T-Trak The N scale Pennsy Juniata Division 2.0 - T-TRAK!

[Dave V]

Forward progress on another module...this one being the PRR's crossing of the Juniata River railroad-west of Lewistown.

This bridge is four Atlas viaducts spliced together (which meant splicing 14 long-walls of the piers with spare bridge material). The stone texture was added by placing a drop of ACC glue on each and every individual stone, and then sprinkling baking soda into it. Working now on the bracing for the roadbed deck. I also have brass handrails for the sides. Sadly they're not precisely PRR hairpin-and-pipe railings, but in N scale no one who's not as big an SPF as I am will notice.

I haven't decided whether I'm going to add the anti-spalling hardware on the bridge because it's even more tedious than the stone texture. However, if I do, I'll likely use the bridge at Ryde rather than Granville as the guide...fewer components.

[Dave V]

Town structures for the Huntingdon, PA modules. This is Walthers' Merchant's Row III. I used ChatGPT to assist with creating period-correct signs and interiors by straightening and focusing real photos online.

[wm3798]

Nice scuppers!
Lee

[Dave V]

It's a fraction of the footprint of the prototype and not exactly the same architecture, but it's module-sized... The Keystone Stationery factory for Huntingdon, PA:

[Tristan Ashcroft]

It's a fraction of the footprint of the prototype and not exactly the same architecture, but it's module-sized... The Keystone Stationery factory for Huntingdon, PA:

Well, I saw it and immediately thought JC Blair - before I had noticed the signage.  So, something's working.

[Dave V]

Well, I saw it and immediately thought JC Blair - before I had noticed the signage.  So, something's working.

Thanks! High praise!

[Dave V]

[Dave V]

Signal testing.

I'm using the Model Train Technologies system. The signals come pre-assembled with fiber optic lenses and cables. I'm also using their infrared detectors (hidden in the relay cabinets) and signal controllers. All the features are adjustable from aspect duration and range to timeout duration and lens brightness. The signals are certainly not as delicate or as tall as the more true-to-scale Alkem/Traincat models (I have a stockpile of those!) but they're robust and I figured I'd give 'em a try.

[Dave V]

Got some momentum now:





This past weekend at the Rocky Mountain Train Show, I paid a little extra attention to the several T-TRAK displays. I'd seen them before, but I noticed two very common things that irked me a bit:

1) Flatness. I get that "T" stands for "Tabletop," but still...the lack of landforms, especially any below grade level, is a little jarring. There are always exceptions, and I gravitate toward those...but generally most modules look like western Nebraska.

2) Zero ballast/cinder shoulder. Too many of the modules I saw were just two parallel strips of Unitrack with a strip of grass in between and directly up to the sides. This isn't how double trackage appears in real life. Almost universally, both in North America and Europe, there's ballast between two parallel main tracks. And there's generally a broader ballast shoulder than you see with untreated Unitrack. Anyone modeling any part of the steam era should also include--IMHO--the ubiquitous cinder shoulder. In my photos, I've just started adding cinder along the front edge of the ballast profile.

Unpainted Unitrack is also a bit of a hang-up to me, but I also understand the reticence to attempt to paint it. Unless you want to completely ballast the whole thing, you have to do each tie and the railhead pretty carefully, and it's tedious. But usually, tedium is justified in the results.

I contrast all of that with @arbomambo , whose amazing T-TRAK modules inspired me to dip my toes in the medium and who has showed that Unitrack can be made to look quite a bit better with some patience and an eye to the prototype.

I'm beginning to feel more comfortable doing this versus building a traditional, less portable layout.

[Cory Rothlisberger]

Can I ask why the signals are in the middle of the interlocking? Genuinely curious and not trying to be the Prototype Police...

[Dave V]

Mainly because I have no idea what I’m doing… 

I wasn’t sure where to put them and frankly, they should be on a signal bridge.

[Jesse6669]

Mainly because I have no idea what I’m doing… 

I wasn’t sure where to put them and frankly, they should be on a signal bridge.

I'm no signal expert but I think you'd need two more signals to do it "prototypical" -- there' be two facing "east", at the east-most switch points (on both mains), and two facing "west" at the other end at the points.   If it's just to test them, then they are perfectly fine as-is!

[Dave V]

@Cory Rothlisberger is right though, if these are home signals for an interlocking, the placement makes little sense. That said, they actually operate as simulated block signals…they don’t indicate routing.

I could move them. There’d be some trauma and some bullet holes in the benchwork, but it’s not impossible. I do need to do some cost/benefit before I move all four items (the signals and detectors) and would like to know where they would make the most sense to place, given that they operate as pseudo-block occupancy signals.

[Point353]

Would signals at an interlocking have two heads, rather than one?

[Dave V]

Would signals at an interlocking have two heads, rather than one?

Per PRR, not always. But given the system I'm using from Model Train Technology, double-headed signals are not going to be an option anyway.

The gist here is not to replicate a fully functioning interlocking, but only to give the appearance of some of the infrastructure, along with giving folks a little thrill with animated signals that appear to respond to train movements.

That said, if there's a better place for them--recalling that they will drop as a train passes, then start an automated timed sequence through approach and back to clear once the IR sensor is unobstructed again--I'm happy to entertain suggestions. I thought about placing them before turnouts, but again, they don't operate based on turnout alignment.

The arrangement I chose is reminiscent of my equally uninformed and probably incorrect SPRUCE Interlocking on the Juniata Division version 1.0:

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