Progress On The Bare Table T-TRAK Module

I added a Kato crossover to the bare table T-TRAK module I posted about two weeks ago, with the building flat of the Washington DC Morrow Hotel.

In addition to laying track, I added my standard terminal strips beneath the baseboard. This is one plus to T-TRAK that nobody seems to recognize: you can use the Unijoiners to carry the DCC bus through each module and onto the next, but by using terminal strips to carry drops from each track, you can connect individual DCC-driven components like switch machine stationary decoders and NCE Illumimators with JST sockets for NCE Just Plug lighting features without any inter-module wiring.

Visible below the lower terminal strip in the photo is a tiny Digitrax DS51K1 stationary decoder that drives the Kato crossover.

It's worth pointing out once more that a crossover between the mains is simply not practical for normal T-TRAK standards. It would require a level of dispatching and discipline in a large T-TRAK meet, even with DCC, that I don't think ordinary model railroaders would be capable of. On the other hand, if T-TRAK is done at least partly for home use, it adds a great deal of flexibility and operating potential to a small layout configuration, temporary or semi-permanent. On the other hand, you can take your standard T-TRAK modules to a meet and leave the one with the crossover home.

Here I've begun to incorporate the module with the crossover into an L-shaped temporary arrangement with the building flat I mocked up two weeks ago back on it. This shows that it's possible to operate a home-use T-TRAK layout even without a full oval that can incorporate push-pull style passenger operation at minimum, but I'm still playing with other ideas.

Walthers Phase IV Superliners

I got several Walthers Phase IV Amtrak Superliners from their original run more than 20 years ago. As best I can tell, I never got a complete set of them for a long-distance train, but I find I do have three coaches, a lounge, and a sleeper. In their original release, they were more like a starting point than a finished model, and I worked on them in spurts now and then over subsequent years. The biggest obstacle was having to drill for and add grab irons and handrails. I never completed this task, but I did finish it on three of them, including a coach and the lounge below:

Among the uncompleted tasks that came with those original cars was the need to add numbers from decal sets supplied. I finally finished this with all the cars, and in addition, I painted the trucks and added Kadee couplers. Some of the Superliner II cars had silver trucks, which I copied on my models.

More recent Walthers Superliner runs have more complete paint jobs on the cars in Phase IV and IVb, and later still metal plating and interiors. The original-run cars didn't have interiors. I'm inclined to question whether metal plating adds a whole lot to Superliner models, as the finish on the prototype isn't really shiny, as you can see below:

Amtrak 32078 was a Superliner II still in Phase IV paint on the Southwest Chief in 2008. As far as I can tell, the Superliner IIs were delivered in Phase IV paint and ran with Superliner Is in Phase II and III for some time after delivery. Here are the two schemes on the Coast Starlight in 1995:

If you compare these photos with the early Walthers models, the silver/platinum mist paint on the models doesn't look all that bad.

Still Playing Around With Photo Building Flats

I ran across this YouTube video that was taken from a great new railfan vantage point, the Rhode Island Avenue station platform on the Washington, DC Metro.

This viewpoint is just north of Union Station, and in addition to showing the full schedule of Amtrak and MARC trains headed to and from points north, it also shows switchers and deadhead equipment of Amtrak, MARC, and Virginia Rail Express running back and forth to the Ivy City coach yard. Beyond that, it has a diorama-like background. The building closest to the camera behind the track is, I think, the Morrow Hotel.

I keep being intrigued by prototype scenes like this, and I keep playing around with possible ways to incorporate them into a layout, especially given the flexibility of T-TRAK modules. So the first thing I did was print out a screen shot of a scene on the video that comes as close as possible to a 90-degree flat-on view of the building alone. Then I posed it behind an N Amtrak model on a T-TRAK module to see how things shaped up.

I assumed a height of 12 feet between floors, and the printout came pretty close in 1:160 without my needing to adjust the size any further.

I had a bare-table completed T-TRAK module base without track or scenery, so I took things a little farther. I mounted the screen shot I'd printed out onto a sheet of cardboard I liberated from an empty box of Triscuits. Then I built up a full low-relief builing flat using more Triscuit-box cardboard stiffened with used fireplace matches. I added a cheapo plastic N signal bridge to see what it brought to the scene. Kato plastic catenary supports would also work.

From the photos of this flat posed near commercial N photo style building flats, you can see that the appearance and size are generally in proportion. I took a test shot with a Kato ACS-64 like you'd see in Washingto

Well, maybe. I'm still mulling over where to take this idea next.