T-Trak questions

[cteno4]

its confusing for some as the 'standard' ttrak spacing is two pieces of unitrack with the roadbed butt up against each other. this was to make it closer to streetcar spacing and fit on an A4 piece of paper with enough room for some modeling. later the 33mm standard unitrak spacing was done for north america and called the 'alternate' spacing! most japanese stuff is in the 25mm standard spacing as most is streetcar. in na most all is alternate spacing for running large trains on little modules.

 

it is interesting that the kato unitram track is 25mm spacing on the straights but goes out to 33mm in the middle of the curves!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[westfalen]

For those interested, the Australian T-TRAK standards can be found here under 'guidelines' on the left. http://users.picknowl.com.au/~austnscale/austtrak.htm

We use the 33mm alternative track spacing as standard.

[Mudkip Orange]

25mm is actually more prototypical for commuter rail spacing. 33mm "looks" right because the proportions between the track gauge and the track spacing are close to Japan's 1067mm systems. But if you look at the 1435 systems you'll see the track is "squished" together, just like 25mm T-track.

 

25mm @ 1:150 = 3.75m = 12'4".

 

And in the US, substantial portions of the NEC are 13', which is 3.96m or slightly less than 25mm @ the American 1:160.

 

So you see, if you're willing to have prototypical curve radii (i.e., 108" radius for mainline track), 25mm is appropriate for everything from a Keihan or Keikyu EMU to the ACELA.

[dat7719]

T-TRAK is not just for trams, but for most Japanese passenger units, other than Shinkazes.  There are two spacings, 22mm and 33mm(double Track Kato).  I use the 33mm.  If you wanted tram operation, then you would fill in between track and cover the ties, I use foam sheets, which I purchase from art supply stores.  When painted has the texture of either concrete or tarmac. 

 

The new Unitram track could also be used as it is compatible with unitrack.

[dat7719]

The US T-TRAK standard is at

http://www.t-trak.org/

They also sell kits for the modules.

Dale A. Tripp

www.daletripp.com

[cteno4]

yeah the 33mm spacing does work well for commuter and express trains and you get better curves for the longer cars to make easier. one of the jrm members has quite a few japanese modules at 33mm spacing for commuter and express. he is also a member of a local ntrak club so went 33 also so he could interoperate with their modules easily. most all NA clubs have gone 33mm, almost never hear of other 25mm folks out there in NA. lots of alternate folks hate the odd 25 corner track geometry

 

http://www.japanrailmodelers.org/photos/_ttrak-philip/index.html

 

the 33 was just too wide for me for doing trams. the 25 feels much better for trams and having tighter roads and trams passing closely buy each other. kato went 25 for the unitram i think because most all the ttrak i have seen from japan is the 25 spacing as that was the standard lee got going there first. 25 corners just didnt fly in NA as most did not want to do trams, but bigger trains and thus the 33 alternate standard pretty much became the NA defacto standard. always folks in NA grumbling the names should be switched as they think theirs is the standard, but i woul bet there are 10x the ttrak modules in japan an most all of them 25!

 

interesting kato went out to 33 on the curves though as that could allow interesting transitions. only problem is the transition needs to be made either on an S curve or very odd corner module. but at seeing the cost for the unitram pieces coming out im doubting a lot of folks are going to do unitram for ttrak as it works out to like $60 per module and they dont have the correct lengths yet to do standard length ttrak modules. nothing stopping you from making 248mm modules just need to pair them up in a layout or stretch out 5 of them to make 4 standard 310 modules. also its not all that hard to make roadways on the straight sections its the curves that are the killers so i expect the unitram may be used a lot on corner modules with street car scenes.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[tossedman]

Just reviving an old thread here. If one were to use Unitram on a T-Trak module, how far from the edge of the module should the track be?

[tossedman]

OK, I think I've found the answer on my own. Using a UNITRAM Street Track to UNITRACK conversion track the Unitram track is 36 mm from the edge.

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

[cteno4]

Todd, beat me dinging a straight section out! But from memory that right the unitram trak separated just right to do the 1.5" fron space of Ttrak.

 

Jeff