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Having "almost finished" my first 26 x 75cm N-scale layout that is measured to fit a shelf in an IKEA Billy, I've already for some time been planing for another layout, or should I say module, as it will be built to fit together with my first one, extending the line that goes to the harbour. I thought I should let you in on the plannig process. This time I'm putting less restrictions on the layout design by not putting in a loop. I want trains to pass through the layout, not around it. It's going to be a crowded urban landscape with some street running, a station with a meeting track and a couple of abandoned freight spurs. This way I can have both a plausable contemporary scene with some light rail or trams, and I can be a bit playful when I want to and operate the layout as a switching puzzle deivering freight cars to the abandoned spurs using the meeting track as a run around. My planning process consists of drawing the size of the layout on a couple of A3 papers and then trying out possible track geometry and placement of streets and buildings. This was the first iteration that I thought worthy of taking a photo of so that I could set it up again later for further tinkering. My very first versions had a longer street running section and a straight station area. I decided that an angled station area would produce more visual interest than having the track go straight. To the left of the station area you can see where I planned to have a level crossing. Some empty plots can be seen in this photo. I was planning to add more buildings later. A view of the street running section. All the time I'm moving buildings around, trying to find visually interesting viewing angles. Sometimes just leaving a small gap between two buildings can create something interesting. Sorry about my very grainy photos taken in bad lighting. I wasn't planing to show them for anyone when I took them. On this photo from another planning session, I'm working on trying to break up the street grid by having the crossing street winding across the layout. Something else I'm experiementing with here is putting a single storey building at a strategic location to make the street intersection more visible. An aerial view of this version. Streets go parallell with both long edges of the layout "off the layout" so to say. Maybe a lane will be modelled, or just the sidewalks. This scene with the train leaving the station looked promising, but there's not much room for station platforms. Another attempt at getting a winding street. The problem is that getting buildings to fit reasonably with a winding street is tricky to say the least. I don't mind scratchbuilding a couple of houses for weirdly shaped plots, but I don't want to end up having to scratch building nearly everything. An aerial view of another version with buildings almost falling of the layout in the lower left corner. The upper right corner with trains disappearing in between buildings looked promising. The next update will feature what I think is the final track configuration.

TV report about the event held this August. 154 schools across Japan participated in the event, held at the Shinjuku Sumitomo Building Triangle Square: Winner of the module division was the Nada Junior/Senior High School of Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture representation of CTA's Tower 18 junction:

Hello all, I see works of our Hungarian members got shared on a new Facebook group page called "T-Trak Tokyo Project": https://www.facebook.com/groups/1013302152090795/ This is a group that has just started off and wants to popularise the 33mm "Alternate Spacing" module standards for a broader public, other than just tram enthusiasts. Here they take a look at what is going on abroad with T-Trak and concluded that 33mm is by far the most popular standard, as opposed to the declining popularity of 25mm in Japan. It also seems that this project will be endorsed by Kato, as the first lecture on this project will be held on the May the 29th in Kato Hobby Centre Tokyo. One of their goals will be to create the largest T-Trak layout in the world in 2020, during the Olympic year. Somehow, I feel this can become a great success, as they also want to incorporate the popular MoRaCo and the JAM. Personally, I've gotten very interested in this project, as it's a great attempt at uniting T-Trak around the world. Whereas the alternative 33mm standard has maintained its status quo around the world, the original 25mm standard has declined in popularity in Japan. Hence, I'll try to attend this meeting to keep up to date with the developments.