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How much money does it take to make a train set?

How much money does it take to make a VERY Professional, nice, hand-painted,VERY large, train set. With wildlife animal included, also houses and buildings. And IT would be VERY large....including the table. Well including everything. Also what are the best breands to buy from. I don't want it were the animals are bigger than the trees either. It needs to be a brand that has animals though, or at least houses and such.

Public Comments

1. you dont want a train set...you want a "model railroad" they can cost several thousand dollars to make. you can get the magazine from a store like borders
2. Model railroading can be a VERY expensive hobby: I think at the moment I have about $30,000 dollars invested in my layout (N-Scale and filling two 10x12 rooms). Our first layout, 4x8 feet and HO scale would cost about $700 to recreate today. I've also seen professional layouts that would cost roughly $500K or more. The FIRST thing you want to decide is what SCALE... scale is the ratio of the model to the "real thing". So in N-scale, 1 foot is equal to 160 feet (1:160). An 80 foot long passenger car would be a model of 6 inches. THIS is what makes everything look the proper size. N-Scale - 1:160 and HO-scale - 1:87 are two of the most popular scales. MY favortite brands are Athearn, Atlas, Walthers, Delux-Innovations, Micro-Trains, and Peco. http://www.athearn.com/ http://www.atlasrr.com/default.htm http://www.katousa.com/ http://www.katousa.com/ http://www.peco-uk.com/ http://www.walthers.com/ What I would recommend to ANYONE starting out is to get a years subscription to Model Railroading magazine: http://www.trains.com/mrr/ THEN take a few months with graph paper and a pencil and draft what you want your layout to do and look like OVER and OVER... it's MUCH cheaper to make your mistakes on paper.
3. Speaking as a model railroader I can tell you you have to make a lot of decisions here. First you have to decide what scale to model in as there are quite a few to choose from. The smallest scale I know of is Z scale which has a ratio of 1/220. The next one up is N scale with a ratio of 1/160. HO scale is currently the most popular scale by far with a ratio of 1/87.1 . O scale is next with a ratio of 1/48. G scale is the larger scale, and with this scale you can run your trains out doors because the equipment used in this scale is built to handle the weather. How much the hobby would cost you depends on how much you feel you can put into it. Model railroading is an expensive hobby, but it's very enjoyable as well. Miniature trains are a delightful hobby, model railroading is fun.
4. what your looking for is a model railroad layout not a train set model railroading is a very costly hobby but is also very rewarding train sets can be found in toy stores or hobby shops but only consist of a locomotive a few cars maybe some signs and phone poles a few have a simple bridge or a paper mache or plastic tunnel a loop of track and a power pack to run it model railroader magazine has company's listed inside it that build custom "layouts" and several computer software items exist to aid you in designing something that will fit your space as always plan out your design on paper or PC before you tack a single piece of track down or buy a bunch of "rolling stock" <loco's and cars> another thing to consider is what time period do you want to model as a modern loco will be totally out of place on an early steam railroad many thoughts will go into your design including portability do you forsee a move in the near future that would require you to take the whole thing apart and relocate many encounter this problem the hard way when after many thousands of dollars they have to move and are forced to leave it behind taking only the removable items with <the trains> but it then opens up new possibilities and ideas that sat on the back burner in your head
5. you firstly you will never end up with a horse that is bigger then a house or train or anything that it shouldn't be if you simply choose a scale. there are many scales, but the most popular scale (also the one i use) is HO, it is simply the most used. another thing is that you clealy know nothing about model railway. before going out and spending thousands and thousands on you model railway take time to learn about it. what area do you want your scenery to look like? what tipes of trains do you want to collect? make a plan of what you want to accomplish and how you want it set out. probly the most important quistion you need to ask your self is do you have the skills and knoledege to make, design, get a bargain, use and put a train on the track and turning it on plus everything up to that stage. Its a big, very expensive, venture to create a large miniture railway. I would just take it slow!