My 2 cents.......
How deep into model railroading are you willing to go? How many skills do you have already? How much money can you throw at it? What do you like better, Building kits, making scenery, detailing and weathering your models - OR- Perfect trackwork, working signals, super-elevation around curves, DCC and other high tech things, or the Historic aspects, (Example- I model the N&W in the 1930's in southwestern VA.) correct prototypes, practices, great attention to details to achieve 'the look' of the real prototype -OR- Free-lance railroading, with great flexibility of all kinds of equipment that you can put your road name on. Do you want to model a single industry like coal, or switch many cars around multiple sidings throughout an industrial area? Do you want a single ended yard or 2 ended one? Steam? Diesel? Both? What kind of terrain? season? Rural or city or in between? Lots of structures and few trees or a few buildings and a LOT of trees and scenery. DCC or DC? Trainboard or benchwork? Sound? Painted walls for background? Special lighting? Brass or plastic? Code 100 or code 83? How many vehicles to you think you'll need? How many trees do you think you'll need? Gonna use natural materials?
Anyway these are just some of the things to ponder in sharpening your focus. The book "Track Planning for Realistic Operation" by John Armstrong will be one of your best references for any layout you may attempt. Good Luck and I hope we can get you hooked!
I am at the exploratory stage and as yet have no money invested and no equipment (other than a few HO pieces I inherited from my dad). The questions you pose are all interesting questions which I will keep in mind as I do my preliminary research, then ponder more deeply as I get to the point of actually investing time and money. However, based on my limited knowledge of myself, my skills, my interests and my obsessions (did I really just say that?) I can vaguely address some of them, and provide a blank stare for some others:
How deep into model railroading are you willing to go? Undetermined at this point, but I tend to be obsessive about things and when I get into them I tend to go a bit off the deep end.
How many skills do you have already? Since I do not know the range of skills that may be required this is difficult to answer. However, I do have some past experience with building static, plastic models, including some customizing and scratch building experience, although my skills were hardly stellar.
How much money can you throw at it? Short term or long term? I can tell you in advance what ever I do will have to be slowly built up with many small investments over a long period of time. I am not a wealthy man. In fact, I aspire to be merely poor!
What do you like better, Building kits, making scenery, detailing and weathering your models - OR- Perfect trackwork, working signals, super-elevation around curves, DCC and other high tech things, or the Historic aspects, (Example- I model the N&W in the 1930's in southwestern VA.) correct prototypes, practices, great attention to details to achieve 'the look' of the real prototype -OR- Free-lance railroading, with great flexibility of all kinds of equipment that you can put your road name on. Some of terms you use are unfamiliar to me, or unfamiliar within this context.
I enjoy building kits, not sure about scenery (can't say I've ever done any of that).
Detailing models depends on the level of detail to which you are thinking. Given that I am leaning toward N-scale I am not sure how much opportunity for detailing there is or isn't. But I have been known to include details that no one could see simply because...well, because it was there.
Weathering models is an area I am
very weak and under skilled on. Wish that it were not so.
Perfect trackwork, working signals, super-elevation around curves... Blank stare at present.
...DCC... Blank stare at present. (although, from what I gather, that is digital controls and I have not seen any reference to that in N-scale so I don't know if that applies there or not).
...and other high tech things... Oooo. I love tech.
...or the Historic aspects... This could be my downfall. Just from what I am thinking so far, I can predict I will be someone obsessed (there's that dang word again) with this, undoubtedly to my detriment and ultimate frustration.
correct prototypes, practices, great attention to details to achieve 'the look' of the real prototype Blank stare. Prototypes? As in, one-off, test bed equipment?
Free-lance railroading, with great flexibility of all kinds of equipment that you can put your road name on. If I understand your meaning here, this is a definite
no. At least for my initial plans. I am interested in modeling the Alaska Railroad.
Do you want to model a single industry like coal, or switch many cars around multiple sidings throughout an industrial area? Given that my area of interest is the Alaska Railroad and they seem to do it all (sometimes at the same time), then I think the answer to this is...switching things around.
Do you want a single ended yard or 2 ended one? My initial thinking is that I will want to build up a layout based on the Alaska Railroad. To that end, I will need to do some research on their lines but I am thinking of letting the design of the layout be dictated by my research. I know...a rather uninformative answer, but it's the best I can do at the moment.
Steam? Diesel? Both? Diesel to be sure. Most of the equipment available for the Alaska Railroad (without getting into repainting and such) is diesel era so diesel is pretty much a given. I would like to keep the option of steam open but it depends on a number of factors, one being if I can come up with a time period that encompasses both, with the appropriate equipment available (freight cars, passenger cars, et cetera) along with sufficient information to make a period appropriate layout.
What kind of terrain? I suspect we are now getting into territory where the decisions made early on will have unanticipated ripple effects, effects for which I have not the present knowledge to even comprehend. The terrain will depend on what portions of the ARR lines I ultimately decide to model. Back to the research and obsession thing.
...season... I'm glad I don't have to decide this yet. I am wondering if it is possible to do a layout which encompasses multiple seasons?
Rural or city or in between? Lots of structures and few trees or a few buildings and a LOT of trees and scenery. As with the question of the terrain, this will likely be dictated by the portions of the ARR lines I ultimately decide to model but my initial inclination would be do be 65/35 or 70/30, rural/city.
DCC or DC? Trainboard or benchwork? Blank stare at present.
Sound? Never occurred to me. Dunno. Maybe at some point.
Painted walls for background? I think I'd prefer to go more photo-realistic, if possible.
Special lighting? Not sure what type of special lighting to which you may be referring, so I'll go with "blank stare" for now.
Brass or plastic? Code 100 or code 83? Blank stare at present.
How many vehicles to you think you'll need? Are you referring to railcars and power units, or vehicles in the layout scenery?
How many trees do you think you'll need? Well, it's Alaska. Probably quite a few.
Gonna use natural materials? I presume from the context that you are referring to their use in the layout scenery. I'm not sure I can appreciate the potential ramifications of the use of natural materials at this point so that would be one of those things I would decide at a later date.
The book "Track Planning for Realistic Operation" by John Armstrong will be one of your best references for any layout you may attempt. I think this has been recommended to me a couple of time, which probably means it's a good reference. It is going on my ever growing list of books to get and study.