Craig, thanks for the invite, though I don't think I can make it in 2018 due to other commitments. Wishing you all the best with your surgery and health !
Planning has begun! (there's even talk about trying to break the existing T-TRAK record for scale miles!)
After watching Mike Fifer's review of T-Kits T-Trak module kits and seeing Bruce Arbo's photos here and on Facebook, I'm going to have to get started on a T-Trak module. $15 isn't much to ask for an easy to assemble, no carpentry skills really needed, I can build a module in my apartment!
What Bruce has done and what I've somewhat followed along on is to 'not' get stuck on a mental block of a 1, 2 or 3' project, but to think of a larger one that can get built one module at a time. It's a challenge to think both as stand-alone and multiple modules, but don't let the module dimensions stifle your creativity to make a much larger scene. That whole Kansas / Mother Road scene of his got my juices flowing. I will say at Altoona that the amount of new construction being done on T-trak geometry was way, way, ahead of N-trak; nothing against that, but the game changer for me wasn't the modules, it was fitting them in my Sonoma pickup with a 6' short bed. I had the two Hickory Valley modules in there, and FIVE boxed up T-trak modules, and it just fit. The other amazing thing (at least for me) was watching that big T-trak layout go through complete teardown in under 30 minutes. With the way that Altoona was done, there was really only one spot where you had back-to-back T-trak modules on one table requiring the standard 180-degree sharp curve modules. I would expect to see some folks really pushing the envelope on wider curve modules like Bruce has done. I did prove that you can do a 'front to back' "S" curve using 19" radius and fit it on a double module (coming right off a Kato 4) and it was reliable in operation. The concept of splitting the modules into two single-track ones also worked out. The other thing that I observed at Altoona was Dave's approach on design - the outer main was full-length, and the inner main was series of junctions and self-contained loops so that multiple trains were operating. You weren't stuck with just showing off two trains on a monster setup. Most of the time there were four or five trains operating, with DCC on the outside main with two of them there and then other trains on the inner loops. Lots of activity for the public to see. I'm lucky that the area I'm doing T-trak modules (Northwest PA in the steam era) had an abundance of oddball junctions and features that fit right into the standard geometry planset of T-trak - enough to keep me busy for years.
I'm thinking of doing bits of the Feather River Canyon that I can't do on my HCD layout, like the Honeymoon tunnels and maybe a condensed version of the area where the WP and Ca. 70 cross the river (the name escapes me right now). I think it could be done with some foam core board..the river in the front and the track on a slope behind it. It'd be a challenge, but I think it could be done.
Randy, We're already building larger radius corners and endcaps (it ends up being the same geometry as two 'standard' radius corners with a single in between them so it doesn't throw a layout 'off balanced' if incorporated in a regular set up; instead of a 2" trench between back-to-back modules, there is a 15" trench...Our skyboards still hide the trench and the corresponding bus wire and plugs (another reason I favor skyboards...) easy to do! I've done a little of that on the "Arbo Canyon" modules...
Modified Central Valley spans. Build thread is over on Railwire: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=41271.0
After 1,5 years of doing nothing with T-Trak, I finally started with some new modules. I've made today two corners, with large radii, because my Rapido coaches can't negotiate the sharp T-Trak-curves.... The modules are 40x80cm each and will get Kato 20-120 and 20-132 tracks.
Are there any plansets out there for those wide-curve ends? And has anybody ever tried to do a junction with those? There are two potential junction prototypes around here that could be adapted to T-trak - Irvineton (Irvine) PA before 1965, and Oil City PA - where the entire junction is on a bridge.
There was a whole lot of DCC going on at Altoona, along with an analog loop or two on the big layout. I was impressed. My main layout isn't all that DCC-friendly, but I do have a Zephyr system for testing, and my T-trak modules seem to be a lot of fun to experiment with. I really need some end curves here, and if I'm ever going that way..... well, look at this for yourself. I ask you, isn't this the coolest T-trak junction ever? This is Irvineton (aka Irvine) during the early PRR years. The depot survived long enough for me to document Conrail running by it, and I was one of the last humans inside of it before the floor collapsed into the basement - gone now. Two main lines converged here, so you have a two-track wye with a classic depot in the middle. 'straight side' is Erie to Warren (and east to Sunbury/Philadelphia), merging side is line down Allegheny river to Oil City via the modules I've already built - West Hickory, Trunkeyville, Jamison, etc. The best shot in this page is shot looking west with double track on both sides of the junction. Two tracks are behind it as well. http://www.west2k.com/papix/irvinepa.jpg Faded shot upper right has a tower - yes, that's the prototype for the PRR dimi-trains one - IRV tower. Scale drawings were made of the depot before it was demolished, I have a set.
I tried to start a T trak group in Phoenix, got no responses at all.i built enough modules for a layout sitting on a hollow core door , was a disappointing experience. Still have my layout. I thought it miggt go over well having some guys who had no layout space. Build one module and we could get together and run trains. Sure would be fun to meet some guys and run trains. Waste of my time. My layout sits covered in the garage as i have no place for my own layout. Now, i plan to build a shed beside the house for a layout.
