Your first train set

Ian asks:
I have bought my son his first electric train set and am not sure now how to progress with putting it together on a base board. Well, mainly, I want to put it on a 4x 6 board that will fold in two to be stored away. I'm not sure how to join the track electrics on a folding board and what hinge joints would be best to use so it can be folded into it self protecting the track. Would be grateful for any hints or plans if you have previously come across these issues.

Now I've never built this sort of train set. I have some ideas but can think of nothing better in this instance than to point people at Michael's Model Railways blog, where he has built just this sort of thing for his son:

Part 1 - Building the baseboard
and
Part 2 - Wiring and playing !

He's done this so well that I don't think I need to add to it. And yes I am a little bit jealous !

I'd also suggest looking for books by Cyril Freezer such as First Steps in Railway Modelling which give plenty of good basic information as well as being a good read.

Finally, for very little money you can buy the Peco "Shows you how" booklets which cover all sorts of useful subjects.