N Scale T-Trak

I am building a city layout around 1920s and I would like to add a freight house similar to the St. Johns terminal in NYC. I have had good experiences with the #6 Kato turnouts. I run small steam locos (as seen in my avatar an Athearn Consolidation) and a Kato NW2 loco along with 40' box cars NMRA weighted, MTL truck couplers and metal wheels. I was wondering if anyone has ever tried the really sharp turnouts Kato 20240 45 degree turnouts?

Thanks, Hans

 

WOW! If nothing else, thank you for such a great photo! And best of luck on building this. I hope that you can get that to work as a scene. I would think you could do it with truck mounted long couplers.

 

I have run 40' railcars with body mounted couplers as well as truck mounted on KATO 6" Unitrack. The body mounted ones don't roll the best down it but it rolls well enough, however, the truck mounted couplers work amazingly on it (I can run an 83' streamlined railcar down it without any problems other than looks). I don't have any experience however with turnouts other than HO Atlas and Bachmann, so I am no turnout expert.

 

I have a Trick Or Treat layout, a simple oval with one of the newest release Kato Pocket Line switchers with the coreless motor. The thing runs on a single 1 1/2 volt battery! So what I did is use a battery powered controller from a Minitrix set of the 1970s (I think) that has only several fixed positions and requires a stop first before reversing directions. It's kind of like this...

Fast F - Medium F - Slow F - Stop - Slow R - Medium R - Fast R

where "F" is "Forward" and "R" is Reverse. There is a positive "snap" between settings. If I can figure out where I put it I'll add a photo; it's away until next October 30 or so.

Even the fast isn't that fast with the Kato diesel... which, by the way, screams around the layout at about Warp 2 when connected to a full 12 volt power pack (MRC Tech II).

I wonder if that would be useful? It could probably be thrown together by someone with a reasonable amount of electrical know-how. One question would be how many batteries would be needed for Thomas.

 

Not sure on how many batteries are needed, but one reason I liked the Thomas, even at full throttle, it wasn’t that fast.

 

would make a great T-trak module just drew it up and looks like can do 6 sidetracks using the Kato Street track system on a double.
But first turnout would be right on the end. and would need singles on each end to change from the Steet system 25 mm centers.
to the standard 33 mm. or use a triple. Might have to design a triple and order some track then design the building. Would look great in my new shadow box modules I'll have out soon.

 

Here is my track plan for the town of Pocono in eastern PA during the 1920s-1930s, so mostly steam locos. I use car cards and waybills to switch the industries however instead of switch each section of the town completely in one session, I only switch one industry at a time that way it makes my operating sessions last a lot longer. The software made designing the layout with Kato unitrack a breeze. Having modules also made it easy to move the layout when I got evicted from the family room and acquired a spare bedroom. Online industries are show as grey rectangles.

 

Man, I would LOVE to see that plan!

 

Need to get some track in and see if it works as drawn. My supplier is out of stock on the street track right now so will see.
Have a few other things to get done first but will start on drawing up the buildings and see.

rich

 

I'm working on a module and am interested in switch panels. Of all of the T Trak module pictures I can find, none have switch panels. I know my NTrak club has several different types. Can anyone help me? thanks!

 

Due to the size of the module and the ease at which a hard push would cause a misalignment of the module(s) when we need switch panels we use boxes with the switches and tie them in with a wiring harness. Here is my setup, which controls 2 DS64s and the power for 4 tracks.

 

Now that is an idea I had not thought of! Thanks!

 

Anyone in the Pittsburgh, PA Area, the Carnegie Science Center is having their Annual Locomotion Weekend this weekend (January 13, 14) which will feature at least one T-Trak layout from the Iron City N Scale group. Come on out and say hello to the ICNS group and tell them Rich send you

https://carnegiesciencecenter.org/events/locomotion-weekend/

 

Would love to go but I’m on the Left hand side of the country. On top of that I’m getting ready for my own show coming up. I’m working with 2 clubs and trying to get my business started all at the same time!

 

Well have the building designed and a test cut but at a standstill now. Can't find any KATO street track turnouts.
Need a few to make sure on the door spacing. My supplier said KATO Japan Raised the pricing and Kato USA does not want to.
Plus all was sold out in Japan. But they are building a new factory so maybe by the end of the year,

 

It’s official there will be a T-Trak layout at the Monroe show this year! If anyone here wants to participate and has a module let me know, I’m coordinating the T-Trak layout. See below for the information.

 

That's a fer piece from TX for me to git there, but I wish you a great show!

 

That’s an easy trip… lol.