Today, Central Ohio N-trak set up a small t-trak at the Tri-Village Lions Pancake Breakfast. Our payment was all the pancakes, sausage and scrambled eggs we could eat. 4 hours running trains and eating pancakes, doesn't get any better. Some pictures:
Updated progress shots on my Triple "West Hickory". I lugged it outside tonight to get some better light on it. The backdrop is real - second print came out better than first. The church is the actual church in the town that was built some time around 1890, and is somewhat of a landmark. Had to do a lot of photoshopping to backdate it. Here's a shot of the HVRR/PRR diamonds. Pretty darn close to the original. At the 'bottom', it fed on to a 14' wide single-lane railroad/highway toll truss bridge that lasted until 2007. It's done enough to run, we'll see how much more I can get done before I take it to Altoona. Unfortunately, this needs a lot more scratchbuilt structures to make it 'right' and that's not going to happen in 3 weeks! But it already is looking like a dandy 'eastern' photo diorama base, which is its second purpose in life.
T-trak update. Along with the existing club-sponsored T-trak layouts at the Altoona N Scale Weekend show this weekend, Dave Ferrari has organized a confederation of T-trak modules that will assemble into what looks like a 46' x 8 monster on the floor of the Jaffa Center. That's well over 100 'units' of T-trak modules all in one place of various configurations from what looks like 13 builders. I'll have my semi-finished West Hickory one there as well. More information about the annual show here: http://www.n-scaleweekend.com/ For anybody that makes it there, mine is now lettered 'West Hickory' on the fascia, and come on over to my vendor table (Randgust) to say hello.
It will be neat to see that many t-trak modules! Maybe it will finally make me make the decision to start work on some modules. I just wish I could get more guys interested in t-trak in my club.
I have to say, that this thread and Bruce's outstanding visual work on his Kansas-style station scene is what got me going. I'd never seriously considered T-trak, mostly because of my dislike for cast-on ballast track track sections, even though I think Kato's engineering is superior. I'm now convinced that you can step in and out of the Kato end sections to whatever you want to do trackwise in the middle. And a 3' max, rather than a 4' minimum, makes for much easier storage and transport of modules, and you're not hauling legs and support members all over. A more normal-looking double-track spacing and tighter curve geometry cinched it. My portable logging module is 21x42, and it's all I can do to pick it up and move it around. I can carry this thing, in the plywood case, with one hand. I'm not affiliated with a club at all, and Mike put me in contact with Dave for this build, so there's ways to participate without formal affiliation. I'm also working with the local historical society on the structures, when I'm done with this, it will likely end up in the County museum, so small is equally beautiful there.
Scratchbuilt from photos, as will be all the structures on the module. It's kind of a weird combination depot as it was high enough to tuck a 40' boxcar under the roof edge in the back right up against it. The other focal point (left side) will be a multi-structure tannery, many of the 1924 brick buildings still exist today and will take some significant work to replicate. I did get one company house done at least. If you're a Google Earth fan, look for "West Hickory, PA" and compare it to the railroad valuation maps. I really wanted to match it as close as I could, it's condensed for sure but it's good. No railroad traces remain today except the street name 'Depot St".
Was at the show and sorry I missed Randy as I was tied to my tables both days. But did get lots of photos in the morning before anyone showed up as was one of the first ones in this morning. Will post some shots this week after I fly home and resize them. rich www.rslaserkits.com
Yeah, if there was ever any doubt that T-trak is growing as a module standard, the number of modules at the Altoona show put that to rest. Wow! There's a lot more creativity and flexibility in the basic geometry and dimensions than you'd ever imagine unless you see something like this. I was wondering how my diamonds would fare out. I have it so that the cross-track is electrically isolated and can be turned off, so that part was easy. The hard part was that certain six-axle units (BLI PA's, and another six-axle combo) would about dead-stall for lack of electrical contact while other units sailed across without issue. I can see I'm probably going to have to 'resurface' the diamonds' here as the only issue was vertical alignment on six-axle units.
Saw Randy's modules for the first time and they are very nicely done. Clean and crisp details. And his Climax engine when seen in its natural habitat is a thing of beauty. It looks even better than the photos would suggest.
Just realized that I have not posted photos of the PA N-scale Weekend layout--enjoy-- View attachment 175039
I'll put this up for inspiration, maybe to myself. Prior to 1972, I was seriously studying to do a semi-prototype layout based on local PRR lines, some of which still exist and many that don't. There were several really unique junctions, bridges, etc. in this area that lend themselves to modeling. But for the life of me I couldn't figure out a way to do them in a layout that a) made any sense and b) would fit in a 10x12 or smaller room and be removable. Under T-trak standards, some of these junctions scream to be modeled as they fit T-trak plans. Consider Oil City, PA - and much of this stuff is still there. Start with 90-degree curve on the south side of the Allegheny, double-tracked, with a roundhouse on the inside, slamming across a two-track truss bridge with a WYE right in the middle of it (Keddie is not the only one!) to what WAS a two-track main line on the north side of the river. If this isn't a T-track junction plan fit for modules, I don't know what is: My second favorite is just up the river - Irvineton, (Irvine) PA, where this same river main line met the Philadelphia and Erie. The redeeming feature here was the presence of a brick, hip-roofed, passenger station dead in the center of the wye, and then slamming onto twin girder bridges to the east. Pay particular attention to the shot here in the lower LH corner looking west, the two tracks to the right go to Erie, the two tracks to the left go to Oil City. http://www.west2k.com/papix/irvinepa.jpg That's right off the T-trak planbook there. If you look at this on Google Earth, most of it is gone except for the existing A&E main (now single tracked) running through - the river connection and the depot are long-gone, but you can make out the shadows of where the wye was. The scary part on that was the presence of a set of curved diamonds and curved turnouts from east to south. Kato doesn't do those! And for trivia buffs - the IRV tower is the prototype for the Tichy PRR two-story kit. My third favorite - for a single or double - is Trunkeyville - almost within visual sight of my West Hickory module location, and one of the cutest little flagstops at the end of a passing siding you've ever seen, followed immediately by a bridge over a stream: http://www.west2k.com/papix/trunkeyville.jpg I've already collected the parts for that one to build a T-trak single. It's a honey of a small scene. If anybody but me gets more serious about this I'll provide more prototype info to anyone that contacts me. I guess what I want to show is the potential for T-trak to allow some true prototype options that even the Ntrak guys would have trouble dealing with with curve radius restrictions.
small update after months of inactivity... Hello all...haven't modeled in ages!-busy summer, coupled with major surgery and recovery. With an impending show, well, impending, I needed to do something to the remaining modules in the garage that don't have a modicum of scenery on them (more recruits and some really nice modules added to the layout have inspired me to get 'crackin') The 'Arbo Canyon' triples finally received the layers of foam AND I even roughed in the basic shapes as well as the 'river/dry wash'...I won't be able to really get going on the scenery on these 'til after the October show, but, by keeping them in naked foam, I'll be able to address questions about carving foam... Here they are in roughed form... so much to do on these but, at least, the really boring part is done! Thanks for looking, ~Bruce
and while this work was going on...a little work done on the 'Bushy Creek' module that serves as an extension of the grain elevator triple...
Wow! Some fine work going on here. Reminded of my signature....see below. If you think it didn't happen just keep looking.
