Late 70's/Early 80's Central Texas T Trak modules

[rjthomas909]

Saw these to today in New Braunfels.   Great job!

[squirrelhunter]

Thanks! I wasn't able to be at the show today but I'm going to be there today.

[squirrelhunter]

A few photos from the New Braunfels show this weekend...we will be in Taylor for the Austin area train show the first weekend in May.

A shot with some background "scenery" at the venue


A closer shot of the Blair Line fertilizer dealer I finsihed last week


A shot of the grain elevator


And photo of Bill's Mount Rushmore and my 1973 Texas Chief zipping past


I'll have to post a photo of the lead F7A later, it had taken a trip to the floor a couple of hours earlier. I looked ok at the time so I set it running again. It wasn't until after the show I realized the numberboard inserts had been sent to oblivion and the headlight housing was partially smashed. I'll try to post photos later this week, but the loco took a licking and ran without a hitch afterwards.

[squirrelhunter]

A pair of quikc shots of my modules from this weekend's Austin area trainshow





The feed warehouse module now has a road, an operating pumpjack, crossing guard signs, and my first ever static grass application with some wildflowers. I'm very happy with the static grass, I need to get some better pics of it. I want to try some 4mm grass in a different color. I also need to work more on the driveway, it needs a tube culvert where it meets the road.

[Paradise275]

With T Trak, is it not possible to get some easement into corners? The corners look pretty sharp, especially for passenger trains.

Rick

[squirrelhunter]

I've never seen a corner module with an easement, but I don't see why one couldn't be done with proper planning.

The corners are tight generally, I would never try to run passenger cars on the inner loop, the radius is pretty tight. As is, occasionally people comment on how tight the outer curve is when I run my Southwest Limited.

The best off the shelf solution I have seen so far belongs to the San Antonio club, which has 4 corner modules with the superelevated double track curved pieces, which I think are about 19" on the outside curve and 16" or 17" on the inside curve. All trains look much better on those, although you lose the ability to fit track in the footprint of a standard 30" wide table. 

[casmmr]

one of the two t-trak module mgfr's makes a kit for a 19R corner which uses the Kato double track of just about 19"r and 17 7/8" R  The modules are about 21x21.  These are really nice modules and assembly quickly and are very nice when completed.  Not sure that I can name the manufacturer, but, will if it is deleted by powers that be, pm me and I will respond with their name.  MasterPiece Modules.

[Lemosteam]

Looks  like there are some proposed recommended practices that allow larger corner radii in the TTrak standard document:

http://www.t-trak.org/standards.pdf

[Paradise275]

Thanks for the info.
We use the double track Uni-track for a helix on our club layout it works fine even thou it is hidden.
The sudden jerk to a 15 or 11 inch radius at a show looks too much like my first Lionel 027 train, especially when run at the usual breakneck speed. LOL

Rick

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Yeah, it's a bummer about the easements. It's possible to do, but not easy.

[Lemosteam]

Thanks for the info.
We use the double track Uni-track for a helix on our club layout it works fine even thou it is hidden.
The sudden jerk to a 15 or 11 inch radius at a show looks too much like my first Lionel 027 train, especially when run at the usual breakneck speed. LOL

Rick

Noting in the standards regarding superelevation.... 

[squirrelhunter]

Lemosteam hit the nail on the head- the easier solution is superelevated curves. I belive that the Kato superllevated curves either come with or should be used with a transition piece they make that eases the train on/off the superelevation.

My camera on my phone can't capture moving model trains at any speed as other than a blur. But Bill Pontin had a cool single module that had a digital speedometer on it. I made sure my Texas Chief was never doing more than 90 as it passed. As a side note,  we were having power and wiring problems that day, so the train noticeably slowed down on the far end of the layout and sped up on the near end. I'd guess there was a 30 scale mph swing on each end.