Sam,
Welcome back ashore! It sounds like your experiences mirror mine - collected a bunch of LGB, put it in a box, did the Navy thing, got the LGB back, had to figure out what to do with it.
I am not going to argue with the technical advice above. I have learned a lot from these guys and gals over the five years since we broke ground on the Oberammergau, Ogden & Olomana RR (aka the Triple O), and I continue to learn from them. Information so freely shared has saved me time and money and helped me to overcome some errors of my own.
If I can make a suggestion as a relative newbie, though, it would be to avoid analysis paralysis, take what you have, and get something going. As you can guess from the name, this a polyglot of equipment with little cohesive sense beyond “it looked cool when I bought it in 1985.” One of the things I - and we - go by though is not what we have now but where we want to take the project going forward. I have just enough stuff to go all in German Alps (Oberammergau) or all in Wild West (Ogden), but we take the strategic guide of the Oahu Rail & Land and the sundry sugar cane roads of the Kingdom / Republic / Territory of Hawai’i. This has helped us to focus purchases, from rockwork to rolling stock so that over time we may get to where we want to be and, in the meantime, have fun learning about Hawaii’s history with na ka’a ahi (fire coaches). If I had waited until I had the entirety of this thing worked out, I’d still be scrapping for cash to but LGB’s Olomana instead of enjoying the Triple O. There was nothing like seeing a train move to get the rest of the family excited and to knock loose a few extra dollars for plants, track, rocks, and, yes, the occasional piece of rolling stock (CINCHOUSE has yet to authorize Olomana…).
In short, take what you have, get it on the ground, wire it up, and see how it runs before you put shovel to ground. You can test your track plan, dicker with rail clamps, monkey with grades, etc. to your hearts content without spending a dime as you enjoy your trains do their thing in a temporary “feldbahn” setting. It will also give you a real opportunity to explore view angles, natural undulations in the ground, flood zones, and whatever. We did this over a pair of Advent / Christmas seasons for two years before I got permission to break ground. Then, do what I didn’t do, and add some extra space in your raised bed garden’s perimeter to allow for the wider curves in time (For me that time came, as predicted, when I got a larger loco and the thing bound up on a curve.).
To quote my first mentor in the hobby, the late Tom Trigg, “Get outside and get dirty!” Learning continues to be part of the fun.
Aloha,
Eric
