Rectangular Layouts vs Long Single Table Width Layouts

[cteno4]

Our club had our Ttrak setup last weekend at the big Sakura Matsuri event and tried did a rectangular layout and really discovered it to be a lot easier to setup and a better presentation of a car full of modules so I thought I would start a discussion in the Ttrak forum about it.

 

We set up the Ttrak as rectangular layout with two 8’x30” tables side by side to create a 8’x5’ ttrak loop. This left a couple of inches of table border all the way around for small hands to grab onto or lean into instead of Ttrak modules right at the edge when you do loops with single table width. We find this presentation really beneficial for a whole host of reasons that I’ll take the time to outline here as it gobsmacked me when I stepped back and really looked at it.

 

• Creates Nice Table Boarder/Frame - The rectangular layout creates a nice small 2-3” table border all the way around which is nice visually as well as place for small hands to grab and rest on instead of the modules. This strip is also nice visually with the black table cloths, it frames the layout nicely and mutes module base front differences.
• Fixes Deeper Module Issues - Eliminates having to lay out deeper modules strategically so as not to butt into deeper modules on the other side of the layout as well as trying to snake buss wires between deeper modules zig zagging. Set up is much faster as we just arrange modules more by scene with no thoughts to depth and this most importantly lets us layout modules so they make nice scenes together and nice transitions across the layout.
• Allows Ultra Deep Modules - Allows for deeper than 14” modules (some are dreaming of deeper scenes and then they don’t have to creat corresponding shallow scene modules for behind the deep scenes and also power buss routing around module backs on either side).
• Easier Last Minute Changes -If at the last minute or during a show you have to move some modules or replace a module it’s a lot easier to do than with the long format.
• Greater Visitor Retention - We are finding the visitor retention much higher for shorter layout and not with the rectangle like this as opposed to a long 16’x30” or more loop. While the longer loop uses up every bit of table space and gets and you can squeeze in an extra 12 single straight modules, folks tend to get on the run around two longer tables and rarely circumnavigate it completely and stop and look at details less.
• Layout All in Field of Vision - The rectangle allows a nice over view of the whole layout within your field of vision, where as the long thin layout does not. The long strip does a strange visual thing of just screaming more of the same as well. The 4 corners seem to set more of different places on the layout and draw folks over to check each out. It helps also that our club corners are rather unique being built by one of our best modelers and are great scenes of Sake brewery, beach scene (Enoshima inspired), rice farm, and 100 yen store with bit of lake and swan boats. 
• Less Loop Like - The rectangle layout plays down the really long straightaways that long layout accentuates. The long straightaways makes the layout feel like so much more of a loop, one of the big downsides of Ttrak.
• Fewer Modules Needed - The rectangular rectangle layout only requires 4 corners and 14 single straight modules, which is right at the amount of stuff to fit into one small station wagon or suv. The long layout requires 4 corners and 22-26 single straights which definitely requires 2 cars to transport.
• Trains Stay in View More - The rectangular layout’s shorter loop length and more of the trains (or at least their movement) usually being more in general field of view. This means trains don’t disappear for long times and more fun watching them off in the distance. Also you get 4 curves ro mix up running on the rectangle and only 2 on the long layout
• Less Dramatic Front and Back issues - In many of our venue spaces visitors tend to end up to orienting themselves to the layout like there is a front and a back to the layout. We try to not have this, but space constraints, visitor flow and such sometimes just force a bit of orientation to the layout. With the rectangular layout of there is a front then the ends/sides end up being maximized, where as with the long layout half of the layout ends up being in the back where few venture to look at it if space is tighter.
• Smooths Rough Module Back Edge Lines - The rough back edge of a line of modules is much less jarring in the rectangular layout as it’s not back to back with the rough back edge of the modules behind. With the black table cloth covering the large center hole in the rectangle the two back sides are not grabbing the eye aggressively as it is with the long layout.
• Avoids Back to Back Scene issues - The rectangular layout avoids the eye wanting to connect back to back modules on a long layout. Even when there is a good 6-8” gap in the middle on the long layout we have had a lot of people ask if the two scenes are connected between back to back modules or why there is a gap there or why it’s different down the layout (most folks don’t see our Ttrak is a bunch of individual modules). We did not get those question with the rectangle format.
• New Center Display Area - Center area of about 2’x5’ becomes a nice space to do other presentations, displays, and/or signage.
• Easier to Find a Trottle Home - The rectangle layout center area also makes it easy to find a convenient space to put the throttle, long layouts is a noted puzzle to where to put the throttle and where buss reaches power drops.
• Better Sign Placement - Rectangle layout allows 4 nice skirt faces to put our club sign on and they center nicely whereas the sign in the center of long layout sides looks odd and also strange on the 30” wide ends.

 

Being in exhibit design 30+ years all these things supporting the rectangular layout are super solid design elements that are very tried and true. I’m kicking myself for not exploring rectangular Ttrak setups earlier and just slipped into the old long table format of out and back that is such the norm. I think that is driven by the desire by many to cram in as many modules and miles of rail as possible in a setup, but it does not take into consideration how visitors interact and react to the layout. This is a real lesson of less is more! This comes up all the time in design.

 

In a couple of weeks we will be trying a spiral of 4 8’x30” tables for a 10.5” square layout or a 4 table rectangle at 8’x11’ with a few more straights at the local triannual train show to see how those work.

 

I would love to hear other’s thoughts and experiences with this topic!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[cteno4]

So here are some of the variations you can do with 2-4 8’x30” banquet tables and the number of single straight modules (or the equivalent) needed in addition to the 4 corner modules. The Ttrak loop can grow and shrink a bit on each of the table layouts.

 

1 table 

8’x30” rectangle 4, 6, 8, or 10

 

2 table

5’x8’ rectangle: 12 or 14

30”x16’ long rectangle: 18, 20, 22, 24, or 26

 

3 table

8’x8.5’ square: 16, 18, or 20

 

4 table

10.5’x10.5’ Square spiral: 24, 26, 28, 30, or 32 straight

8’x13’ Rectangle center open: 22, 24, 26, 28, or 30 straight

5’x16’ rectangle closed center: 26, 28, or 30 straight

 

jeff

[Cat]

If I'm reading this right, you are advocating for doughnut layouts and that sounds great.
 
I'm all on board for less is more with T-Trak and grouped into smaller themed layouts rather than 'ooh look how big it is'.  Don't think that will catch on in the larger world, but super for when it is done.  As a spectator and a modeller, even my eyes glaze over with the big long runs and 120-car coal trains running through all the short scenes.
 
Smaller set-ups also make it more feasible for a 'backdrops will be used' rule, and plain sky ones provided if needed.  The modules that are missing them to make the whole presentation a bit jarring.

[bill937ca]

In some ways this can be too long. When I had my old  2.5 x 5 foot hobby tables I could create a 2.5 x 10 foot layout.  It makes for a long run but with so much space it usually ended up being a rectangular loop with a large yard.  For a running layout it would have been better to have 2.5 x 2.5 corners at each end and maybe 2 foot wide straight a way.

[cteno4]

Yes cat, donuts rather than long maple bars!

 

nice thing about the rectangular or square layout is the need of backdrops really falls off as the world just needs, not another world 2-6” away as when on a single table width layout. 
 

backdrops are super difficult for several reasons with Ttrak. First the are just hard to make good ones. Really takes some painting talent. Second they are very very dominant in your view of the layout so have to be done well, and because they are dominant the backdrops side by side can easily clash if done in different techniques. The module scenery itself is much more forgiving visually with changes between modules as there is a lot of detail that the mid just ends up bleeding together. But in the few times I’ve seen much of backdrops used they just clash with one another. Even one that I saw years ago that was pretty well done and span like five or six singles (long single scene spread out across the modules) it just felt like too much. So, personally I’m not a fan of backdrops. But I do like how having the open space in the middle lets it become a nice strip of a scene without the modules having to be back to back.

 

yes I doubt it will change most Ttrak out there as it’s always how big can we make it!!! About a decade back we had the national n gauge show here in the area and I suggested in the planning session that we think about doing a bunch of smaller, themed layouts instead of one big monster. I was booed out of the meeting. That soured me in participating in any more larger events.

 

jeff

[Andrew G]

The first `chapter' of this video shows how one Australian group has broken away from linear layouts.

 

 

[N-Osoi]

And Japanese N scale at 24:30 😄 

[RS18U]

Thanks for the detailed information @cteno4 this is very helpful as I have been asked if I want to help set up a small Japanese themed T Track group here.  It has meant a deep dive into a system I knew nothing about and from what I've seen it looks like a great way to indulge my interest in Japanese trains while still keeping the bigger HO Canadian layout.  As one of the viewers of layouts, I too do not like the long linear style, they often feel overwhelming.  And hard to interact with the modellers as they are usually way at the other end, or at the staging yard.

 

Looking forward to how the spiral version goes over with the crowds.

[cteno4]

Thanks @RS18U, sounds like a great option for you to have your cake and eat it too!

 

So we did a spiral set of 4 tables to make a larger square about 10’ 6” on a side. It was about 80% of all the club’s modules. I think this is about the maximum before things get too big. Nice thing was you get 4 longer run, but we had few visitors that circled the whole layout. But this train show had lighter attendance than the last and it’s a train show with many layouts so folks are maxed out more. I really think the two table side by side loop seems to be the optimal for viewer retention as well as just not a huge amount to transport (one Prius V’s worth). Also harder to cover the tables well (I wasn’t there for setup but we did have 4 more sheets to cover the ends). But just feels a bit too big. 
 

there does seem to be so much pressure to just be big! 
 

jeff

[RS18U]

That looks awesome!  Really highlights that space between the edge of the modules and the table.  And allows for some other displays as you noted in the first post.  Who gets to sit in the middle 🙂 ?

[cteno4]

lol that’s member jail! Bad member! Go to jail! 
 

yes the two table layout kind of had a very nice sized area for something in the center.

 

one problem I noticed with the spiral square is with the rectangular layout is more of the table surface is visible so you have to be very clean and even with the table cloths or it looks like an unmade bed! Always tradeoffs, but I would rather spend 5-10 minutes getting the able cloths right over having to fiddle with orders of modules to get them to fit on a single wide layout layout.

 

The spiral square took two vehicles (Prius V and suv) to transport. With a smaller group it can be difficult to get modules rounded up and transported to and from the event. We now have enough club owned modules to do a 2 table rectangle (8’x5’) and about the same with the rest of the member’s modules. We may try two 8’x5’ rectangles this fall at the same show where we have plenty of space and tables to experiment in.

 

jeff

[Cat]

On 4/29/2024 at 1:40 AM, cteno4 said:

there does seem to be so much pressure to just be big! 

And Pete Waterman isn't helping any — 999.9 meters of track, sheesh!
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wx31x1yljo

[cteno4]

Why I’m going the other direction… I’ve given up on big show displays totally as they are all just how many scale miles of track can we put down. while going big can get attention to the hobby, it always feels like such overkill and grand standing and not something that brings folks into the hobby. I also worry it acts against it by make it the public think you have to go big in things to be in the hobby. It’s one of our biggest things doing Ttrak now that we can try to show the non hobbyist public these are small and approachable things to get into, even then they are a bit timid!  Some also are not club people and the big stuff has to be a big club(s)/group effort and that’s a turnoff for some.
 

Show before last I spent some time watching folks in the big layout room interact with layouts. It was a pretty well attended show, but mostly train people with a smattering of more public with kids. In my exhibit career I’ve had tons of visitor studies done on exhibits I’ve done and others I’ve had a lot of experience with and they are nice, but expensive and can be intrusive to the visitor experience. I’ve never been surprised by any of the results as they always jibbed with my more qualitative personal observations (I was in field biology when young so had a lot of training in both qualitative and quantitative observational biology). So learned how to spend some time just watching visitors unobtrusively to get a general feel of what’s going on. In real research you do some of this first to then come up with hypothesis to the  test quantitatively. 

 

I noticed a number of things just watching:

 

Most don’t go all the way around a big layout

Folks usually spend a very short time on the bigger layouts, only pausing a few times. The few that do try to take it all in or at least a good chunk of it are in speed walk mode, stopping only a few times briefly. You would figure with mostly model train people at the show they would spend more time on big layouts But then again maybe burn out for them as for myself being at the same model train show 2 or 3 times a year for 20+ years I’ve seen most all of the layouts dozens of times. I used to try and pay my respects to each big layout and do a fast loop at each and look for interesting modules scenes or details to stop at for a bit to study and enjoy, but that’s gotten old.

 

Many never got close
This may be due to the long tracks going off to either side may keep you back as we like not to have things go out of our field of vision without a lot of concious thought to override it (probably to keep the saber tooth tiger from creeping in from the side blind spots). Also since the big setups are long and skinny it’s hard up close to take in the scene by just panning your vision back and forth as just the big right in front of you and then two long skinny lines running off to each side. Not a usual viewing scenario we are use to in looking at anything and also looking straight down a long train track (especially from above) is not something in many folks visual memory as well as most folks these days are not around tracks much and you don’t walk down the train tracks much any more. But many folks walked around layouts at line 4’+ distances.

 

Like 10% seemed overwhelmed very fast

I saw a good enough pile of folks to be noticeable (that’s usually the 10% point when you are scoring stuff like this with numbers) walk I got the big layout hall and sort of freeze up. They might stop and loon around and just leave or make a few short forays towards a few layouts but not interact much but usually exit the hall pretty fast. Couldn’t really tell if they were modelers or non modelers, but it looked like they just got overwhelmed or not interested by what they saw at first glance. From our layout experience at general public events we know a huge part of the general public will stop and look for at least a few minutes. I think it’s may be more just daunting to just see a huge hall of these really big layouts for some.

 

Stanchions suck

Even though we did stanchions for the first few years of our club they really ruin the viewer’s fun. It took us a number of years to get brave enough to stop using them, but we have had no major issues at all in like 14 years of running with out them at regular table heights right at smaller kids noses! I learned early on in my exhibit design career that if you respect the visitor they will respect you. Clients were forever wanting to harden screens with plex, have various physical standoffs and such, but we would fight them vigorously. Amazingly all the worries the clients had not hardening stuff never came to fruition. But as soon as you harden things it seems to just piss the visitor off and put some in more of an attitude to react and for those that would not react physically you realize you are probably poking them the wrong way subconsciously to listen to the messages if you exhibit. Letting the visitors get right up to stuff and look closely just creates such a strong visual memory that are important in recall of the experience later and better the recall the better they will think it was. But with bit layouts it can be difficult to keep an eye on the fingers and a challenge. I sadly let our club’s early fear of the fingers override my own design training. It’s funny as I’ve found a few things in my model train endeavors that I’ve not followed my design training as I sort of went with the flow of what was being done in the model train world instead of treating it as a usual design challenge. Never too old to learn new things I guess!

 

good news is stanchions for the most part are on their way out, I see fewer and fewer groups using them and for really large setups it almost impossible to have them practically or financially.

 

Tall setups line n-trak are awful for smaller kids and folks in wheelchairs

Taller modular layouts are put high so the layout is closer to to your visual height and less looking down from above. Also thought to help with fingers, just harder and more noticeable to lift and arm up to go in for a touch. But it’s a complete ADA wipe out as many in wheelchairs can see little of the layouts even at a distance you can see the trains run and some fuzzy detail but that’s it. Smaller kids are in the same bucket. The bigger ones are a bit too big to lift up and toddlers and smaller ones parents get tired fast holding them up and usually only do this on a couple of spots on the layout at most, the kid can’t enjoy most all the layout and even parents can’t as kids not tall enough to see much of the layout are bored and frustrated on the ground.

 

jeff

[brill27mcb]

Jeff, I think some of the "overwhelmed" who walk in, look around and go away, especially at a sales-dominated show like as Timonium, MD, are actually people who say to themselves, "Looks like there is nothing for sale in this section."

 

The one horrific experience I witnessed at a train show was at a "World's Greatest Hobby" event, which here in the U.S. was a professional, industry-led event. These were heavily advertised and marketed to the general public (TV spots included), more so than through hobby publications to the railroad-hobby-aware public. An N-trak club from Delaware had an extensive and well-sceniced layout. Over the two days, little kids just destroyed the scenery, breaking the dummy crossing gates by trying to raise and lower them, breaking static autos and trucks free trying to push them back and forth, knocking down trees and poles, etc. The parents just stood by and watched, and if a club member asked them not to touch, the parents got upset. Their attitude was "Hey, we paid to get in and be entertained, so what's your problem?" They seemed to think everything could be replaced by a quick trip to a Toys 'R Us store, like it was Brio trains. I really felt sorry for that club.

 

I'm glad your experience has been different, but the memory remains...

 

Rich K.

[cteno4]

Rich,

 

yeah I did not take enough notice of the stunned people to try to see if indications of their potential demographic. I do t remember anyone with  a bunch of purchase bags though. I do worry as the Timonium guys have been moving all the layouts, even smaller ones I to the big hall to pack more retailers into the two sales halls. I see their logic but it then tends to maybe make the whole event a bit polarized. The old owner of the show was very adamant about blending the two sides as much as possible so neither retail or layout overloaded the experience. But I don’t think running the show at a big profit was in him seemed more like he just enjoyed doing it all.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience at wgh show. We did that show once, maybe twice and it went well. It is more general public and less hobbyists and a bit less sedate than regular train shows.

 

We do as much or more general public shows than train shows and some of our shows are enormous with the cherry blossom like 150k and otakon at like 40k) and tons and tons of kids. These make WGH shows look small and sedate. One smaller event, the Obon festival at a local Buddhist temple, has tons of small kids and they will hang at the layout for sometimes an hour! It takes a bit of watching and learning the right nice but firm tone to deliver an effective “Please don’t touch” when fingers start to go in, but almost nothing broken just a few derailments, maybe 2 to 4 a show from a finger, but no loss there. We have tons of scenery bits right on the edges of modules and our module height on tables is right at small kid level. I repair way more broken bits of scenery and details broken from setup, teardown, and transport than from the display time.

 

it takes just the right tone and attitude to be effective and not mean and scary. “Please don’t touch” seem to work the best. Starting with please is a nice word and even if you say it with some force it’s not so blunt way to start. Also have to just lean over a bit to get their attention but don’t approach or reach out to them as that can terrify kids. Once in a while I sort of wave a hand if I have to repeat myself. But is day 90% of the time only one warning is needed for most folks. Also when they pull back their hand I then smile and say “thank you” and that the helps clear any of the oops I did something bad atmosphere. We have had a coupes members really tent to over react to touches and harshly yell at kids and adults. That is just the worst thing you can do and will also set off any parent. It takes care and restraint to keep pleasent in warnings. I have seen this issue many times on other layouts with members barking at folks and bad reactions.
 

I know many have horror stories with fingers on show layouts but after more than 100 shows we don’t have any really and we tend to put tons of tempting details right at the edge and the edge at the kids noses. it does take a lot of diligence to watch the visitors and be ready for the appropriate intervention (yes at times we joke of getting a whip or kendo stick to remind folks, but it’s just being facetious) to make sure it doesn’t happen. I actually joke with parents we are the ultimate attractive nuisance!

 

I would say 95%+ of parents are really good at watching their kids to not touch or at once if we warn a kid gently the parents step in on our side with the kids, yes we have one or two maybe a year that give you a dirty look if you admonish their kids. Parents are usually very supportive and on our side to look don’t touch. Of the worst offenders is almost always adults for touching things, they are the most aggressive to try to move things and such and they tend to be the ornery one if you ask them not to touch!

 

Our biggest issues for potential layout damage are dangling bags over arms and shoulders, dangling camera straps, and big sleeves. Many folks have a purse or other bag slung under their are or behind them and don’t realize when they are close to the layout bending over the layout their bad can come in docntact with the front of the modules or worse is they turn to go and the bag potentially can swing and slam the module as it’s at just the right height for the bag to contact. Folks also have small bags on their arms or dangling camera straps and lean over the layout to take pictures and potentially drag the bag or strap. We have two events with a ton of kimonos, yukatas, and happi coats that can have very long dangling sleeves that can potentially be dangerous and folks wearing them are usually not use to wearing them and unaware they are there. Folks also get super intent on shooting the layout just looking into the camera and phone and at times have gotten a bit too close as they just have lost all touch with the real workplace looking thru the lens! But again we have only had a few little things ever get damaged from these things but watched some close calls so it’s what I’m actually most vigilant on. Again asking adults to be careful is sometimes not taken nicely but I just ask politely and gently smile and hold my ground if there are any indignant or nasty looks back.

 

In talking with the other local  Ttrak groups in the area most seem to not have much issues now with fingers that is disastrous and have ditched stanchions or running in the middle of double tables to make a table barrier of 15” around the layout.

 

I’m convinced with over 100 shows we have done and many being very big general public shows that it’s just not an issue if you keep an eye on things. Also keeps you near the layout and interacting with visitors which is important as well for the visitor experience and also just subconsciously reminds folks someone is watching things and that helps. I’ve also had many folks over the year be very appreciative they could get so close to the modules and I have to think that makes a big difference in the experience you leave behind in the visitor’s mind and heart. Clearly with our experience it’s totally possible to not have major issues if things are thought thru and done right. Respect the visitor and they will respect you. 
 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Cat]

T-Trak at the Springfield show does well without stanchions too.  There's always a couple of folks on outer-perimeter patrol to interact with visitors, and usually an assortment of modules with the invitation to 'press this button' for FX delights.

[cteno4]

Good to hear cat! 
 

I’ve wanted to get into more of the push the button interactions to enhance visitor interactions. It’s back to my 35 years in exhibit design that was a lot of the use of interactivity in exhibits! I need to get back to my exhibit roots more as I’ve not applied then fully to my hobby.

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

I have to say, I would love to go to an exhibit with some of my brass H0 kits (if I ever get anything finished D ) And while I definitely prefer not having stanchions, it would also really suck getting something stolen or get the table bumped so a model falls to the floor.

 

Of course, seeing as I have no finished models, no layout, no car and not even a driver's licence, the likelihood of me going to an exhibition is rather non existant.

 

In Dortmund at Intermodellbau a while ago, a lot of layout had stanchions, some so far away from the layout that you could really view much of it. I also noticed at least 1 layout that was fairly high up, but they did have a little step up for the kids so they could still watch everything. Doesn't help wheelchair users of course.

 

[Cat]

Jeff, at the very least you need a button to trigger Goji's roar!

[cteno4]

Yeah but that’s more fun to do with the Bluetooth speaker and trigger it when someone is right at it! You can really mess with them! Best when two people are there at it and they think it’s motion activated and wave their hands in from of goji and you only make it roar for one of the two. Great fun to mess with folks.

 

but yes audio buttons are easy ones. That’s the other advantage of the rectangular layouts as you get a small strip of table to put buttons on, you don’t want anything mounted to a module or someone will poke it really hard. I’ve looked at table cloth clips to maybe attach interactive buttons down the table better, but the tables we use vary a lot! It’s on the list to get back into doing more interactive stuff. Even the dead track in the station to let a train stop and visitor has to push the button to start the train again can be fun. I do have a wireless dcc throttle that I’ve thought of wiring decoders to the track power so a visitor could run a train. Nice thing is you can easily limit the decoder output so that train can’t go past like 100kph.

 

jeff

[RS18U]

This is a great topic, love all the excellent information.  Once our little group gets going and to shows I will be recommending rectangular layouts vs long/skinny, however the set up of the display area has a bearing in this too.  At the last show I went to a couple of weeks ago I can't see how we would have been allowed to set up with access all around unless it was monster layout.  @cteno4 is this an issue with the venues you have done the rectangular set up at?

 

[cteno4]

Yes it does depend on the venue, but I think we can in all of ours. Even our smallest setups in a 10’x10’ tent at cherry blossom and the Obon festival we can do a 8’x5’ with two tables side by side. Because both tents are best to wall/fences it does tent to make a front and back, but at cherry blossom we invited folks that wanted to to come around the back as well. Still would have been a lot better than a single narrow table display and while a big more room we would still have a front/back issue as folks can only approach the tent from the front and sides really. Our larger venues we have plenty of space to even do square spiral, we still will get a little bit of front/back issues due to visitor flow thru the larger space.

 

I'm still convinced the rectangular 2 table beats the long and skinny 2 table on many counts.

 

If you are backed up to a wall if you leave like 3-4’ behind the layout and encourage folks to step behind the layout as well. Worked in our cramped tent situation (we were cramped a bit due to the 2’ diameter x 18” high cement weight at each corner pole to keep the tent from sailing away.

 

even thought the spiral table was significantly bigger with more modules (10.6’x10.5’ with 28 singles and 4 corners vs 8’x5’ with 14 straight and 4corners) it just didn’t present as nicely as the simple 2 two table rectangle.

 

will be fun to see what your experiences are with all this!

 

jeff

[brill27mcb]

Here's another table arrangement option - two offset tables - although this example is not T-Trak and not so much roundy-round, but for trams and an automatic operation electric railway, with train/tram grade crossing:

 

 

 

Rich K.

Edited Thursday at 10:39 PM by brill27mcb

[cteno4]

Rich, 

 

yes I messed with a few ideas for offset, L and T shapes with Ttrak on the computer a long time back. We just need to make a couple of inside corners. But these still retain the issue of modules going down just one table lenght but you do get the addition of getting it out of a rectangle track shape! Might be best to just offset the tables just enough for the inside corners and a single module between the inside corner and end corners.

 

More 90 degree curves are much better than a few 180s. This would put it to 2 90s and 2 180s instead of just 2 180s.

 

another fun idea, especially if we were missing a couple modules to make a full 2 table rectangle would be to make one long side of the rectangle be modules turned around so the fat scene side faced forward instead of being in the usual back behind the track. Simple way of making less be more and mixing things up some.

 

our other big lament with Ttrak is the loss of shinkansen lines. We have played with the idea of making some thin raided viaduct and embankment shinkansen modules with minimal scenery under them. But running this inside a Ttrak loop requires a huge Ttrak loop. Running the shinkansen outside the Ttrak loop has the raised Shinkansen tracks blocking the view of the inner Ttrak loops. I messed with doing this and two interconnected rings so both the Ttrak and Shinkansen are at the front and back for half the setup. But it required a lot of table space and some large interface modules for the loop crossover points.

 

We did a setup twice where we did a huge T. The stalk of the T was streetcar Ttrak loop and the crossbar of the T was a long shinkansen viaduct loop set up on just piers and foam blocks, no scenery. At the interface we built a 6’ shinkansen station that was over the 180 curve at the end of the Ttrak loop. Worked well but needed a big area to setup for the full T, I think the Ttrak was like 10-12’ so long and Shinkansen loop almost 12’.

 

But with the 2 table rectangle Ttrak layout we could put a shinkansen loop with one of 180 Shinkansen curves in the center of the Ttrak rectangle and the rest jutting out on two more tables side by side. Could create about 12’ shinkansen loop then. Overall table size would be 8’x13’. But all this means making a set of viaduct modules and another carfull of stuff to transport, schlep, setup/teardown, and store!

 

Cheers,

 

jeff

 

 

[RS18U]

23 hours ago, cteno4 said:

will be fun to see what your experiences are with all this!

It may be awhile before I can share anything!  Summer is coming here in the north (although we had frost this morning), and I'm busy mentoring my replacement as my retirement looms, which means lots of travel.  The reality is that its unlikely that I will have a module done till late this year or into next year although I may play around with something over the summer.

 

I've made my order due to wanting to have some track on hand to experiment/become familiar with, and to take advantage of the yen/Canadian dollar exchange and I may purchase some more if I see that changing.  But I will post my experiences in some way, and will ask lots of questions!

 

On another note this topic has been a real learning experience for me, especially as I don't have any per-conceived ideas from past modules since I have never built any!  Until maybe 2 weeks ago I had not heard of T Track let alone thought about it and what it can do; I figured I would have to do my own stand-alone portable layout.  Great stuff!