Three of us, from SWARMTrak, met at David Ezekiel's home Sunday afternoon. David graciously offered the space in his very nice, well lighted 2 car garage for setting up our T-TRAK modules and running trains. James David Ezekiel, Joshua Murrah, and myself, Bruce Arbo, contributed enough modules to create a 'C' type layout measuring 14'x10'...because all of our modules are built to exacting T-TRAK standard, it took a mere 15 minutes, from the time that the tables were set in their place, until trains were running on the layout! Of course, a lot of this also can be attributed to the work Joshua Murrah has done to build and provide a first rate power supply that can cater to just about any setup; it's a simple matter of 'plug-n-play'. All-in-all, a very nice 3-1/2 hours spent in good fellowship and great conversation with like-minded friends and hobbyists-the 3-1/2 hours flew by! A special thanks to James David Ezekiel for graciously opening up his home to us, and to Joshua Murrah, for taking the time to program my few Decoder equipped locos into the SWARMTrak wifi network! Here are a few photos of our Sunday afternoon garage setup...David's modules (great modeler!) are the ones with black painted fascia... ~Bruce
I apologize if this has already been asked but my forum search-fu didn't bring up any results. Has anyone used the Kato single-crossover pieces and, if so, what can you say about their operation, wiring, etc.?
I have them...am using them on a new module...the crossover is gapped, so no special wiring,(the lines have to be fed separately to adhere to the standard T-TRAK wiring of BWWB, so the regular modular feed wire needs to be modified) but the crossover part can't be navigated when standard wiring (BWWB) is in effect; one of the lines must be switched to match the polarity of the other. We run standard wiring during shows (BWWB), but our power supply allows us to change the polarity of one, either, or both lines to allow us to use these crossovers as intended. ~Bruce
Before this track piece was ever released by Kato I wired up my own single-crossover by doing something like this: You can see that I gapped rails around one of the turnouts (I used two #4's if I remember correctly) and put that section on a PSX-AR. It works. Have these worked just fine as far as track gauge, wheels not riding up over them, etc?
When Central Ohio N-trak sets up to run like that, I will obtain use of a room at my church. 8' tables, and lots of fun on a Saturday afternoon. Just have to clean up the room when done, best of all no charge for members. Just need to show the church our liability insurance policy.
For all of you seasoned T-Trak'ers, do you paint your modules or use a sealant? Do you paint or seal both the outside and inside? What do you use and your preferred method?
I paint mine. All surfaces except the top. Prefer bare wood for bonding purposes of any adhesives, or scenery materials.
I paint the inside white, a cheap latex white primer/paint that I buy at Home Depot, closer than Lowe's to me. The outside I paint in the green that my club has chosen for the outside color. I paint the top (deck?) an earth color, look in the miscolored paints that all stores have for a good earth color. I will throw some WS foam over the wet paint to give a good base for additional layers of scenery to adhere to. I paint both sides of the sky board the blue that my club uses for the sky board. later, Craig
My modules are mostly made from wood, the deck being 1/8" doorskin plywood (NOT mdf with photo overlay that looks like wood). To seal them and protect from Florida's high humidity, I use MinWax solvent-based clear satin polyurethane. Undersides get two coats, topside one coat. The front fascia gets several coats with light sanding in between, then a coat of auto body spray hi-build primer, lightly sanded and then finished off with Rustoleum Hunt Club Green spray enamel. If the can of polyurethane is new, it's relatively thin, and soaks into the wood well, which is why the underside gets two coats. The one coat on the topside doesn't hinder scenery materials from bonding, in fact, I think it actually helps it. On the doorskin plywood, during assembly, I flood every edge liberally with thin CA to stop potential splintering and delaminating, then the polyurethane seals that as well. My modules are very light weight, yet quite solid. So much easier to transport & store when they are kept light weight. Bill in FtL
Thanks everyone. Those were the answers I was looking for. @railtwister, I too was worried about the humidity factor here in Florida. Some good points everyone. Regards, Charles
I live on the Gulf Coast...right here in Daphne, half an hour from Pensacola... I have only painted the fascia of mine, and, of course, the top, an earth color for scenic purposes...I have had no issues, whatsoever, with the modules warping or exhibiting any type of humidity or temperature-related problems; I keep my modules in lidded storage containers in my garage...in fact, the only member of ours who did, indeed, paint both the inside and outside of his modules, exhibiting warping during a very unseasonally cold snap last year (his are Masterpiece Models kits) he subsequently added braces and 'de-warped' the modules. (We have NEVER heard of Masterpiece Models modules behaving in this fashion...before or since)... in over 3 years of Gulf Coast summers and high humidity, my modules are as strong and 'true' as they were when I built them ~Bruce
In between our trips I have taken time to redo the plan. I wasn't happy with the look of the "race track" oval look so I did a major change. The towns of Woodland and Wheatland will now occupy the end cap modules and the Friesen Family farm will occupy the front quad module. Some structures may change. Even though it's not really functional I added a track in the upper right to connect with the real world. Regards, Charles
I like it! The only comment I have is maybe move the Truck Scale and Office and Scale House higher "up" and then you can add another track or two for a small yard.
Thanks MK. What I have done is ditched the quad modules and replaced with triples and doubles. This allows for a suggestion by Terry Nathan who suggested that I place the front-to-rear transition on modules so that there is a module break when I get the track to the rear position. This would allow for me to expand the rear-oriented track to a longer segment in the future. I also added the small yard to allow storage of some rolling stock, something that was lacking with my other plans. Hopefully this will be the final as we're approaching the time frame I had set to start building. Of course as I start building I'm sure there will be areas that will have to be tweaked. Regards, Charles
