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

[squirrelhunter]

the I build a T Trak module for the World's Gratest Hobby Show in San Antonio back in February to be part of the world's largest T Trak set up (It was the longest Tr Trak set up ever). I barely had time to get ground cover and some foam roads down. My 5 and half year old son wanted to put something on it so we could find it, so I suggested we build a set representing Hutto, TX, whose high school mascot is the hippos (and they have several small to medium size concret hippos t businesses around town). Thus the module below was born, plastic hippo and all.



After the show, work and life intervened, and nothing of note happened except for the hastily caulked down track coming unglued.

Now the local N Trak club is having a 30th Anniversary set up at a local church, and they are doing a  T Trak layout as well. I had build the frame of a second module back in February, but never put track on it. With the help of Terry Nathan from T Kits.com, I was able to find a hobby store locally (First Hobby) that carried proper screws to screw down the track. Got the screws Friday, and spent this Sunday afternoon screwing down the track on both modules.

The results are below

[squirrelhunter]

Hutto TX until about 2005 had a Co Op that received rail service via a spur that crossed US 79 and it alo had a siding that was used as a team track, for company equipment, and for switching.

I remember being my sons age going to Taylor TX to watch a club baseball game and seeing a mixed set os MP and UP SD40's swithcing MP and GRR rock gons there.

This is a Joel Hinkhouse shot from RailPictures, and is the fall vs the spring I'm modeling, but its the kind of trains that MP ran in the area


My son and I have gathered up a few Rix grain bins and a couple of elevators to build a grain elevator to be served on the spur off the inside main. Honesty, I'm going to probably make it look like a small elevator off the ATSF in Heindeheimer, TX, which has bins and an elevator similar to the Rix ones.

Because of this, and the fact I'd like to add a model of a fertilizer dealer, beer distributor, or lumber yard (these all exist on the MP or MKT in Taylor, which is a few miles down the road), and run my 70's Amtrak Lone Star equipment (SDP40F's!), I decided to just pick and choose some elements off the small towns that dot the MP, MKT and ATSF mains that run across central Texas.

[casmmr]

That is a great father-son project.  I have only one suggestion, move the turnout closer to the road so that you can put one of the industries on the module with the turnout.  Please keep us updated with your progress.  Great start. 

[squirrelhunter]

casnmr,

I was originally going to leave the open space, but now I'm thinking about maybe moving the hippo to the other side of the roads and working in some kind of small food joint or convenience store. I have a Blair Line Fred and Reds I could probably put there.

The plan is for the grain elevator to be on the currently unscenicned module. The road at the back will be extended onto that module as well. Oh, the in inspiration is D&M community grain in Rodgers, TX, not Heindeheimer. Google map of area:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/D+%26+M+Community+Grain+LLC/@30.9314122,-97.2259539,171m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x93314c3786faef38!8m2!3d30.9312946!4d-97.2257276

[casmmr]

That looks like a t-trak module waiting to be made.  Good luck and keep us posted.

[squirrelhunter]

So my son and I did some more work this week.

First, we decided we would have our first industry have both a grain elevator and a feed distributor warehouse. I had a Micro Engineering Murphy Manufacturing kit on hand, so we built that up as out feed warehouse. I did the cutting and gluing, my son did the painting with craft store acrylics.


We also mocked up where we wanted our feed warehouse and grain elevator. Right now, they are set up with 3 spots, 2 for the elevator and 1 for the warehouse. Grain elevators in the area tend to have the truck dump shed either in the middle of the bins (then the shed either on the street side or the track side) or at the end of the elevator set.




Right now things are set up like I will put the unloading shed on the end because that set up would let me fit everything on the module. But it limits us to 2 hoppers. If I put the unloading shed and elevator tower in the middle of the bins and added 2 bins, I could have spots for 3 or maybe 4 cars, but that feed warehouse would probably have to go on the next module.

I'm think I'll stick with what I have, but I'm open to other suggestions.

Also, I'm open to other suggestions for photo hosting. I'm done with Google Photos now that I can't just get the right link to post photos anymore.

Also open for how to get the images I uploaded to the railwire to show up as full size inline (which is what I selected...) instead of as thumbnails at the end of the message.

[soo]

Looks most awesome!#

The green color is great for the building.

Keep up the great work!!

See ya,
Y-it

[squirrelhunter]

Thanks Wyatt!

The Thursday before the AustNtRAK setu this past weekend, I got the bright idea to take some testors flat black enamel, dilute it a little bit and paint the inside of the feed shed black where you could see through the windows. Then I realized that the seams on the building were not watertight, so to speak...


After a few more coast of green, it was good as new. The modules performed well at the T Trak set up except that I messed up the wiring for the module with the switch, so when the switch was flipped, there was no power to it. I'll fix it before the next show.

It was kinda disappointing, because the module setup had my modules on an inside loop, so I could switch the spur with no trouble if I had power to it.

[svedblen]

Sorry, but no pics are showing. Google Photos?

[GaryHinshaw]

Same for me, and yes it is Google Photos.  I feel your pain.

[squirrelhunter]

Darn! I tried robert3985's ?.jpg trick, and they show up on my computer and my phone. I'll have to try on a different computer this evening.

Back to the Admin forum for some help...SO very unhappy with Google right now.

EDIT: So I didn't have the album shared where anyone can see the link. Can anyone see them now?

[svedblen]

Yes! Now they are visible.
Shed is looking good. Before you painted the inside  , but I'm sure you easily fix that...

[squirrelhunter]

So it's been a while since I have updated this thread. I'm going to try to get some pictures later this week/this weekend, but I've added third module to the mix now!

In that same span, the modules made two more trips, one up to Temple TX for the annual train show, and one to Austin for the NMRA regional meet. I wasn't able to use it for switching since I was running on the outside loop with my Amtrak Super Chief/El Capitan. I did get to do a little switching at the regional meet, but I'm hoping to seriously set down to it for the shows coming up in the spring.

The third module has a spur on it which I am planning to use for a liquid fertilizer dealer, with capacity for 2 tank cars. I've also been thinking of adding on to the feed warehouse and making it a small beer distributor.

[squirrelhunter]

So it's been over a year since the last update.

I that time I have taken the modules to shows in Temple and New Braunfels in 2017 and had he awesome opportunity to be part of the T Trak setup next to the Kato booth at the World's Greatest Hobby show in Houston this year.

Here are some pics-

From the 2017 Temple show, with all 3 modules. I had added a Walthers Valley Grain Growers kit, moved the Green metal building to the fertilizer dealer module, and added a PVC pipe cap as te large capacity fertilizer tank.

[squirrelhunter]

At the 2018 WGH show in Houston I was part of the setup next to the Kato booth, so we made a point to try and run only Kato equipment. So my Amtrak Southwest Limited/El Capitan got a workout, but I wasn't able to do any switching. I put a Walthers built up statstion I had sitting around on the first moduel, just so something could be there for the show.

I got to meet Bruce Arbo, which was excellent, and see several of his excellent modules in person. The first two photos are of his modules, the second two are of mine. The canyon module he built is very impressive, especially considering the depth of T Trak modules.