Sunnyvale Road TTRAK Modules

[Philip H]

Suggestion, tho' - use some manner of adhesive like Gorilla or epoxy to anchor the inserts. Experience is they, too, will eventually loosen and work their way out if the working screw wants to grab or get torqued too tightly.

Agreed. These are common in flat pack furniture as well, and I've made it a practice to add glue of some sort when assembling.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Great minds. I turned our N-Trak group on to inserts about 10 years ago... after many, many struggles against members "helping" by cross-threading T-nuts with their impact drivers. 

Suggestion, tho' - use some manner of adhesive like Gorilla or epoxy to anchor the inserts. Experience is they, too, will eventually loosen and work their way out if the working screw wants to grab or get torqued too tightly.

That's a good point. At this point they're well seated and I don't want to mess with the, but I'll do that on future ones.

One of the REALLY nice things about TTRAK is that the forces that act on the modules themselves are so much less than NTRAK modules. There's no giant frames, no 2x4 legs, no "all hands" torquing of the 40' leg of a layout to make up that 1" gap in the last corner.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ok, I climbed back on this horse.

I was unhappy with how the terrain was working over on the "cut" side and have been staring at it for a month.

I realized the problem was that I was trying to be cheap and reuse scraps of foam in places I shouldn't.

So I scrapped that plan and started over with some of the land forms.

I'm much happier now.

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[Ed Kapuscinski]

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Back up in this.

[John]

are you using the double track sections?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I am. I haven't used them before (well, except as spacing jigs) and wanted to try em out.

I was interested in them especially because of the tie detail.

[wm3798]

I thought the double track sections were too close together compared to the standards.  Did I miss something?  (always the most likely )

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I thought the double track sections were too close together compared to the standards.  Did I miss something?  (always the most likely )

Nope! At least I hope not. I actually use them (these: https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/kato-n-20042-unitrack-concrete-tie-double-straight-track-2-7-16-2/) as spacing jigs.

[seusscaboose]

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Made some big progress with scenery this past weekend.

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Still so much to do: more track detail painting, ballasting, underbrush, trees, etc... but I'm feeling good about it now.

[ski]

If I may ask, what did you use to paint the track and rails?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

A combination of craft paints. First round was "brown", second was "dark chocolate" (I think).

I still have more painting I want to do to it before I ballast. I'm thinking a drybrush of some gray.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ok, did some drybrushing and some ballasting this weekend.

I was very annoyed to discover that I had run out of my old black sanded grout that was a component of my "standard Conrail ballast mix". I had some new stuff and used it, but it apparently had far more pigment in it than the older stuff did. So that meant that I had to add a lot more lighter stuff to balance it out. Boo.

Anyway, ballasting Unitrack sucks more than regular ballasting, and always looks shitty until it's done.

So here it is, looking shitty partway done.







It needs more passes and plenty more cleanup, including wiping down the ties and probably hitting them with some more paint.

Must keep reminding myself that it's worth it. It's worth it. It's worth it. It's worth it...

[dem34]

And to add to what I said in the weekend, has anyone tried to that Ballast Vacuum on Unitrak?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

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