Where to start? I have been away from the hobby for a few years and I sold off everything I had so I am starting from scratch. I will be modeling in HO as that is what I know and it is what my friends model in.
I do not have and will not have a dedicated space for the railroad so I will have to look at options for temporary, portable setups. Initially I will not be doing some grand track plan so I will use track options that will allow me to change things up easily.
My first purchase was a simple figure 8 set of Bachmann EZ Track. This will allow me to get something running with very minimal effort. I got this from Facebook marketplace for $25. A little later down the road I will likely purchase a Bachmann EZ Track track-pack.
You can get this from Amazon for about $130 and it is enough for a 4'x8' starter layout. They include a plan that uses the parts and it looks pretty interesting as a starting point. This set along with the figure 8 set will give me plenty to work with.
The ratings on Amazon are mostly positive. It seems that if you like it you really like it and if you don't like it you really hate it. As usual, online feedback is disproportionately negative and certainly model railroad purists do not like it. I am intrigued by the concept and after my past experiences I am not interested in jumping back into the old track and cork method. Anyway, it is cheap enough to try and if it sucks I can easily switch to another product without much fuss.
Power will be supplied, initially, by my old MRC Tech II. I bought mine nearly 30 years ago but it has almost never been used. This will get the trains running and help me evaluate track and engines.
I got most of my old engines back from my friend Tim, who bough my stuff several years ago. Being old Athearn blue-box locos they were just sitting and unlikely to ever make it on his layout. I also got several of my old rail cars back so I have toys to play with.
In summary, I will use EZ track with DC power to run a collection of old engines on a simple figure 8 track. This is where I will start and I will be glad to make this first phase happen.
