The Lionel trestle is a pain to assemble, and feels less than solid on carpet. Once it's all together it works fairly well. MTH makes a fasttrack trestle with stone supports that I like much more. Another low cost option is using pink or blue foam to create inclines etc. Lots of info on that if you do a search.
I would search the forum for "twice around the tree". It's a great Christmas layout that got me started in this whole wonderful mess, which now includes a scale Polar Express and countless hours of enjoyment with my now 6 1/2 yr old son.