At Christmastime, there are train sets available for a reasonable price. These are a good option if you are just beginning your village and for those who aren't ready to make the investment in a real train set. I usually see these for around $30-$40 and there are many options to choose from since a lot of stores sell unique ones. The sizing on these sets ranges quite a bit so you will want to keep this in mind when purchasing one so that the scale of the train is similar to the rest of the village. Most of the cheaper sets use plastic train tracks and this is where the noticeable difference between cheap and expensive happens.
Cheaper railroad sets tend to use plastic tracks and plastic train wheels which have little notches and basically are just two plastic gears moving against each other. These are super noisy! If you plan to display your village in a living room then I recommend spending the extra money and bypassing the cheap plastic train sets. I found that my plastic set was so noisy that I would rather leave it turned off than listen to the clanking. I tried to dampen the sound, but I haven't had luck. Foam boards seem to enhance the noise and while corkboard dampened it a little, it still wasn't enough for me to keep the train running in my village last year.
Another great option is to make your own train set. There are a couple of YouTube videos on how to do this. I decided to try creating a train set similar to a slot car set. Slotcar racetrack sets are much easier to find information on how to build your own, so this is a good option if you're crafty and willing to spend the time creating it.( And it will take quite some time to complete the railroad)
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