T-Trak Update

With my main layout on hold while I wait for my SB5 to arrive, I turned back to the N scale T-Trak project. One item I had in work was my Kato North American station. The big problem I left it with was how to adjust the brightness on the LEDs coming from the NCE illuminator decoder, which is a DCC version of the Just Plug lighting hub.

I got an answer from NCE support that cleared things up: not only do you have to address the decoder with SELECT ACCY on the Power Cab and program the CV, but you also have to press the program button on the Illuminator itself. Problem solved, but the documentation doesn't cover this. Below you can see the lighting at a much more reasonable level:

Wheels of Time makes decals for the mandated yellow anti-skid strip at the platform edges. You can install it two ways. Amtrak uses both the wide anti-skid and a yellow line behind it, while METRA uses the anti-skid strip only. Since this is a METRA station, I applied only the anti-skid strip.

I still have to get a set to do the opposite platform. I made the opposite platform from a Kato platform extension set for the North American station. I had to cut it about in half lengthwise to fit on the edge of the T-trak module. This left me with some more platform material, and the wheels started turning in my head.

You will recall that I cobbled together a temporary short staging module to fit against some track I'd laid on a corner module to accommodate some sort of future extension, which might or might not ever happen.

I recognized that I'd intended this T-trak layout to focus mainly on contemporary passenger operation. So the first thing I did was add a platform to the stage made from the scrap material from the Kato station module.You can see it to the left of the P42:

But then I kept thinking there might be something else I can add to this that would say "passenger" even more clearly. Then it dawned on me -- the baggage elevators at the Springfield, MA Union Station! I was in and out of there many times in my younger days.

So I quickly cobbled together a mockup out of paper as a proof-of-concept to see if I could get rough dimensions and proportions right. I'm kinda pleased with how it came out:

I need to make the roof peak a little lower and maybe lower the base a foot or two, but otherwise, it looks pretty close. Next step is a permanent and detailed version out of styrene!

I call this a T-trak modular layout, by the way, and it does use commercial T-trak module kits and Kato Unitrack, which means it would be physically compatible with other T-trak modules. However, I am building this to suit myself using BWBW wiring intended for all DCC operation, and I do not plan ever to use it in a general T-trak meet.