HO Grand Valley Layout Kit

I am a retired female who recently joined a railroad modeling club. To get started I bought the Grand Valley Layout Kit which arrived within a week. And the Amazon price is $100 less than your retail hobby shop.This is an excellent kit especially for beginners. Instructions are clear with picture illustrations. It certainly stimulates your creativity and allows you to make modifications with ease, if you want. I changed the track layout removing the "Y" section within the circular area so I could build an amusement park instead. The kit is packed with all you need minus the track and structures. I bought the hot glue gun and hot wire foam cutter that were recommended. They are excellent and easy to use. The Woodland Scenics Website offers lots of ideas and further instructions to enhance your modeling skills.I used flex track instead of what was recommended at the urging of my club members. And, they helped me install the first half since flex track was new to me. Otherwise, I am putting it together alone with club members giving me encouragement and additional ideas for scenic details.This is an excellent activity for grandparents and grandkids to do together, and I encourage females to try it. Model railroading seems to be dominated by older men. Woodland Scenic products allows the rest of us to enjoy this pastime providing lots of instructions and handy tools. The Grand Valley Layout Kit is a great way to get started on a pastime that can keep your interest for a long time.

This kit is very easy to understand and has everything you need to create the base layout shown on the box. You will need to buy track, buildings, and a train set. The price seemed high but if you purchased all of the items individually the layout would cost more than double. I have built this layout once before and it was terrific. Had to move and sell that layout. I missed the magic appeal of the layout to my grand children so I'm building it again. Highly recommend. Be aware that the Atlas track pack that has all of the track pieces is no longer available. I went on ebay and the local hobby shop to get all of the pieces I needed to make the track pattern. The kit lists every piece you will need. Code 83 track is recommended but code 100 would work as well. I did buy the industry and building set which is recommended for this layout. Once again it costs way less than buying the builsings separate.

This is a great layout for anyone. I'm a beginner and my comfort level for building this has been low.. but a little patience and chatting with some local train store experts has made me feel better about doing this project. It took me a bit to finally realize it doesn't have to look exactly like the box just close. The only thing I would suggest is if it had better pictures for reference. Also a few color pictures as well. I found this set up in a local train shop and went back with my camera to get all the angles so I would know how things are suggested to look. The only color picture is on the box and it's a pretty big box to leave lying around for comparison. Overall though.. It is very nice and I would recommend even if it's beyond your comfort zone. You'll figure it out and it will look and work great. Good Luck.

I've never had a model train before (and I'm 67 years old). But this was fun and easy but you have to be patient with yourself. The track kit is hard to find. And, if you start making changes to the layout, the changes can be challenging. But well worth it and an excellent project during social distancing.

The kit was missing all the ballast that was supposed to be included. Worked with seller and they made it right. Got me some even though it was well past the 30 day return window. You don't want to have to try and return this. The box is huge and heavy. Do yourself a favor and inventory everything inside and make sure its all there right away.

This comes with everything (almost) you need to build a train set. You do need a lot of glue sticks to build this. But it is a lot of fun and takes a lot of attention to detail to build. This is my first train set and I am very happy with it.

There is a lot to put together. The track kit is not available. It requires a lot more parts that the advertisement does not tell you about.

Easy to work with