Many thanks to Jerry, David Starr, Wolf, Ken, Steve, Chuck and others who responded. Especially the how-to details. Almost makes me want to give it a try. :) But I better get some experience with the regular track first.
As for all the codes, I'm not sure yet what to decide on that. The stuff I'll be doing is narrow gauge, backwoods stuff and I'm not sure what would be appropriate there.
Did get to look at some real track and realized that modern and steam era won't look the same. The new stuff has like brackets that rest below the rails on each tie with a spike on both sides through the bracket, per rail (4 total spikes per tie). I need to look at steam era track.
Thanks again!
~Brad fd64