The N scale Pennsy Juniata Division 2.0 - TTrak!

[peteski]

@Dave V - Dave, Firstly, I highly respect your talents as well as your accomplishments.  I often refer model railroaders to your
A few years ago, Peter @peteski challenged me to see what I could do with Kato Unitrack, and y'know, I got some out of one of my Kato COLA sets, put it on my workbench, looked at it for about an hour from every angle, then put it back in the box.  I suppose that if the rails at least had a "rail" profile, instead of that slab-sided slotted rectangle they have, I might have given it an attempt.  I knew I was gonna expend a lot of effort just to make a little diorama with Unitrack, that no matter how much effort I put into it, would remain a pig's ear.

LOL, ah yes I remember that,  But while not an accurate rail profile, Unitrak rail is pretty much identical the the ubiquitous Atlas N scale C80 track's rail.  It is not just a slab-sided rectangle. It is more like an inverted "T" shape with the pinched area where the horizontal and vertical parts meet.  It is somewhat rail-shaped.

The Atlas C80 track with its funky rail profile is likely (and has been for decades) the most popular N scale track out there,  and I've seen it used on some really well done layout (along with some not so nice ones).  Once the track is painted  and weathered, it does not look all that bad. Even the excessive rail height becomes not so objectionable.  But of course to a very discerning model railroader it will never look as good as C55 or smaller rail with a more accurate profile, laid over properly sized and spaced ties.

[Dave V]

Right, so at the end of the day, what am I doing here? Scratching my Pennsy itch while building something that absolutely can come with me in the future, whenever it is we second-retire back to Pennsylvania (or the East Coast in general). And something I can easily take to shows, something that the unfortunately heavy and bulky Colorado Midland only does when I have the motivation and the help to get it up out of the basement.

Ed and I talked about this too. I could someday have a permanent layout that's part T-Trak and part permanent. I could take the T-Trak bits out and and take them to shows, but the permanent parts could be open to any kind of track and track geometry.

For example, I've modeled Enola in the past. This time I'd want to do a part of Altoona, with the enormous Juniata Shops as a backdrop. Maybe I could do that as T-Trak, but to really jam in the trackage, the shops, a roundhouse and turntable...that'd be better done as a permanent, freestyle section.

Or, future Dave's layout in future Dave's house might not include the T-Trak at all. Maybe some of the T-Trak modules are stripped of structures, signals, and scenery and morphed into the permanent layout.

Nothing is ever set in stone. I've never been shy about digging up trackage or completely re-scenicking an area. It's all good.

@robert3985 , no worries man, I know you're looking out for me. I think you may have a higher opinion of my tracklaying skills in N scale than I have. The CMRy 2.0 is the only layout I've built in N with other than code 80 that really runs flawlessly, and it's a cheat since it's Peco 55. It's always good to be aware of both one's strengths and weaknesses. I count scenery as a strength, but tracklaying (and wiring) as a real weakness. I can eventually get sh!t to work, but it's neither pretty nor easy to get there.

[packers#1]

How hard would it be to spray bomb the Unitrack and then, at whatever pace you’re comfortable with, use a small brush to paint full strength (or ever-so-slightly diluted) white glue between the ties and just dump ballast on until it dries.  Pour off and reuse the excess ballast.  This way you don’t have to try to manicure the ballast around those low-profile ties.  Do just a foot or so at a time to stay sane.  Maybe?  Admittedly, I haven’t tried this, so I’m ducking for cover! 

DFF

I wonder if you could spray bomb it and then paint a ballast color between the tie web and along the side before (or after) ballasting the sides. You could probably also mask the ties and rail and flick some other grey colors to break up the monotone first pass.

[dem34]

Blurry as all hell  but this was a test piece I did a couple years ago before the shop layout. Were all I did was ballast the shoulders with AZ PRR Blend, airbrush the whole thing light grey. Then drybrush a brown over the ties followed by a dusting of pan pastel. If you put your eye against it you can see that the middle isn't ballasted. But even from glamour shots its hard to notice once everything is a uniform color.

[EJN]

This is Unitrack, painted and ballasted, by a member who is no longer active here (@davidgray1974)
Looks pretty good to me, but I'm not hyper picky, as long as it looks plausible.



 

[John]

This is Unitrack, painted and ballasted, by a member who is no longer active here (@davidgray1974)
Looks pretty good to me, but I'm not hyper picky, as long as it looks plausible.

That is some nice work

[muktown128]

I agree.  I always liked seeing @davidgray1974 's layout on here.  His scenery and buildings looked really good to me and he did a nice job making Unitrack look pretty good in my opinion.

[crrcoal]

That looks great!

Blurry as all hell  but this was a test piece I did a couple years ago before the shop layout. Were all I did was ballast the shoulders with AZ PRR Blend, airbrush the whole thing light grey. Then drybrush a brown over the ties followed by a dusting of pan pastel. If you put your eye against it you can see that the middle isn't ballasted. But even from glamour shots its hard to notice once everything is a uniform color.

[PiperguyUMD]

Granted its not for everyone, but it does solve all the appearance problems This is my first attempt at snow and theres still some work to do, but I've learned a lot and think I can make the second go look top notch!

[Dave V]

That does look good, though I'm hoping that snow isn't fouling the points in the foreground turnout!

TBH, doing snow has crossed my mind, but I also want to try using state-of-the-art scenery textures so I have a big order of Martin Welberg summer stuff coming from Scenic Express.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

TBH, doing snow has crossed my mind, but I also want to try using state-of-the-art scenery textures so I have a big order of Martin Welberg summer stuff coming from Scenic Express.

You know the cool thing about doing this following TTRAK ideas? You can do both!

[Dave V]

I think I speak for the a$$hat collective when I say I miss @davidgray1974 's posts and excellent work.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I think I speak for the a$$hat collective when I say I miss @davidgray1974 's posts and excellent work.

Truth

[Point353]

This is Unitrack, painted and ballasted, by a member who is no longer active here (@davidgray1974)
Looks pretty good to me, but I'm not hyper picky, as long as it looks plausible.

Are the track sections connected with (well camouflaged) Kato UniJoiners, or with some other (more conventional) rail joiners and with the gaps in the ties and roadbed filled in?

[davefoxx]

Are the track sections connected with (well camouflaged) Kato UniJoiners, or with some other (more conventional) rail joiners and with the gaps in the ties and roadbed filled in?

Looks like Unijoiners to me.  Look at the track in the bottom right of the photo (right by that relay box).

DFF