Taking the T-Trak Plunge

[robert3985]

For the question of building the long crossovers turnouts I am thinking of revisiting this project from a few years back:  https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=34762.0

This is for a #12 turnout on a photo-etched fret using ME code 55 rail, with soldered PCB ties in places.  If I don't install individual spikes, then this should have a flange clearance of about 0.050". The tieplate details are half-etch, so rise 0.005" above the base of the rail. From searching, I found that the largest pizza cutter flanges ever used were something like 0.0355"   (with MTLs clocking in at like 0.033" which is enough to chatter on ME C40 flex and Atlas C55 flex).   So this should have no problem accommodating anything that the Kato flextrack can handle.   Does anyone know of any n scale flanges larger than 0.0355"?    (paging  @robert3985)

The only other thing I would consider adding to the fret is a template to hold the ties in place during construction, and a couple of extra individual tieplates to be hand-placed where needed.

I plan to try to join this to the unitrack by cutting away the unitrack trackbed where needed, and filing the unitrack rail from the top down by 0.055", leaving a flat little 'tongue' that the ME rail can solder to.

Thoughts?

Ed

@ednadolski - Ed, I'm looking forward to see what you come up with to take advantage of being able to optimize TTrak's standards rather than go with the lowest common denominator!   

As for pizza-cutters, I've gotten rid of all of my old high-flanged rolling stock wheelsets and my ancient engines that had pizza-cutters.  The only remaining sets of pizza-cutters I have are a little plastic bag with about a dozen sets of Kadee/MTL rib-backed three-piece wheelsets which I measured with my digital calipers at a flange height of 0.031", then decided to use my Mitutoyo Micrometer (accurate to 0.0001"), which calculated out to a 0.0365" flange height, which is ten thousandths higher than your 0.0355" assumed max flange height.

Photo (1) - Making SURE of the flange height of iconic Kadee/MTL "Pizza-Cutter" wheelsets:


Just to make SURE that there's no interference, I stuck a couple of the old, original wheelsets in the handiest car to my workbench (which happened to be an MTL Pennsy covered gon...probably a foob) and took it out to the layout to see if it'd roll smoothly on my hand-laid Code40 Park City Branch trackage. Even though I was pretty careful when I ballasted two modules (12') worth of the Park City Branch trackage, there were some spots with ballast on top of the ties, or stuck to the edge of the railfoot right at the juncture between the ties and the edge of the railfoot...and it interfered just a little with these deep flanges.  On the third module, which I haven't ballasted yet, they run completely free...no interference whatsoever...and this is Code40.

So, on your Code55 trackwork, I don't foresee any problems at all with pizza cutters as there is plenty of flange clearance using the latest run of ME Code55 flex along with your fabulous etched tie-plate/spikehead turnout frets to lay your #12 turnouts.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[robert3985]

Hell, these days I shred junk Atlas and Bachmann Code 80 and slide the rails into 3D printed tie beds that are both Unijoiner compatible and have North American tie spacing.

@dem34 - Hmmm...I think you'd be better served to use Micro Engineering Code70 rail, which has a very nice "rail" profile, and adapt its 0.010" height difference to Kato slab-sided rail...which is pretty easy to do.

I've found that it's not the height of the rails so much that makes N-scale rail look "realistic" but, as you are doing, having a near-correct rail profile, tie size & spacing, and no huge "spikeheads/tie-plates" ...just smaller, correctly dimensioned (except for height) rail attachment hardware...makes for noticeably more realistic N-scale trackage over Kato/Altas80/Peco80/Peco55/etc.

In fact, using both your 3D printed Unijoiner-compatible tie beds (shortened), and then using Micro Engineering Code70 Flex-Trak in-between might be a more expeditions mode, just remove the necessary length of ME ties, slide them off, slide on your Unijoiner compatible tie bed adapter..which could be engineered to compensate for the difference in rail height.  I used Rail Craft Code70 Flex back in the mid-80's instead of the NTrak "standard" Atlas80 flex, and it looked a WORLD better than the Atlas80's toy-like appearance.  I am going to assume Micro Engineering's newest version would look exponentially better than Kato Unitrack also...even after paint/weathering/ballasting/weathering the Kato stuff.

Photo (1) - Rail Craft (Micro Engineering) Code70 flex on my first NTrak modules a long time ago...note that the 0.070" rail height isn't really noticeable:


Although the latest generation of Micro Engineering Flex-Trak supposedly has smaller spikeheads than their previous generation (I haven't had any new stuff in hand yet to look at and measure), the spikeheads are still noticeably larger than the original Rail Craft's.  But, unless you've got a stash of ancient Rail Craft Flex at your disposal, Micro Engineering is going to be hard to beat, even with 3D printed tie beds, and certainly much less work.

Would be interesting to see your 3D printed Unijoiner compatible tie beds.  Post some pics okay??

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[dem34]

@dem34 - Hmmm...I think you'd be better served to use Micro Engineering Code70 rail, which has a very nice "rail" profile, and adapt its 0.010" height difference to Kato slab-sided rail...which is pretty easy to do.

Would be interesting to see your 3D printed Unijoiner compatible tie beds.  Post some pics okay??

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

I could and originally I did with ME code 40. But I kinda realized that every train show has that box of track covered in lichen and kitty litter nobody wants that they sell for pennies. So is it accurate rail profile wise? no. But it looks good and I can make track pieces for Modules for a few cents a piece fairly quickly.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I could and originally I did with ME code 40. But I kinda realized that every train show has that box of track covered in lichen and kitty litter nobody wants that they sell for pennies. So is it accurate rail profile wise? no. But it looks good and I can make track pieces for Modules for a few cents a piece fairly quickly.

And I'm going on record as saying it's a brilliant product that I wish was mass produced.

[ednadolski]

Just getting to play around a little with this Unitrack stuff.  I gotta admit, it goes together so quick/easy that I can see why it appeals to a lot of folks.   It should look better when painted/ballasted/weathered (esp. to hide the joints).  BTW this is on a 36x80 HCD.

Maybe a staging yard (say 3-4 tracks each direction) on a couple of quad modules is a good next step.  Are there any examples of such, and what are the tradeoffs/pitfalls?



Next, I'm getting a few turnouts to play around with.

Thanks,
Ed

[dem34]

And I'm going on record as saying it's a brilliant product that I wish was mass produced.

Partially issue I have is the legal angle, since it's using specifically Kato interfaces on the ends.
But I did make a bootleg unijoiner a few nights ago.

[Dave V]

Just getting to play around a little with this Unitrack stuff.  I gotta admit, it goes together so quick/easy that I can see why it appeals to a lot of folks.   It should look better when painted/ballasted/weathered (esp. to hide the joints).
Thanks,
Ed

It certainly will.



It'll never look as good as handlaid or Micro Engineering, but it an be made to look a lot less ugly.

[arbomambo]

One of our over 180 participants in the recird-breaking 10,000 sq ft National T-TRAK Layout one week from now, here in Chattanooga, is Ron Poidomani, who has never modeled in N scale before.
He quickly built a single module from a kit a few weeks ago, and finished it yesterday.
















He said he really enjoyed the build, and seriously, why wouldn’t he?
For a minimal investment in time, expense, and space….(all this on a roughly 1 square ft module), it’s a nice diversion from larger projects and allows one to get together at a huge event like ours and fellowship and run trains!

[arbomambo]

Even my wife, Denise, is loving it.
She just finished this triple in time for our drive up to Chattanooga yesterday. (She’s in charge of all the giveaways, raffles, and door prizes for our participants of the record-breaking T-TRAk Layout, as well as actually making the over 200 swag/gift bags, soliciting the over 30 sponsors (including ScaleTrains, of course, Kato, Rebel Rails, Midwest Models, Spring Creek, Chattanooga Bakery/Moon Pies, McKee Bakery/Little Debbies, and many others) as well as designing and printing the tickets to our ScaleTrains-sponsored Awards Breakfast Banquet… so she got in just under the wire with her ‘whimsical’ module.
I’m obviously not the whimsical modeling guy but I certainly don’t begrudge ANY one modeling whimsy if it gets them into the hobby. So, I’ve made her superintendent of the WTF division on CATT - Coastal Alabama T-TRAK.
WTF (Whimsy, Theatrical, and Fantasy)
This is her module - I didn’t touch or help with anything on her module; she even scratchbuilt the stairs from Evergreen strip styrene. She found the 3D printed buildings on online and painted and weathered them to appear close to black and white. She mixed and poured WS deep pour water for the bog, and ordered and installed the WS lighting.
Oh, and painted and ballasted the track. She painted a quick backdrop to fill in until she finds a suitable threatening night sky photo for the skyboard.

[ednadolski]

Blocking out some ideas for a module (probably a 4x).   The mainlines will be separated from the industry by a chain link fence.  I may add a pair of crossover turnouts, starting to the left of where the loco is, tho I will of course hand-build something, to see how well I can blend it with the Unitrak.




Also, a quick sketch of one end of a staging yard module.  This is based on the FastTracks #6 turnout template, shich should operationally suffice without taking up too much space.   The length can be pretty much anything.   Note the crossover between the red/yellow main lines -- this will be disabled (electrically and mechanically) unless both mainlines are operating off the same DCC.



Ed