Mini OneTrak

[cteno4]

So I’ve been doing Ttrak since about when it started and sadly I have been not enjoying it as much these days. Modules are getting bigger (both deeper and 2x and greater lengths) and it’s sort has lost some of its jewel like charm of tiny scenes. Filling larger modules also means a lot more work, time and cost. Plus schlepping a car load of modules and setting up over many tables, leveling, etc it can be tedious, and again taking some of the fun out of it. I’ve also built over a hundred Ttrak bases of all sorts of designs in my wood shop for club members and myself. It was fun for a long time making custom modules and better module construction designs, but that too has lost its charm and becoming a bit of a chore and rapidly increasing lumber prices also means modules are no longer a buck or two of wood!
 

Kato’s new mini diorama modules looked like a very fun way to do something small and wandering, but when I played with it it was just too small, really can’t do even a small house on the modules. I also had one older idea in the back of my head of sort of doing a modular single track point to point for 2-4 car trains with modules sort of more long and skinny like 9x20, that I never really moved out of the brain and onto physical mock ups. Also way back when there was a group of us trying to define potential T gauge ttrak, the tiny size of the modules on table opened itself up to doing a variety of sized and shaped modules and it was super fun when I mocked it up as it lent itself to a very fun visual variety of modules and layout shapes (another issue with ttrak, it’s hard to make it meander).
 

then when I started looking at the wooden canvases for straight Ttrak modules (prebuilt and inexpensive for newbies) I noticed a bunch of very inexpensive ($2-4 ea) that might work for small modules with enough space for small scenes and have a variety of size and shapes for little one track modules. Sort of blended the T gauge Ttrak, Kato mini diorama modules, the single track point to point all together and premade inexpensive module bases. Modules would be smaller to store and transport as well as be quicker to finish off. This would also lend itself to doing smaller, shorter events with faster setup and takedown as well as only needing a table or two.
 

These wood canvases are 3/4” tall modules like 4”x4”, 4”x6”, 5”x7”, 8”x8”, 6”x6”, 6”x12”, 8”x12”, 8”x16”, 10”x10” for the straights and 10x10 for corners with 216r curves and track 1” from front. Tons of inexpensive wood canvases out there.

 

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0834LT7T2/ref=syn_sd_onsite_desktop_0?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_plhdr=t&th=1

 

Tracks lengths can be used to have about module length with track overhangs of 1.5-3mm. This is bigger than Ttrak, but I actually like the idea of a little module separation like the mini diorama modules have. Ttrak butt up against each other modules at times does some odd things visually with various pairs of modules. Obviously each width module would need to be done in pairs so one could go on each side of a loop. Since the 10”x10” corner modules could be divided up to 10” on a regular 30” wide table and the  even allow very deep, skinny modules as well. Or one side of a look could flip the modules so the scene is in the front and track in the back. Or a pair of back to front S modules could also also flip the modules to scene in front and track in back for a while and the varying of module depths should make an interesting in and out and out pattern and help breakup the flat Ttrak front wall. With the smaller loop size some modules could also have the track going down the middle of the module and stick out here and there along the front.

 

I need to sit down with track software and work out potential for some 30 and 45 degree jogs as well.

 

I’ve been toying with the idea of raising the modules up off the table maybe 1/2” with some small cross pieces like sushi tray legs.

 

anyhow just something fun brewing in the back of my brain for a few months and I’m getting to the point of jumping in and getting a dozen or so modules to start playing with the ideas in the real world. I’m hoping it will get my creative juices flowing again on my model trains.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Tony Galiani]

Great info.  Thanks for posting.

I have been trying to do some mini-scenes both to practice various techniques and to make use of what little modeling time I have had lately.  This idea really appeals to me.

Though I have some modules waiting to be worked on, I have been hesitant proceed as I am worried about messing them up - messing up a $4.00 investment won't upset me all that much.

Cheers,

Tony Galiani

 

[Cat]

Hmm, those little boards do have potential and harken very nicely to the original T-Trak concept.
 
This intersects with an idea I've had bubbling on the back burner for awhile that could work with T-Trak or mini-modules.  Might there be enough folks interested in travelling to meet up to run a JNS modular layout at shows? 

Here in the Eastern US, we've go the big Springfield show here in Massachusetts at the end of January.  I'm sure Roxanne would be delighted to travel to Timonium in Maryland in April or October (Feb would be too close to January for another big weekend for us at least).
 
Our own T-Trak modules are running large and wide because that fits their primary home modular layout use, but city blocks are drop-in sections that could easily be dropped into smaller modules for travel if we're not bringing the longer [even at shorty sized] JR East station modules.  Not reduplicating model building would be an easy sell to Roxanne too!

[cteno4]

6 hours ago, Tony Galiani said:

Great info.  Thanks for posting.

I have been trying to do some mini-scenes both to practice various techniques and to make use of what little modeling time I have had lately.  This idea really appeals to me.

Though I have some modules waiting to be worked on, I have been hesitant proceed as I am worried about messing them up - messing up a $4.00 investment won't upset me all that much.

Cheers,

Tony Galiani

 

Toni,

 

great things on these modules is they are very sturdily built and could take abuse of many attempts at scenery just scrape it off and start over! All you need to do with theses is paint the top to seal it up, I use cheap craft store gesso as it gives a nice rough finish and it’s a great gripping surface hits job on canvases).

 

other thing is this lets you keep decent tests for later evaluation! I do this all the time with pieces of cardboard usually and they usually end up lost in the shop or mangled or I forget what exactly I did on the scenery. So I’m thinking of using little 4x4 to do tests on as well.

 

Jeff

[cteno4]

3 hours ago, Cat said:

Hmm, those little boards do have potential and harken very nicely to the original T-Trak concept.
 
This intersects with an idea I've had bubbling on the back burner for awhile that could work with T-Trak or mini-modules.  Might there be enough folks interested in travelling to meet up to run a JNS modular layout at shows? 

Here in the Eastern US, we've go the big Springfield show here in Massachusetts at the end of January.  I'm sure Roxanne would be delighted to travel to Timonium in Maryland in April or October (Feb would be too close to January for another big weekend for us at least).
 
Our own T-Trak modules are running large and wide because that fits their primary home modular layout use, but city blocks are drop-in sections that could easily be dropped into smaller modules for travel if we're not bringing the longer [even at shorty sized] JR East station modules.  Not reduplicating model building would be an easy sell to Roxanne too!

Yes I think that was my original irritation that started all this. Lee really was an excellent diorama artist and had an eye for scenes. I had many interesting conversations with her about setting scenes. Kato’s mini dioramas kind of yanked me back to that and the idea of pearls on a string, each beautiful on their own, but tiny separation of each with very small connection point between each, but then also the whole string takes on a new beauty as well.

 

the idea of drop in scenery sections on the mini onetrak is great. I’m always thinking that way on Ttrak, but didn’t even pop up in my head with the mini onetrak, but a mini onetrak scene is nicely bite sized for plopping then onto Ttrak, on the fly setups or larger layouts. 
 

another thought is two tables could be put side by side and a nice ring of modules done around the edge and leave the center clear and have a more wandering feel to the track like and modules flipped both ways scene side in and scene side out. Even a couple of larger modules could go into a setup like this.

 

We would love to do a meet up. My wife’s health is such I can’t currently travel far unfortunately. Hopefully at some point here that will change. We can get plenty of space at the timmonium show. We had a few extra tables and space in the place they put us (it’s nice we are in the middle of vendors not in the huge hall of monster layouts!). I think this is why this finally burped out of me last night with the HOe Ttrak and our talking at the Timonium show this weekend of ideas of what we could do on a spare table or two.

 

We always welcome visitors! We have 2-3 tables usually of 33mm Ttrak these days. Many jns folks have come thru dc and always great to play trains!

 

im going to cut up some foam core planks to the various sizes to get a better feel for the sizes and shapes that seem to work best. I did this when we were playing with the T gauge Ttrak and it really worked well. Then buy a few different sized to get started! I have 3 (maybe 4) regular Ttrak modules I’m putting together on the 9x12 wood canvases with some donated structures for the club to use.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Cat]

4 hours ago, cteno4 said:

We always welcome visitors! We have 2-3 tables usually of 33mm Ttrak these days. Many jns folks have come thru dc and always great to play trains!

Was just chatting with Roxanne, and we can pencil in the October show this year.  Checked the dates online and were pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't on the Columbus Day weekend but the next one.  This is good news for us because she attends the Harvard Celtic Colloquium on the holiday weekend.
 
A good excuse for a train trip too!

[cteno4]

Fun! Been a while since we had a JNS visitor to a show! Maybe we can convince Chris to pop down from Philly for a visit. I think the light rail goes from Penn to the fairgrounds w.o a change of trains. Number of hotels right around the fairgrounds. We can see about having g a dinner sat evening, there are a couple of Japanese restaurants right around there.

 

jeff

[Cat]

Yes, Light Rail for a bonus connection!  
 
Roxanne's on board with doing our Mito city blocks as drop-in scenery for easy to transport single modules.  And we'll try to get some of our Shorties chipped this summer.

[cteno4]

I’m thinking the shorties will be fun on the mini onetrak modules.

 

let me know your scenery section sizes and I can have modules (Ttrak or mini onetrak) ready to plop them on.

 

jeff

[Cat]

Full block construction will be in the near future, sizing tbd.

[cteno4]

So last night I decided to go ahead and order a few wood canvases and track to start playing with the concept. Got 10x10, 8x8, 5x7, 6x6, and 4x4 to start with.

 

it’s pretty good you can get 4x 10x10 for 4 corners and 8 5x7 modules for about $30. Track for those (8x s186 and 8x r216) is about $40. So about $70 for a 20”x48” loop. A couple of Ttrak modules with track costs more than that! There is about 570 square inches of scenery space (non track area), that’s about equivalent to the scenery space on 5x 12x12 Ttrak modules. So fair bit of  scenery space, Albeit in smaller pieces. 
 

the 5x7 modules are nice as they give about a 3mm track overhang with a single s186. Corners will have the r216 almost flush to give 1” track setback. But I may create some 8x8 corners with r183 to play with only a 1/2” track setback or add a spacer between the r216s in a corner to push it out to 1/2” track setback. Also need to play with various 1-4 car trains and teams to see how they look on all of this. Hey it’s an experiment!

 

also need to see about playing with just using some single 15 degree track sections between modules to let things wander some.using an extender track in a couple of places between modules may also help have a more random flow of modules and not worry as much about paring up module sizes so evenly on each side of a loop. Other fun can just be using various sized girder bridges between modules her and there for fun.

 

jeff

[cteno4]

So one issue that mini onetrak will need to deal with is module height after all. I’ve seen the low profile wooden canvases listed for, 0.6” to 0.85” but most are listed at 0.75”. The 1.5” wooden canvases I got for playing with use as Ttrak modules came spot on at 1.5” thick (but there it doesn’t matter as they will be using adjustable legs.)

 

Well the first two sets of wooden canvases arrived today (10x10 and 4x4). I had purchased ones described as 0.75” and all from different vendors. Well the first two came in at 0.65” thick. Width and depth are spot on their dimensions it’s just the thickness is off. This will mean the module surface height will probably need to get set at like 1” high and folks add some chunks of cardboard or felt dots or some such to bring the height up to a standard height as I think these thin wooden canvases may have a range in their thicknesses. In first playing with the modules they do look nice lifted even a little bit off the table. I have to do some whack up tests but I think doing them taller may not look very good due to how slim the modules are.

 

I don’t think adjustable legs are worth it as more of a pain to keep to a height. A hole could be drilled in the front two corners and the middle back (tripod is the easiest to deal with and fastest to level) and a small 10-30 rivet glued in the holes and then use a hex socket end nylon set screw for the leg and they could be used. These are tight fitting and won’t easily unscrew. But it adds more construction, parts and cost to the concept. Some glued on cardboard feet may be a lot simpler and anyone can hack up something that would put the top at 1”. Another option would just to be driving some machine screws into corners or front corner and center back (tripod works very well!) and setting their driven height to make the 1” height.

 

I don’t see leveling really being needed with mini onetrak as a 6’-8’ tablets worth is quite a bit and spanning two tables can be adjusted for (few times do tables line up in height perfectly) with just using some shims of chipboard under modules where needed. Module to module won’t be much of an issue as a single track should be no issues with these small and lighter modules if one just lifts the adjoining one up a mm or two. Again some cardboard shims could help in these situations, but it’s not the stresses of larger, heavier Ttrak modules.

 

tThe quality so far is quite nice on the two sets at $1-3 each I would not want to even think about making a batch of these in the shop! The panels are sanded nicely and good edges. I’m going to play with adding veneer or using some wood dies on the edges to see what that looks like compared to just the natural blonde wood they use on these. Joints of the ply tops to the sides are very clean and edge of the 2-4mm ply tops (ply thickness increases with canvas size) are very nice and not noticeable and very clean and uniform when you do look closely. It’s the kind of ply edge that at times actually looks good… Corners are all 45 joints so seam is right at the corner and pretty much invisible. These are obviously assembled in a pressure jig then run through edge sander and thickness sander as the are very uniform. So leaving the wood natural may be the simplest and cleanest option as then everyone would match up well in a meet (another issue with Ttrak is the usual mish mash of front panel colors and finishes and the clubs that usually standardize this it’s either black or some ick brown…). Simple clean and as natural looking as possible is usually the best for trim like this to be accepted by the minds eye and forgotten. We get into this all the times in exhibits and simply and cleanly finished wood is always the best to do this for the human brain than paint, metal or plastics.

 

more module sizes and track coming in over the weekend to play with corners and track setback from the edge.

 

jeff

[Cat]

On 2/7/2023 at 9:47 PM, cteno4 said:

Other fun can just be using various sized girder bridges between modules her and there for fun.

Having some bridges or viaducts to drop in would make a nice clean break between wildly different scenes.  With curved ones, full corner modules could just be optional, simplifying the sizing issues.

[cteno4]

Yeah once I have a bunch of different sized modules first thing will be to affix track and then set out seeing what you can do on a 30” table width and a pile of joiner tracks. with the Kato mini diorama and their 186r-45 they could do some nice wandering scenes. 45 sections could also be done with the curved track at the very edge of one end of a module so it can fit in up against other square straight modules with the scene then hanging out on the outside of the curve. But I have to measure to see if 186r will fit like this on standard modules or something custom would need to be made more akin to a Kato mini diorama curved module,

 

im thinking the mini onetrak freeform nature might catch the eye of gamers, what do you think @Cat? If you do what enticements might help?

 

jeff

[Cat]

Not likely to be a gaming thing, except for those of us who are prone to making cute little models.  There are some of us with overlapping interest, I know several gamers who attend the Springfield show.  The compactness of micro modules would likely be the biggest attraction for gamers who by nature already have very good grasps of storage and transportation issues.

 

Adler Hobby in NH is primarily a gaming store, but also added European train stuff (likely the owner wanted to start buying wholesale).  He's been trying to recruit for HO, and FreeMo I think, but might be tempted into N Mini Onetrack.  Might be easier to recruit for too.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2825292231120750/media
 
N scale is a niche size for miniatures gaming.  Module frames aren't great for dropping onto a gaming table.  My plan is to be able to use the whole Ibaraki Shorty layout as a gaming table with 1/144 minis.
 
Whee!

Edited February 13, 2023 by Cat

[cteno4]

Thanks cat! I mentioned the gamers more not for gaming but the fact that some of the gamers like yourself like the idea of throwing together lots of little bits into something to make a bigger display. At the last two years at Otakon about half of the non train folks that were really interested in Ttrak mentioned they were war gamers who did some model building and scenery for their wargaming and they saw a lot of crossover on skill sets and such and had a little hankering for model trains. Ttrak seemed just a tad much for them I sort of got back when talking with them. The other half of the anime folks were crafters of one sort or another and they saw that the modules were more like crafting projects and little dioramas not a huge layout like they had always associated with model trains and turned them off.

 

hoping maybe mini onetrak will be an entry level drug, err I mean activity.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Cat]

Ooh, glad you got some stuff going at Otakon.  Back in the Beforetimes, I tried pitching a T-Trak workshop to Anime Boston and the powers that be back then didn't want to think about it.  "There are train shows for that" was the sniffed reply.  Grr.
 
Otakon has always been on the horizon for a possible trip for me.  This year is not good though, Roxanne will be away in Utrecht for the quadrennial Celtic Congress at that time and I should stay home to tend the farm and not spend as much money as she will be.
 
A build and play mini module workshop may be a good fit at Arisia, sci-fi convention (with a fair amount of anime and steampunk) in Boston on the MLK weekend.  They do other crafting workshops with fees for material costs.
 
Whee
Cat

[cteno4]

Cat,

 

otakon was after us from when we first started the club like 19 years back. Turns out the guy who ran security was a big train and model train guy. But when it was in Baltimore they wanted us over there 3-4 days and only 2 badges supplied… there was no way we could have done that. The top folks were sort of distant and I think same attitude as your Boston folks and I think why they just made it so hard we would say no! But a few years back it sounds like change in the folks running things now on DC and getting bigger and bigger were more receptive and invited a couple of folks to come down with free badges like 4 years back just to see the event, show where we would be and just get a feel for the event. Super welcoming had they won us over. We couldn’t get enough folks to do all three days and 4th day setup so they said hey just come down for Saturday! Turns out works very well to set up early morning, do the show and load out that night. It’s great as are are the only group loading in/out on sat so super easy. The show is so large now and so many vendors i would hate to imagine load in/out with all of them! It’s been very fun and folks are just very appreciative seeing Japanese trains at the show. They have asked us if we wanted to do panels on Japanese trains in general or trains in anime. I’ll have to think about maybe a workshop on mini onetrak if it takes off.

 

mini onetrak kit would be $10 or less. Like $2-3 for a canvass, $2 piece of track, few screws and scenery materials. Structures are what cost the bucks. Some downloadable pdf papercraft out there. I’m interested in working on some simple sankei type buildings to cut from colored cardstock.

 

jeff

[Cat]

Hmm, the ongoing success of that and possible leadership change at AB over the years might lead to a better opening here.  I was thinking coloured cardstock would be a nice quickie build and play option at cons.

[Tony Galiani]

Not sure if this is the proper location for this as it is not really Mini OneTrak but sort of related so maybe?

 

Inspired by Jeff's note and wanting to get something done though somewhat afraid to touch the modules I have stored ready to go (as I do not want to mess them up), I picked up a small 10" by 10" wooden panel to try a diorama.  I am getting a bit of time back - our new director started so I am no longer managing my department and just came off a two month jazz orchestra commitment with our concert last night - so wanted to jump into something right away.

 

I have trouble coming up with ideas but had purchased the diorama book pictured below and so using that as a template, started my own mini diorama.  Thought a bit simpler in design.

Just some salvaged track running on an embankment across the board.  I used offcuts of foam pieces to make the embankment after painting the surface of the board with gray acrylic paint to protect it.  Then I used Sculptamold to create the rest of the embankment.  On one side, I used some foamcore pieces to vary the slope somewhat.  The instructions say 24 hours to cure so tomorrow I plan to add some Stone Clay on the open areas to make the ground less flat.  After that, I will paint the entire area with texture paint, add the track and ballast then some bushes and trees.  Thinking I will line the track with bushes and small trees as that what I see in a lot of the Hokkaido cab view videos I have been watching.

 

More next week ( I hope).

Ciao,

Tony

[cteno4]

Toni,

 

great! nice little start.
 

Yes this is what’s great about the small modules, lots less to do! Gets you into thinking what are the most important bits of the scene and not just let’s throw a ton of stuff on a module.

 

it’s funny you did the angled track as I’ve just started playing with different sized bases on the table just to get a feel off the concept better and if it’s good to have a standard track offset from the front and I’m feeling no, standardization is not good and having different track insets is actually good and not have a smooth outside or inside face. The jumble looks nice along with flipping modules around for the scene side to stick out. I’ll start taking pictures now that my vision is coming in focus here.

 

but one thing I started looking at was wondering the modules some with small 15 degree pieces between. The I’ve been working with track lengths for the standard sized canvases  that gives about a 4-6mm gap between modules (different having to work backwards with preset module sizes than Ttrak where track determines module sizes). The gap is nice on the mini modules as it separates the little scenes just enough. I’ve been looking I’d putting a small chunk of wood under the track end on the side of each module may look nice visually, but not all the way down the module (the Kato mini dioramas do this). But the idea of having gaps between modules (sort of verboten in Ttrak, or at leas highly frown upon) got me thinking it may be fun to do some modules with track slightly offset at an angle to the module and just hang enough track off the ends so it can click into modules on either side that have track parallel to the front. No I am going to have to look into this deeper!

 

hope I can get a small table of these going soon here as we were just invited back to the Cherry Blossom Festival Sakuri Matsuri this year here in dc. It’s a huge event and now two days. We had not done it for a few years as costs had risen to the point our sponsors and event could not cover. But this year they reached out and said we miss you! Unfortunately we had an event in WV we had just committed to for Saturday but they said we have a 10x20 tent you can use Sunday if you want! Will be fun to be back, it’s a very fun event and over a hundred thousand people so very very visible. I would love to have the debut of mini onetrak there,

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Tony Galiani]

Just checked out the Festival web site.  Please keep us posted.  Typically, I need to be coerced to travel up 95 but this could be a fun day trip.

Tony

[cteno4]

Tony,

 

we will be there Sunday this year. I’m not sure if a day trip up and back 95 would be that fun on a Sunday. Sunday 95 seems to be busy all day both ways! I agree I 95 just sucks except for the toll road part. It seems to have the most wrecks that close the highway for hours. It always says the 33/29 route is an hour longer but usually 95 ends up being the same…

 

it is a big festival and tons of people. Best to park outside dc and metro in as downtown is usually a mess those weekends with festival, parade and blossom viewing.

 

Hope to see you in Durham as may meet up with a friend that lives in Winston/Salem now and we thought a meet up in Durham for a couple of days would be fun, lots of good food and beer and maybe we can schedule it with one of your performances.

 

jeff

[cteno4]

The other thought I just had with the angled track modules is track could end near the edge of the module and then just add short bits like 29s or 15 degree curves to extend as needed. Il looking at using the adjustable length track bits to allow not to have to match up module sizes perfectly and curve geometries. Cna also just spam some modules with 124 and 186 and 248 bridges for fun.

 

I think I also came up with and easy way to create a depressed module.

 

jeff

[cteno4]

So the leveling system works well. Different vendors have different heights on these smaller wooden canvases. Most all list as 3/4” or 0.8” but I they have ranged from 0.6-0.8” in height. So some simple laying around showed just lifting the module a bit off the table looked best with these small modules. So I decided to set the running height of 1”. To boost and level the modules I settled on simple M4 X 10mm long knurled inserts (these are used in 3D printing and injection moulding) and nylon M4 hex socked end bolts. The inserts are 6.4mm so 6mm hole and they tap right in snug. They nylon hex socket bolts have nice groves cap so they screw well with fingers and the nylon stays very snug in the insert so once you have it set at the desired height they stay there well. Simple solution and only costs about 50 cents for a set of three inserts and bolts, so very inexpensive. Plaing old screws could also work just as well and be inexpensive. The inserts are just a nice clean look and can be adjusted by finger if needed. Tripod works great. Idea here is to just run on the table top at a set height and not worry about leveling modules to the table.

 

other issue is that different vendors also make the face dimensions slightly different. Some are spot on their dimensions and other up to 1/4” short. This means a potential extra track overhang up to 3mm. But these can be jiggled with track combos. In the end things don’t need to be perfect spacing like Ttrak as a piece or two of small track and/or extension track can easily even things up.

 

jeff