u/aengusoglugh

I realize that this is a long shot because I don’t know where any of you live, but I am going to be at the Southbound MRC show in Winston Salem, August 29-30.

I won’t be bringing any modules — unless I hear that there is going to be an HO scale T-TRAK layout, but I think the chances of that are pretty slim. :-)

My local (N scale) T-TRAK club will be there, and it would be fun to meet people IRL — as my daughter says.

I have been reading about double track ROW for my commuter rail layout — I am beginning to plan first stages of scenery, and since the first modules are urban, the ROW will be fenced.

The concept of my layout is a commuter system running low floor DMUs on under utilized freight lines.

I think that is actually a prototypical scenario, see the referenced site.

I think 100’ ROW — which I think is pretty reasonable for double track freight — 7.5” in N, about 13.75” in HO will seem a bit too wide on modules.

My first inclination is 50’, but that might be a bit type.

What ROWs do you model on your T-TRAK modules? What is your thinking behind the ROW width you implemented?

I suspect that I will mainly use my T-TRAK modules at home -- mostly because there aren't many HO scale T-TRAK layouts at shows around me. :-)

I will make it down to SC at some point, u/HomeyHal.

When attend club meetings, my impression is that a lot of folks who enjoy T-TRAK build modules at home but don't only run trains on them at shows -- but I don't know whether that's true -- at my club(s) -- or prevalent in T-TRAK.

It looks to me like you'd have to have a giant room to run an N-TRAK layout at home -- or a lot more room than I have. :-)

When I first retired, I went to some Sipping and Switching Society NC shows -- to run an S&SS layout at home, I think you would need a billionaire size home.

My local T-TRAK club has been using groups.io for quite a while, but the data quota for the free accounts is pretty stingy -- 1 GB.

I am working on implementing a hybrid, where the club continues to use groups.io email functions, but a lot of the data storage moves to Google Drive.

For those of you who are members of a local T-TRAK club, if you use some kind if community software -- groups.io, Google Groups, discord, etc., I would be interested to hear what you are using -- particularly any terrific -- or terrible -- experiences.

I understand that this a question in some ways relevant to all model railroaders, but my sense -- over the short time that I have been involved with T-TRAK is that we are a particularly social group of model railroaders.

I think that's probably because collaborations is baked in to modular rail roading -- and T-TRAK in particular -- putting layouts together for shows seem to a huge source of motivation for a lot of T-TRAKers -- perhaps the most important motivation for a lot of folks.

I plant to have street running track on modules, so I think that I will beed to lie the scenery "base" up to the level that Walther's Concrete Street system will be at track level.

I think that people commonly use foam board (two pieces of poster board with foam in between), but I have wondered about using the corrugated plastic people use for campaign signs.

If it's available, it seems as thought it might be more durable.

Any insights?

I bought used Catrike Expedition -- so I don't have a manual.

After my last ride, the rear axle nuts were loose.

Does anyone know the torque specifications?

I am planning on modeling a city park or park on my (HO scale) T-TRAK corner module. I am planning on a wrought iron fence on a low stone wall to protect the rail ROW.

I would to have a couple of sidewalk/bike paths crossing the rail through openings in the fence/wall to allow foot and bicycle traffic to get from one side of the park to another.

These crossing will not be street crossings.

I have been thinking of some kind of crossing guard/barrier across the sidewalk/bike path the would lower or somehow guard the path when a train is approaching.

I don't need a full blown gate crossing -- this is only for foot traffic and bicycles.

I have thought of using N scale crossing gates -- because they will be about ½ size which seems about right for this.

I suppose an N scale T-TRAK layout could use Z scale crossing gates to the same effect.

Is there anything prototypical like this -- where vertical crossing arms protect bike paths at rail crossings?

Are gates which swing horizontally more common?

Any other ideas?

I ran my first trains in at least 20 years on my HO T-TRAK home layout tonight!

Very much fun!

I am using a CS-105 command station and a UWT-100 throttle.

I have never used DCC before, and when the UWT throttle prompted me for a DCC Address, I entered "003" -- which did not work.

Then I entered "3" and that worked -- though the UWT calls it "3S" -- I assume that means "3, short address".

It annoys me a little bit that the throttle now allows me to switch back and forth between "3S" and "3M" -- since there is no locomotive that is a "3M".

How do I delete the "3M" from the throttle?

I don't even really know if the 3M is stored on the throttle or on the command station. :-)

Any help is appreciated.

In comment on an earlier post of mine, at least commentator -- u/baisaacs noted that he had experienced a number if PowerPole failures -- I think when setting up T-TRAK layouts for shows.

He mentioned connector backing out of the housing as an issue.

At the time, I was puzzled, because I have to wrestle and cuss -- and use the PowerWorks tool -- to back the connector out of the housing when I make a mistake.

But last night, when I was -- finally -- joining my module together for the first time, my continuity testing showed an unreliable connection.

I took disconnected the recalcitrant connection -- and sure enough, the connector had back out of the housing.

The first time the connector used, the contact in the mating connector pushed that connector back -- instead of clicking together.

The connection still worked -- sort of -- because contacts were still touching each other.

But if if the connectors are pulled apart and then connected again, the second time they are mated, the connector that had been pushed back in the connector might -- or might not -- touch the other connector.

Inspection and subsequent fiddling revealed what I think to be the problem -- and the fix.

In two of the pictures below, the insulation butts right up against then end of the connector. For some reason, that makes for an unreliable connection -- a connector that can be pulled out of the housing.

When that connector is inserted into the housing, there is not a satisfying click -- even though it seems as though it's engaged.

In the third picture, there is a gap between the insulation and the connector -- and that connect clicks solidly into place and will not back out. Note the gap can be much smaller than in the picture -- but there need to be a gap.

It seems as though there needs to be a little bit of play between the connector and the housing for the connector to really click into place.

Without that little bit of play, the contact doesn't really seat in the housing -- though it can feel like it does.

I made mnemonic for myself, "If it don't CLICK, it don't fit!"

Insulation tight up against against contact

Insulation tight up against contact

Gap between insulation and contact

I am Mac OS desktop, and someone in my model railroading subreddit suggested a model a particular statue, and included a photo of that statue from Wikipedia.

That post was apparently OK.

I commented asking if they knew of a scale model of that statue.

They responded that I could ask AI to generate an STL of the statue and send that to a 3D printing service, and they added that AI could also modify the STL to make the statue narrower or taller, etc., to fit my needs.

That textual comment was marked, “This is manipulated content” — but as far as I can tell, it’s pure text.

I understand that “This is manipulated content” and asked me to review it.

I am puzzled because the comment appears to be nothing but text — there are no images, etc., in the marked comment.

What is my best course of acation?

One of my favorite places in the world — and by far my favorite entertainment venue in NYC — is Washington Square park on a spring or fall Sunday morning with the musicians and jugglers and acrobats out in full force.

When I saw that a model maker in Italy had a near HO scale 3D printed model of Washington’s arch, I had to buy it for my model train layout. My plan is to model city parks with my corner modules.

Now I have to figure out how to weather this thing.

I am very new to this hobby and know nothing about weathering.

Unfortunately, most of the YouTube videos I find about weathering belong to the "decaying and decrepit" school -- they remind me of my great aunt's outhouse -- and aren't really appropriate for this.

Any suggestions on how to weather this arch? Are there any YouTube videos on light weathering?

Washington's arch on a T-TRAK corner module

It feels like it's take me forever to get here, with waiting module kits, building two 12 awg track power buses -- one red/black and the other yellow/black -- realizing that both of he local (N scale) T_TRAK club use a single blue/white track power bus with double pigtails -- and building that, etc.

But I have finally gotten to this point.

I am checking continuity for each section of track before I screw it down -- or up from the bottom really. All three non-end joints have Unijoiner terminals -- for the O&O, every piece of track will have at least one Unijoiner terminal.

I posted my 9 volts battery to PowerPole tester before -- I decided to add a 2 amp fuse in case I managed to switch one of the blue wires and white wires and create a short circuit.

I learned a lot so far -- and the discussion a couple of days ago convinced that I should simplify module wiring in the future -- but for right now, this works.

I will say that the screws and washers I used to fasten the track are not an ideal match for 72 year old eyes -- at least not my 72 year old eyes! Right now, I only have 2 screws per track section. I will put the other two in at some later date.

I an very happy the modules were already drilled for those screws.

Note the Piko NCTD Sprinter looking on patiently in the background.

My grandson arrives May 19th, so I would like to have the Sprinter on the track -- running in a 48" radius circle -- but running nonetheless -- when he gets here.

Yellow Track

Read Track

I finally had all the cables I needed to wire my first corner module (of 4). The general scheme is 12" Unijoiner terminal (track feed) → 16 awg track feed → three way tee → terminal block → 16 awg track bus feed → 12 way track bus.

The red/black and yellow/black track bus feeds are hanging off the right side of the module.

The biggest lesson just from the initial wiring is that the 16 awg track feed wires are much longer than they need to be.

I had taken a wild guess, and made three -- one for each Unijoiner terminal -- 24" for the Unijoiner farthest from the the terminal block, 18" for the middle Unijoiner feed, and 12" for the Unijoiner nearest the terminal block.

It looks like those could be shortened to 18", 12", and 6".

If you look closely, the Unijoiner terminal feeds are shrink wrapped, but although there is shink wrap on the 16 awg track feeds, I haven't shrunk that yet, since I thought I might need to adjust the length.

Not done -- but progress.

Feeds are way too long!