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

[Dave V]

[crrcoal]

That's awesome!

[randgust]

Pan pastels. But I may have been unclear… I didn’t spray bomb that track. That’s individually painted ties with the original molded blallast.

Yup.  I've done a similar stunt on my Ttrak modules, painting the 'ballast' black for cinders, repainting the ties with grayish paint, and then hitting them with tie stain.  Then a very light coat of cinders on top doesn't have to be so perfect.  Same with regular ballast, repaint the ties, weather.

It helps when you only use Kato track on the ends.   But on the McCabe Mill Nn3, I hand-painted every stinking section of sectional Rokuhan Z track back to earth color on the 'ballast', all the ties, and all the rail.  And the switches.

[NorthWestGN]

That's a beautiful Tower model, very nice!

Brent

[Dave V]

That's a beautiful Tower model, very nice!

Brent

Thanks!

This week it was less "beautiful," but important work nonetheless...

Painting concrete ties on Unitrack for the Granville Bridge module:



...and painting module benchwork for the two Huntingdon modules (the doubles) and the two singles (one to be Lancaster County and one generic Middle Division):



The doubles are from Klawndyke and the singles from RSLaser Kits.

[Dave V]

Laying out the right hand module for Huntingdon. Half the track is painted, half is new (hence the color differences). Huntingdon will be done with traditional Unitrack due to the geometry. The foreground track on the edge of eternity is the Huntingdon & Broad Top interchange track.

[packers#1]

Looking really good Dr Dave. Man T Trak really lends itself well to this vignette format

[Dave V]

Looking really good Dr Dave. Man T Trak really lends itself well to this vignette format

Thanks! It really does. Building a layout in bite-sized chunks is definitely a new experience for me, but it's very appealing. If I wanted to add to the HOn3 RGS, for example, it would be pretty traumatic. There'd be track removal, track realignment, cutting into the fascia, building new benchwork, new wirings, etc. But adding to this is as simple as building a module in isolation and plugging it in whenever I want, whether just a naked box with track or a completed, fully scenicked module.

And as @Ed Kapuscinski pointed out to me, if I find a cool scene in a book or online someday that I decide I really want to model? Build it. No need to reimagine a layout. Just plug it in.

[basementcalling]

Thanks!

This week it was less "beautiful," but important work nonetheless...

Painting concrete ties on Unitrack for the Granville Bridge module:





The doubles are from Klawndyke and the singles from RSLaser Kits.

How do you put those pieces together to form a module? Only 1 side has a support for the foam top. And won't it be too tall for TTRAK?

[Dave V]

How do you put those pieces together to form a module? Only 1 side has a support for the foam top. And won't it be too tall for TTRAK?

There are four separate modules in this shot; two doubles and two singles. The double you're referring too as "too tall" isn't; it has a 1" drop so that the track itself is still at the correct level.

[robert3985]

Looking really good Dr Dave. Man T Trak really lends itself well to this vignette format

No it doesn't. TTrak has all sorts of compromises that have to be dealt with for any sort of effective, realistic model railroading. 

The factor that "lends itself well to this vignette format" is Dave Vollmer, who is an extraordinary modeler who has the vision, information, skills, talents and persistence to optimize this very limited and restricted modular format.

Dave does his magic in spite of TTrak's modular restrictions.  Not just anybody would be able to achieve such excellent results as he is able to.

This is why I keep track of this project...not because I am ever going to build any TTrak modules (I am not), but because I am constantly amazed at what Dave can accomplish within the restrictions of this modular format and those he has imposed upon himself, such as choosing to use only Unitrack when the standards allow for much more realistic track.

However, I have this constant, little voice in the back of my head that keeps asking "What would Dave's modules look like if he had chosen Free-moN to work his magic in??"  What Dave is doing is purposely limiting himself within TTrak's modular standard...which expands the validity of the TTrak format.  If Dave had chosen a larger, much less restrictive modular format, it would have expanded the validity of Dave's talent and vision rather than what TTrak is restrictively allowing him to accomplish.

Of course, Dave chooses one of the largest and most complex railroads in the world to model in one of the smallest, most restrictive modular formats...if not THE smallest...and it's no accident that Dave does this, as he has given this a lot of thought much of which he has shared with us.

This is definitely NOT criticism.  Just the opposite...and I must admit that I really enjoy seeing what Dave does within TTrak's restrictive modeling environment!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Dave V]

I love a good challenge...what can I say? 

Thanks for the kind--if honest--words, Bob!

Edited to add: If all goes according to plan, at some point when I move back east (2029 is the current target), I would envision plugging these into a permanent section that would be much more free-form and with more realistic track. So part of the layout would be portable and T-TRAK compatible, and part would stay at home. That stay-at-home part would be much more in line with what you envision.

[wm3798]

I like the progress in Huntingdon. 

Looking at Google street views around the station, it looks like the flat streetscape is spot on.  Looks like there's a couple of distinctive structures near the station that could one day replace some of that DPM Vernacular...

While I agree, @Dave V would knock FreemoN out of the park, one has to consider the practical reality that large, self-supporting modules are not everyone's cup of tea.  There's as much time in toting, storing, setting up and taking down as there is enjoying running some trains on it when the club meets once in a blue moon.  As Dave has demonstrated, a few nice looking modules can quickly and easily be supplemented with a few more, or a few blanks, to form a serviceable JFRTM layout.

Lee

[Dave V]

I like the progress in Huntingdon. 

Looking at Google street views around the station, it looks like the flat streetscape is spot on.  Looks like there's a couple of distinctive structures near the station that could one day replace some of that DPM Vernacular...

While I agree, @Dave V would knock FreemoN out of the park, one has to consider the practical reality that large, self-supporting modules are not everyone's cup of tea.  There's as much time in toting, storing, setting up and taking down as there is enjoying running some trains on it when the club meets once in a blue moon.  As Dave has demonstrated, a few nice looking modules can quickly and easily be supplemented with a few more, or a few blanks, to form a serviceable JFRTM layout.

Lee

Very true. The fact that a 30" x 8' folding table is all the benchwork I need for the entire layout in its first iteration makes this extremely convenient...and easy to move in a few years. When I built the HOn3 RGS, I had no plans to move for years and years to come. Our situation is a bit different now, including aging parents, season football tickets in the Nittany Lion Club section of Beaver Stadium, and my sleep apnea, which is 100% altitude-dependent and for which I'm using both a BiPAP and oxygen at my 6,700-foot elevation. So...to the extent my work here and now leads to an immediate JFRTM capability at the next house, it's worth the somewhat limited format.

Most of the Free-moN I've seen has been single-tracked. I ask (without the intent to change my present course), is there a Free-moN option for two (or four) mainline tracks? Curiosity only...not looking to change formats at present.

[crrcoal]

You can make double track free-mon modules and run them with others. All is need from you or another module builder would be a 2 to 1 transition module.