Making TTRAK Modules

[DKS]

It lets you build "snacks".

Hmmm... might be a good nickname for TTrak modules...

Conjures a scene at some hobby gathering, to which a small bunch of modelers have brought their family/non-rail friends/significant others.

Modeler 1: "You bring any snacks?"

Modeler 2: "Sure did! Cumberland, Dauphin, all the usuals."

Modeler 1: "Great! Need help carrying them?"

And so forth. Now imagine the looks on the non-rail's faces...

 

[Point353]

It lets you build "snacks". Or, umm... have mistresses.

The term you may be searching for is 'guilty pleasure'.

[randgust]

The long-time design problem that got me into this T-trak business was doing this - which was the interchange of my Hickory Valley Railroad with the PRR at West Hickory, PA circa 1925.   Figure if I'm going to do it, it would be nice to work it into some modular standard.

http://www.randgust.com/West%20Hickory%20Valmap%20Extract.jpg

Just couldn't pull it off in Ntrak, mostly because of the curves.    But I could in Ttrak.... and be able to physically carry it as well.  That entered into it, as moving around my 21x42 logging module turned into a two-person deal.  14x34 is a LOT lighter.

This also was the start of a couple evolutionary departures from conventional practice.   Well, it helps to have a wood shop, I'll admit.    Because the prototype was track on a river bank, the front edge of my T-trak modules gets carved off, and a stiffener is put under the main tracks.    That's turned out to make a HUGE difference in photography in an effort to do a real location.    I didn't think that was that big a deal but everybody seems to look at it and tell me it is....



Second is the track choices - because I like Peco 55 and I also needed 60-degree crossings, as well as tight switches, everything is on board; Atlas, Peco, Kato.... and it all works.

Third was that 'back track', in this case, the siding for the tannery, which coincidentally set my standard for moving the inner main to the back.  Several modules later, it evolved into a true main line connection, just not on this module, which freed up a design for single-track modules, now I have two of those - the most memorable being the West Hickory Bridge.  Making that to a T-trak module was it's own adventure.

I'm now up to two standard triples, two single-track triples, two doubles.   Only two modules are actually 'done', two are still track on painted plywood, two are semi-sceniced.

I like the 'snacks'....  I've been 'snacking' on this stuff now for almost five years.

The other thing you can do is play with stuff you'd never mess with otherwise.   One of my double adapter modules was pretty mundane and really only served to bring the back main into the front.  I discovered that spot just south of West Hickory (Jamison) had a major oil strike on it in 1927, so I decided to put in a working animated Pennsylvania oilfield scene, with a central power house and four working pump jacks using the classic jerker line system - as if that was easy.    That's certainly kept me out of trouble for a while.  I'd NEVER have tried that stunt without Ttrak.  Only in a module could you keep flipping it upside down to work on all the 'stuff' underneath it.

[peteski]

Certainly not a criticism, but I have never liked exposed T nuts as they eventually will work themselves loose.  What I prefer is to counterbore the block from the styrofoam side and trap a rod-coupling nut inside the hole.  Drill a hole just undersize of the dimension across points and tap the nut into the hole.  The nut will follow the counterbore and center on it. This will leave pockets all along the flats of the nut. Drizzle some epoxy or even yellow glue in these pockets and the nut will NEVER rotate in the hole. One advantage of this is the carriage bolt will have the same amount of adjustment, but will allow a longer thread engagement inside the nut with less wobble on the bolt and the nut will never loosen or come out at all.

@Ed Kapuscinski , sorry for my ignorance, is there a formula to calculate side lengths that will work with other modules? 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc.?

As a long-time NTRAkker, I had my share of issues with T-nuts, but I have another solution to the loose-nut problem.  I install them the conventional way, but I coat the surfaces of the nut which will be against wood with epoxy, then I hammer the nut in.  Next, I take 2 very small sheet-metal screws (IIRC #2), and screw them in at the notches left where the barbs are in the T-nut.  Those screws immobilize the T-nut so it will not come out. In combination with the epoxy, this is a solid solution.

As for the length of the threads, T-nuts come in multiple length. I like to buy the ones with the longest threaded part, so that  is also not a problem.

[dem34]

Kinda out of the blue but, since I kinda want to start doing T-Trak modules just for fun. How do you guys deal with Kato's Turnouts? Even when I mask the living hell out of them they seem to jam up and never work properly even after repairs. 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I brush paint.

And they I still have to clean them up with some 91% ISO.

[dem34]

I brush paint.


And they I still have to clean them up with some 91% ISO.

Had a feeling that was the answer, thanks.

[wm3798]

Here's my build, in case you missed it. 
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=46708.0
I'm also guilty of having a broad array of interests, as well as a wood shop.  So this first module out is quite "non-standard" yet it fits into a set up just fine. 
I'm still playing with the 15 degree wedges to make it even more interesting, but I've been side tracked on the Retro HCD project.

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

And that's one of the really cool things about this.

If you want to get into it by, literally, buying a kit from Kato and Woodland Scenics, you can.

If you want to do custom cabinetry, you can.

If you want to walk a weird middle ground, you can.

I think it actually embodies a LOT of the things that makes NTRAK so compelling but without so many of the headaches (and backaches).

[randgust]

On the Kato switches - the only place I use them is where I have to; i.e. a turnout that has joiners right at the table edge.  I had to do the inset point fix on them as well.   And like Ed, I brush-paint them before installation, then tape them tight when I'm working around them with scenery, or ballast on adjacent tracks.   Rest of the turnouts are Peco; either C80 or C55 depending on geometry.

I've got to do a couple turn-back modules and the precut boxes from CMR are looking like the logical descendants to T-kits.   They also have the electrical stuff now that T-kits used to carry (powerpoles, etc.).

I really have nothing against Ntrak, I always thought I'd do West Hickory that way until I tried to lay it out.  That third (inner) main line reverse curve radius killed me, let alone the 48" minimum.   Gave up for several years until Bruce "arbomambo" blew my prejudices about Ttrak out the door looking at his "Mother Road" ATSF modules. 

Another thing I've done that's atypical is that for the most part, my PRR prototype is a single-track main line.   Every place I'm modeling as a module in a 'town' area had a passing siding.  So the inner main is done in cinders, outer main is ballasted, by choice.   Does give it a different look, runs the same.   My bypass tracks to the back are modeled as weed-grown cinder sidings, which was rather funny at Altoona as we were running an Amtrak Regional behind an ACS64 at about 70mph charging through the inner main over that track....   

[Kentuckian]

Precisely!

It lets you build "snacks". Or, umm... have mistresses.

This. I have been interested in Thurmond, WV for years but it doesn’t fit into my single-track Kentucky mine branch/bridge route (think Big Sandy Subdivision). A T-trak module let me scratch that itch.

[randgust]

There's an absolutely gorgeous Ntrak Thurmond module out there that's been a regular visitor to the Altoona show, can't remember the group, but it might provide some inspiration.   It's got to be one of the most-photographed ones out there.  John Sing photo from a Bedford show:

http://www.pbase.com/atsf_arizona/image/137617375.jpg

If you flipped that concept (tracks in the front, river to the rear) you could probably figure it out in Ttrak.

I'll admit this is one of my favorite all-time Ntrak modules.

[Kentuckian]

Yes, I believe that is Cantington N-trak, Paul Fulks. His work shown at the NMRA Thanksgiving show in Huntington, WV years ago was one of my early inspirations.

[narrowminded]

I love that Thurmond module.