Making A Micro Compatible With T-TRAK

I've had an N scale Inglenook micro layout in progress for quite a while. Recently I put it up on top of a bookshelf to work on it next to a T-TRAK module.

With it next to a T-TRAK module, I inevitably began to think about how things might be if I could connect the two together. I had already made a start by linking them to a Digitrax DCS-52 command station on the same DCC bus. Not only that, but all my pieces of layout have a single accessory address standard, so if they're linked together, they're contollable as a single layout no matter what.

The first question was that the Inglenook would need to be able to interface with the Kato Unitrack/Unijoiners on the T-TRAK modules. I did this by carving a rebate in the baseboard to let me add a short section of Unitrack to the tail track of the Inglenook at the same rail height as the rest of the flex track on it.

The next step was to shim up the Inglenook so it would be at the same height as T-TRAK modules. I also covered the gap in the baseboard around the short section of Unitrack with Sculptamold.

With the height established, it was just a press fit to connect them.

I had already designed both the Inglenook and my T-TRAK modules to be electrically compatible over a single DCC bus, so running a train from one to the other is no problem:

I'll expand the Inglenook as opportunity presents itself with T-TRAK compatibility in mind.

More N Items

PRR 9175 is a Broadway Limited N scale NW2. The was my first railroad, since I was born in Philadelphia, and one of my earliest memories was a train trip with my mother, during which she woke me up, stood me up to the coach window, and told me we were going around the Horseshoe Curve. Apparently the conductor had just announced this. I have a clear memory of a J1 on an adjoining track. This loco takes me back to my earliest railfanning days.

I got the NW2 to operate on a 3-2-2 Inglenook, shown below. I'm debugging the track.

DOWX 18357 is another Eastern Seaboard Models N tank car from the early 1990s, 30 years later re-equipped with Micro Trains trucks and couplers.

PRR 83247 is an Atlas N car from the 1970s, found on eBay at an OK price. I needed to increase my freight car fleet with more PRR cars from the 1950s. I swapped out the trucks and painted the black plastic roofwalk.

Inventorying My Old N Scale

I've decided to go ahead and inventory my N scale items from the time I was more active in that scale, from the mid 1970s into the early 90s. This is scattered around in various closets and even unopened boxes from our llast move. One thing that's interesting is that I was modeling largely contemporary equipment of the time that I either saw out railfanning or read about in the hobby press.

Penn Central 228470 is an X72 done from the Life Like N model, stripped, repainted PC green, and lettered with now-defunct Northeast Decals. When I worked on the car, it wouldn't have been that long after the end of PC in 1976.

KCS 4015 is a Kato N GP38-2 from the late 1980s. It was an undecorated unit that I painted and lettered with MicroScale decals. I think the decals would only allow the smallest numbers from the 1960s white KCS scheme, so that its number is basically illegible/invisible on the N model. In the days before DCC, this was OK. If I convert the loco, I will need to do something about this.

GAT 85093 and UTLX 53374 are Eastern Seaboard Models cars from about 1990, as far as I can remember. I think they used Rivarossi tooling. They're remarkably good models for their time period. I never quite took them out of their boxes until now, but I've replaced the trucks with MicroTrains. ESM is still around and still making above-average models.

Reading 41660 is an Atlas 90-ton hopper. I replaced the Atlas trucks with Roundhouse roller bearing and added styrene coupler mounting pads to body mount Micro Trains couplers in the 1970s. I also added the ACI labels and 1970s-era COTS stencils. These cars kept this lettering well into Conrail.

Althuogh I'd moved to California from the Washington, DC area by this time, I was still looking back at Penn Central and other roads that went into Conrail that I used to railfan as a teen.