T-Trak as basis of an entire model railway system

[mwagner]

Hello model railroaders, 

 

I am a newcomer in n-gauge and very enthusiastic about japanese model railroads. Since five month I've been working on my first six t-trak-modules. These four corner- and two straight modules can be combined to a simple oval.

 

Please take a look at the current status of my modelling work.

 

Best Regards, Markus

[cteno4]

Welcome Markus, glad you found us!

 

excellent Ttrak modules, especially like your lowered scene corner module. Ttrak  is a fantastic way to start. Do you have a club or shows near you to run with?

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Looking good! I agree with Jeff, the corner module with the dropped scenery is great 🙂

 

[cteno4]

Yeah I may need to steal, err, borrow that idea!

 

jeff

[mwagner]

Hi Jeff and Martijn, thank you for your commendation. Actually I started to join the IG Nippon (Germany / Austria) and I'm planning to run my modules with this guys.

 

Best Regards

Markus

[cteno4]

Markus,

 

hey that’s great you can play with IG Nippon, great gang! are some of them now doing Ttrak?
 

Might also look if any local small shows as your loop is great to just plop on a table for folks to enjoy and troll for folks that might get interested in Ttrak and Japanese trains.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Tony Galiani]

It would be great if you could share more photos.  I am working on some ideas and really like what you have done with this.

Ciao,

Tony Galiani

[mwagner]

 

Hi Tony, thank you for your feedback. Here are a few photos of different periods of construction. Feel free to tell me, which kind of photos you wish and I will take pictures.

 

Best Regards

Markus

 

 

Edited May 4, 2022 by mwagner
Problem with pictures

[Tony Galiani]

These are all great to see  - thanks for posting them.

Personally, I would really like to see some pictures of the other - country - side of the layout as well.

I have been looking at quite a few of these types of layouts lately and Jeff was kind enough to send me some links and I also found some additional links via Kato's Japan web site.

With all this to refer to, the blank wooden modules are not as intimidating to me!

Ciao,

Tony

[mwagner]

Hi Tony, 

no problem. Here are a few pictures of the countryside-module.

 

By the way:

- The trunks of the trees are real roots of uprooted trees where I live. There ist no paint at the trunks. 

- the field is made with corrugated cardboard. I have simply removed the top layer. 

 

Greetings

Markus

[mwagner]

And for all, who wanted to take a look:

 

Before I made the countryside t-trak-module, I practiced landscape design on three smaller test modules. They belong to a standard called N-Mini. These design tests will influence my work on the next modules. 

 

Best Regard

Markus

 

 

Edited May 5, 2022 by mwagner
orthography

[Tony Galiani]

Great stuff - thanks.

Tony

 

[Cat]

It's really great to see so much vertical dimension!

[cteno4]

Markus,

 

nice tall single track modules. Do you guys have a group of tall single track runners? Love the S modules, always nice to take the train to the back and let the scene stand in front for a bit. Fun then to reverse modules. What are the single track specs you are using?

 

cheers

 

jeff

[mwagner]

Hi Jeff, 

 

thanks. Yes, IG Nippon runs these modules too. All modules are 10cm high. straight modules are 31x15cm, curved module are 29x29cm. 
 

It was a lot of fun and a lot to learn making these. 
 

greetings

Markus

[cteno4]

Markus,

 

cool, a couple of folks around here talked about doing some single track modules but it never got off the ground. They really lend themselves to the vertical format and like then shallower scenes. Ironically Ttrak started with much shallower scenes and kept growing deeper.

 

What’s the track setback from the front edge? Is the S module symmetrical so you end up with the same track setback on both ends? What’s the track used for that, custom whack up?

 

cheers

 

jeff

[mwagner]

Hi Jeff, 

 

our inspiration and all rules to setup the modules are from this website: http://njouki.g1.xrea.com/menu.html

The module dimensions are based at Kato Unitrack. The track setback from the front edge is 30mm. The S module is symmetrical and can be switched to get another combination. At this site you will find dimension examples and part numbers of Kato Unitrack for every example. http://njouki.g1.xrea.com/c.html

 

Building these modules are a big fun. I really recommend it.

 

Greetings

Markus

[kami_illy]

On 5/5/2022 at 8:42 AM, mwagner said:

And for all, who wanted to take a look:

 

Before I made the countryside t-trak-module, I practiced landscape design on three smaller test modules. They belong to a standard called N-Mini. These design tests will influence my work on the next modules. 

 

Best Regard

Markus

 

 

Cool little modules. Love the compressed scenes.

I think they'll look great with b-trains... so the dimensions of the train will be a bit less dominating. 

[Tony Galiani]

A question as I am about to start on some modules - do you pre-treat the bare wood before doing scenery and ballasting the track?  Wondering if I need to do anything to protect the wood before I start work.  Possibly paint or varnish it?

My recent projects have been on foamboard or finished shelving so this has not come up for me before.

Ciao,

Tony

[mwagner]

32 minutes ago, Tony Galiani said:

A question as I am about to start on some modules - do you pre-treat the bare wood before doing scenery and ballasting the track?  Wondering if I need to do anything to protect the wood before I start work.  Possibly paint or varnish it?

My recent projects have been on foamboard or finished shelving so this has not come up for me before.

Ciao,

Tony

Hi Tony,

 

actually I coated the bare wood with an acrylic paint to avoid warping from moisture. For ballasting and some details I usually work with a glue water mixture. Just to be shure, because it is a lot of water in this mixture ...

 

Kindly Regard

Markus

[Tony Galiani]

Got it.  Do you just do the top board?  Or do you do the sides as well?

Thanks,

Tony

 

[cteno4]

Toni,

 

you can have fun with stains or wood dyes to make the Baltic birch sides a nice color and oil/wax or varnish. Looks way nicer than solid painted colors do, they really look ugly with the high 2.75” sides, but when finished as a nice wood look the eye doesn’t catch on them so much. 
 

the laser cut tabs do stick out a bit visually as they are burned a bit, but wood dyes can help this. I’ve had great luck with empire red and cherry on Baltic birch. You can do a few successive applications to darken things

 

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/general-finishes-water-based-dye-empire-red-quart

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/general-finishes-water-based-dye-vintage-cherry-pint

 

the reds tend to pop grain a bit more and not as muddy as brown wood finishes can be.

 

stains penetrate Baltic birch easily as well but won’t give a lot of color or pop the grains as much and being oil based usually are a bit smellier.

 

if you what a nice clean front then wood veneer edge banding works great. Just iron it on (maybe get a used iron as spouse may not like you ironing wood with their clothes iron) and cut/sand back any hanging over (super fast if you have a little trim router). Then just finish the wood as you wish. I should have thought of this when I had your modules I could have trimmed them easily as I have a few rolls of 3” edge banding here, it’s like a dollar a foot. Unfortunately not a lot of woods in 3” right now but if your interested I can find some other sources.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Preglued-Edgebanding-Application-Adhesive-Flexible/dp/B07RRD7C7D?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1

 

top just a good exterior latex paint works well. You can get a little test cans of paints at the big box stores cheap, don’t have to buy a gallon and get it mixed to a good earth brown tone. Flat is best texture visually if exposed at all and grips stuff better when gluing to it.

 

jeff

[cteno4]

Forgot to mention, before you try any stains or dyes try then on the inside of the module first to see how they look and also how they finish with oil, wax, varnish, etc. May see obvious but I’ve had so many folks reach out to me in the past as they didn’t test a finish and went straight at it and then not working and how to reverse out of it (usually hard to impossible…).

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[mwagner]

15 hours ago, Tony Galiani said:

Got it.  Do you just do the top board?  Or do you do the sides as well?

Thanks,

Tony

 

I do the whole structure, top and sides. Your welcome, Markus

[Tony Galiani]

Markus - thanks - good to know.

Jeff - thanks as well - finally, after all these years(!) - it has sunk in on me to do test pieces.  Previously, I had not bothered but then on occasion had to do repair work and come up with a fix.  Live and learn .... eventually!

Tony