test it first, of course.
I feel like even for a pair of passenger cars and a bunch of track, $60 is still a decent price. Am I incorrect?
Anybody have this set and can tell me a bit about it? Do you enjoy it? Is it more work than it's worth?

I finished with the grassmats.  I may have to pick up a 21"x41" piece of plywood to help the foam straighten out.  Weighting the foam hasn't worked so far.

I made a final plan for the buildings I want on my display. The "brown" line on the right is a town street.

I stapled and glued the grassmat down, realizing I had to go get another.  So I was only able to scenic a portion of the foam.  I'm not going to foam out the "mountain" in the middle, instead just wrap it in a strip of grass mat and glue some flat rocks to it from outside.  In Arizona, there are plenty of rocks outside.