T-TRAK: The Adventure Begins

I don't remember if I mentioned that I have recently joined the North Raleigh Model Railroad Club. Just this past weekend I attended the Great Train Show at the Raleigh fairgrounds with the club and had an opportunity to debug and run the Model Power Mikado that I had put the DCC decoder in.

Apparently somewhere along the line I had reversed a wheelset, but since the Model Power inexplicably uses axle wipers for pickup power instead of the 4 wheel pickups that are found in the Bachmann Spectrums and Kato Mikados the connectivity was so horrendous that I didn't notice it. This made the loco stall in various spots around the layout and when I cleaned the wheelsets and axle wipers it caused a dead short on the track.

Some quick investigation with a multimeter and the offending wheelset was found and reversed, and the Mikado happily pulled a coal drag around the mountain track all day Saturday. I was hoping to get a decoder put into one of the K4 Pacifics but alas it was not to be, I don't know what is going on with that loco but it is pretty annoying...kind of like the SD7.

At any rate, running on the club layout really gives the locos a chance to stretch out and show their stuff, something they really can't do on the cramped setup I have at home. Unfortunately I really don't have the room here to build N-TRAK modules, but thankfully there is an alternative...T-TRAK!

My plans are to build some T-TRAK modules for show and also maybe for use at home since they are small enough to sit on a table when they are in use and don't take up much storage space when they are not. But of course, me being the glutton for punishment I am, I insist on putting Nn3 on my modules, which as far as I can tell has not been done before.

My intentions are to use Rokuhan Z scale roadbed track 220mm curves at 38mm (1.5 inches) elevation. This puts my Nn3 trackage a little over an inch and a half from the standard gauge and high enough that I can run a spur of standard gauge underneath the narrow gauge if I want to, as long as I don't use tall cars on the spur.

Rokuhan does not have sectional track in the proper lengths to make multiples of 310mm, but fortunately they do have flextrack. This comes in 330mm lengths, so a single piece of flextrack will suffice for each module. I'm planning on soldering the feeders to the track so connections shouldn't be an issue either.

I'm not a big fan of the toylike looks of the Rokuhan turnouts but I'm not planning on having any on these first six modules anyway, and when I do there is always FastTracks. I have several of those to use so I won't have to build any more right away, either. I'm also not a fan of their method of putting power to the track, so I'll be soldering feeders to the rail joiners on the corner modules.

So far I have all the track I need, both the Kato Unitrack and Rokuhan, and I have just ordered all the connectors that will be required. Next is to get the lumber and foam and start building.

Maybe I'll even be able to get this project done.