I get many questions from my beginning customers about what this railroad scale is. What is HO scale, H0 scale, Z scale, S scale, N gauge, this that and the other.
To explain it to people in simple terms is hard because it is an exact technical discussion. But to put it simply, the scale is how big the objects are in comparison to their real life counterparts. It is very similar in model car kits, and R/C cars when you see 1/6th size or 1:6 ratio, which basically means if you stacked 6 of this item together you would get roughly the same size as the real thing(obviously with model cars the ratio would be much different than just 1/6).
The important thing to know is that if you start with one scale, all of your items should be bought in that scale so that your model train scenes and dioramas will all be in perspective, scale and proportional sizes.
The most popular scales include HO(or H0) scale, and this is the one I would personally recommend as you will find the most items in this scale, but there are many others and it will come down to your preference. Maybe you want a really small train set, or a very large one. This is something to consider when you make your purchases.
To explain things better than I ever could please go to Wikipedia - the king of explaining everything! They have a very good guide that will help your learn the specific details about model train scale.
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask!
