Just announced, attempt at largest T-Trak layout in the world 100 ft x 100 ft

[Kingmeow]

I know it's a long ways out but for those who will be in the area of Chattanooga, TN at the end of July 2026, at the NRMA National Convention, planning has just begun to put together a 100 ft x 100 ft T-Trak layout.  Supposedly it will be the largest in the world, over shadowing the last biggest one which was in Kansas City convention in 2018(?).

[cteno4]

Yeah I saw that. Ugh, I don’t get this fixation on having to do the biggest. But hey they enjoy doing it. When this ball of big Ttrak started rolling like 15 years back and I saw one that was like 20 tables I was struck how the audience only visited a fraction of the whole layout and tended to go more on the outside and not visit the nooks of a few of the peninsulas. Next year was the national convention in Philly and I got involved with some of the early spitballing and they wanted to go big. I shared my observations and suggested maybe 4-6 smaller themed layouts where modules were grouped better to give a themed impression and more approachable sized layouts for visitors to experience and not be overwhelmed. I was instantly shouted down with many emails in all caps… 

 

In the early days this drive for big also created a real problem of the “green plank” modules. In an effort to get more modules fast folks would take a plank and put 4 bolts on it, paint it green and put track now. Maybe a building would be put on it. They were real eye sores and really visitors’ memories tend to really remember bad bits as well or better than the good bits and really taints any nice modules there. Hopefully these days that is no longer the case as much.

 

Even at train shows with huge n scale layouts I see few train folks really spending much time at any one module and very few closely goin all the way around. 
 

But I gues folks just love to be part of the biggest. I’m just more oriented to what the visitor’s walk away is and I’m not sure biggest is a great impression to leave. But that’s just my opinion, I know others love it.

 

In the exhibit world we try very carefully not to overwhelm the visitor as if you do they stop absorbing anything even if they are still looking at stuff, stuff just doesn’t stick at that point. It’s also the Hitchcock thing where you also need to give resting places within the presentation and if you do when they see the real powerful stuff it sticks even better! 

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[brill27mcb]

I have to agree with Jeff. He and I both remember that in the early days of T-Trak it grew out of tram and small railway modeling in Japan. Then U.S. mainline model railroaders took it off in another direction. In reality, short modules with fairly right-radius curves aren't the best basis for running long heavy-haul trains. But, as mentioned, they are having fun! There are many well-modeled T-Trak modules, but they can unfortunately just get lost in the mayhem of these sprawling layouts. And no real operational benefit comes from the overall size of the layout...

 

Rich K.

[cteno4]

One of the early conventions I tried to see if we could set up a couple of tables of 25mm standard modules with trams and was told very firmly NO 25mm modules and that they were NOT STANDARD (there was a lot of bad feelings with 33mm being called Alternate). Sad times, many battles and divisions. But the last few years things have mellowed and NRail taking over Ttrak at a national level has been a stabilizing element as they see it as an important part of the future of the hobby. But my fear is the mega layouts make Ttrak feel less approachable and more daunting to a newbie. But it is a national train shows and few newbies and more showing other modelers I guess the scale you can do with tiny Ttrak modules.
 

I just come from the other side where most all our visitors (except for train shows but they are now maybe 5-10% or less of the eyeballs we reach) are non train folks or newbies with and interest, so we focus a lot of making things as welcoming and approachable as possible for that audience.

 

jeff

[Kingmeow]

I can see both sides of the argument.  One can make a "No Green Plank" rule and filter out those kinds of modules.  But having one or two green plank modules often gives the audience a view on the various "stage" of building a T-Trak module.  We often have "in progress" modules to show the in between steps for the audience.  Unintentional but serves as double duty for those who couldn't get it completed in time.

 

Having run on many larger size T-Trak combined layouts (Altoona, Amherst, 4H in Atlantic City, and the recent NSE National Convention in Bethlehem) it's a great feeling to be able to air out a 16-car Shinkansen without feeling cramped on a small layout.  😃

[Cat]

@Kingmeow that gets to the difference of the display being for the public and/or the operators.  
 
As a spectator, I find bare planks very off-putting.  A deliberately done module actually showing the stages of work is quite different, and I did admire one N-Trak module that was actually being worked on as the trains were running — the owner didn't have space to set it up at home to work on, but he was also fully engaged with the spectators happily chatting about the scenic construction in progress.
 
Spectator-wise however, I am more partial to seeing 16 car shinkansen zipping by than the more ubiqitous 120 car coal train.  Those make my eyes glaze over and I bypass admiring the modules too.
 
As for the yet another largest T-Trak in the world, I'm in the camp that it takes all the delightful individual snowflake modules and lumps them into a big pile of snow.  

Edited August 12 by Cat