The radii are based on the T-Trak standard corner modules which have a 282mm inside and a 315mm outside. The wobble area I believe are 415mm on one and I cant remember the other... maybe they were the same? It was a while ago I did that part, and those tracks are already glued down so they stay. I have engineered the throttles to be dual voltage to prevent a kid from running a normal train off the rails due to speed, but to be able to be fast enough to be fun... and when Thomas and Percy are on the rails they can still get the full power so they are about the same speed as the bigger trains are. I also have control to shut down the track as needed for dealing with a kid that's not behaving. I have only had to do this a couple times, usually the kids share and most of all they have fun. Oh, yea my throttles are not able to go in reverse so that prevents the kids from blowing up the gears inside the trains. I am on Thomas #3 right now due to this.
When I was running the summer Rail Camp sessions at the Rosenberg Railroad Museum, I just put out some old Life Like E units, Bachmann Spectrum Dash-8s or SD40-2s. They held up well to the rapped direction changes and didn't go that fast with the power supplies I was using. At the end of the week, we would hook up the TTRAK modules they had built and run trains pulling the freight cars that they had selected to keep and take home with their modules.
I started the kiddie layout as a couple of T-Trak modules and that worked out pretty good. I was going to make them into the Island of Sodor but after asking many of the kids if they would like a Thomas themed layout or a more realistic one, most of the kids wanted a real layout like the one we have. So the Island of Sodor is on hold for a maybe another day thing, and a realistic layout is being built. My first Thomas lived almost 3 shows but I did buy him used and abused for $5 and he didn't work. Just needed some cleaning. The next Thomas was brand new and lasted 3 years but the gear that failed was only available as part of the frame and that cost $95 with a whole new Thomas being $100. Thomas #3 is going strong and on his 2nd year.
Visited my local model railroad club last weekend for open house - they have a "shop" but it's pretty small and it seems members sort of camp out so I looked for coop space and bam, found a good coop space with a full woodshop. Eager to get onto making some benchwork next week. Been feeding on woodworking tutorial videos for a few days, ready to put that knowledge into practice.
Once in a while I try to do something that isn't writing about model trains... As far as I know this particular breakfast establishment has never made it anywhere near the Adirondacks (currently, the closest is in Clark's Summit, Pennsylvania) -- much less in 1963, the Approximate Time Period of my layout, when the chain was a lot smaller than it is now. But see Rule #1. This is a 3-D print purchased last year, I forget the specific online venue. Painted with mostly Tamiya Paints. A Sharpie to pick out the black lettering. It still awaits "windows" as I don't like the frosted "glass" that came with the building. There is an interior that I might finish but I'm not sure that any 1:1 scale person could see inside it anyway. How about a Waffle with a side of eggs over easy? That's my usual choice when I'm there. Photos are WAY bigger than actual size, which is about 2 1/2 inches long by 1 3/4 inches high by about an inch to the roof (the A/C unit is taller).
It would be fun to speed match two locos for this layout, one for the outer loop, and one for the inner loop, so neither one would win the inevitable race between a couple of kids! But this is probably DC, so maybe you use a potentiometer to slow the shorter, inner loop to match the outer loop? Or you could do an up-and-over, figure-8 layout so both tracks are actually the same length, but one track climbs on the inner radius, while the other track descends on the inner radius. Hmmm... so run them in opposite directions! Start them nose-nose on alternate tracks, then where they meet again determines who won (which one went further to meet the other?) Leave it to adults to make it harder than it needs to be... Just let the kids have fun!
Kids will be kids. On the first day of the Rail Camps that I would hold, I would set up two trains on a small TTRAK layout. One going clockwise and the other counter. That never last long. Pretty soon both trains were heading the same way and racing. I always tried to stage a slower locomotive on the inside track so that at least it was possible to have a contest.
I got some more work done tonight. A hill where a little neighborhood will go, and I have never been happy with the lake so I cut out part of it to make it look deeper and give the bridge an actual purpose. The really shallow lake area just never seemed like it should have a bridge. I will prolly make some plaster rocks and line the edges of the new ravine… but that’s for a later day. Here’s what I got so far.
Scattered, smothered, and covered please! Oh, and per last nights news, prepare for a 50 cent per egg up charge. I'm still going and I feel like I need to add one of these to my layout now
What if you extended the mountain over to the head end of the lake, and had a waterfall into it? And of course, a river across the plateau, to the waterfall. Just thinkin' out loud...
So a little work just for me tonight. My ALC-42 #314 is getting a noisy decoder installed and as I am writing this the new sound file is being uploaded to it.
Finally got back to the layout. Used the Woodland Scenics' Plaster Cloth for the first time and I really like the stuff. I will need at least two more rolls, maybe three to double layer it for my plans. Almost ran out of water at the end, so dumped my cold coffee in the pan, that's why the last looks slightly tan.
