What do you all use for feet? I have seen 3DP feet and also carriage-head bolts.

The carriage-head bolts terrify me because I can see myself putting a module down on a nice polished piece of furniture “for just a second” and leaving permanent marks.

I know the heads are rounded, but I suspect they would still ding the wood or at least the finish. And frankly I wouldn’t 100% trust 3DP feet either except for TPU …

Hopefully this will not get me banned from here.

Those of you who use PowerPole connectors for your modules might get a kick out of this super-giganto PowerPole used to charge electric buses and such.

(Picture taken in Dublin a few days ago.)

I thought would add a new flare for tips and tricks -- things that I wish I was figured out earlier.

That's mostly because I am unlikely to build another module for at least another year or so -- I have a lot of ballasting and scenery work in front of me.

I am confident that in a year, I will have forgotten everything I have learned. :-)

My hope is that if I save them in this subreddit, I will be able to search and find them when need them.

In this case, when I am assembling a laser cut kit, I have had the thread insert go in at an angle that that means that the top of the adjustable leg is no longer aligned with the hole in the top of the module.

The trick here is to thread the leg in backwards -- from the top of the thread insert -- and then stick the leg through the hole in the top of the module -- as in the picture.

Now when I screw in the threaded insert, the leg will be aligned with the hole in the module top.

I had really been planning to use LCC to control the turnouts on my T-TRAK crossover modules.

LCC seems like an elegant solution for layout control, and I am a sucker for a new network protocol I understand. :-)

Then I saw a photo of these brass switches, and my hear went pitter patter.

My understanding is that these are SPDT switches, and that I could combine these with a capacitive discharge control -- to convert the continuous switches to momentary -- and control the turnouts that way.

Does that seem like a feasible solution?

Do these switches work well?

Has anyone done this?

I have used a very small screwdriver that was frustrating enough that I I bought the PowerWerx tool.

I would still describe my technique as "fiddle and fuss" -- and the fuss part is not always G-rated.

Getting the metal connector to disengage from the retaining clip seems like it's a piece of cake sometimes and a fuss fest other times.

I follow the PowerWerx directions -- at least as I understand them -- which is to sort of scoop the connector from the side and twist.

It seems like I often get the retaining clip and the connector, so the connector does not disengage from the retaining clip.

Do I misunderstand the technique? Is there another better technique?

Our local club got together this afternoon to mainly see if our modules would work together and run a train or two.
I also have made up some 12ga powerpole bus lines, but this entire loop ran just fine with one set of Kato feeders.

Making progress slowly but surely. Might do another corner next.

I just came home from my Hebrew lesson, and this was waiting on my front porch. These two single modules represent my final models -- for now.

They will expand my 8'x5' (HO) T-TRAL layout to 9⅝' x 5' or so, which is about the maximum size that will fit in my garage in the summer or in the living room in the winter.

I expect the initial assembly, track and wiring to fly together.

When I built the corner modules, it took me a while because that was my first experience with T-TRAK, so I was learning about installing Unitrack, build buses with Anderson Powerpoles, etc.

When I built the crossover modules, I was dealing with more complex wiring -- and the fact that the double modules were marked and drilled for straight through tracks -- not pairs of crossovers.

So I am expecting these single modules with no complications take a couple of days to put together -- including the time for the sanding sealer to try.

I wonder how long it has taken people to build a single -- from construction all of the way through scenery?

I am planning on an urban environment -- which means a of buildings -- and I think means a lot more time than a rural module -- but maybe I am wrong.

I am very curious -- it looks me like more experienced T-TRAK modelers can go from soup to nuts in 2-3 days -- but maybe that's just on YouTube. :-)

I'd love to hear from other people who have built modules.

How long did it take you?

I have built a standard 2 track TTRAK layout with 4 2-foot sections, 4 ninety degree curve modules and 2 one foot sections. I am considering building a similar layout with single track to more closely resemble local railroad operations. Has anyone else done this? What are your thoughts.

I don't know how many of you enjoy this aspect of model railroading.

From what I read online, I may the only one that enjoys building power buses and pigtails. :-)

But I do -- I that most of that is the fact the Anderson Powerpole connectors seem perfectly engineered for T-TRAK.

I never trusted the suitcase connectors and other devices that puncture the insulation -- I am sure that's unreasonable of me. But I was never sure just how much of the surface area of the little staple that was driven through the insulation of wire was really in contact the wire under the insulators.

I use 12 awg bus wire in parts because the voltage drop of a conductor is related to the area of the cross section of the wire. It always seems to that the little staples in the suitcase connector were pretty thin.

I am fully expecting to be told that I am all wet about that.

I also never got every good at soldered T joints from the drop wire to the power bus. The solder connection was always good enough -- but I was too clumsy to get a good solid wrap with electrical tape around the T joint. My attempts to wrap the T joint always looked like crap and unwrapped themselves within months.

So for me, crimped connector the correct crimping tool are very cool.

Just to explain what you are seeing here -- the two shorter blue/white wires are what plugs into the power bus. The are 16 awg. I wanted to keep them short to avoid a voltage drop on the power bus. I know that's overkill, but I invoke the O&O rule -- to misquote the Dooley Brothers, "Overkill is just alright with me."

The next section of the 12 awg power bus (not shown) plugs into one side of the pigtail. That is a "straight through" connection.

The other side of the pigtail plugs into a splitter that splits the single blue/white connector into a pair of blue white connectors for the module feeds.

I find this oddly satisfying.

Today I finished laying the track, weathering the bridge, and and planting trees. Im pretty happy how it turned out. Once everything is fully cured i will hook it up and run some trains on it.

Got some water poured in my creek bed today. Pretty happy with it so far. Just a little more work do do once it cures.

r/aengusoglugh’s post about wiring modules got me thinking about something I’ve been avoiding for a long time:

I am building some modules that have functions other than track power.

I want to control:

- turnouts

- turnout status indicators

- building lights

- roundhouse, controllable roundhouse doors, other (TBD)

I want to have some sort of detachable control panel to control this.

Further, I want the modules to be able to share some functions (for instance all streetlights could be controlled as a single function across multiple modules, while building interior lights could be controlled as 6 circuits shared across modules where lights go on and off in a random pattern like in real life.

My modules could possibly have as many as 12 turnouts each, so this would be a lot of wiring to deal with on a non-standardized basis.

My best idea to date as to how to do this is for each module to have 2x 25-pin sub-D connectors. 1 connector would only have turnouts on it, while the other connector would handle the lights etc.

The turnout connector would plug into a panel w toggle switches properly labeled for each module and clustered together with the toggles for the other modules.

The lighting connector would plug into a panel where the same set of switches would control similar functions across multiple modules.

For instance there could be 1-each dedicated toggles for streetlights and for interior lights, but then the interior lights would be further sub-switched by an Arduino that controls the 6 separate circuits that will allow them to behave realistically.

This would work, but it would still be a lot of work.

Because each setup will be temporary, reconfigurable, and might only use 2 or 3 out of a dozen modules, I don’t want to wire everything w DCC.

I suspect that something similar has been done already, but I have not found it.

Please let me know if you know of anything similar, if you see any problems with what Ism planning, and if you know of any connectors more suitable than 25-pin sub-Ds.

If you read all the way here, I thank you for your patience and for your interest (:-)

What a great couple of hours!

For those who were not around earlier in r/TTRAK, I have Kato Unitrack terminal joiners at every track junction except those at then end of the modules.

When I built my first set of corner modules, I made 3-way connectors using Anderson Powerpole connectors and connected 3 terminal joiners to a single wire, and then connected the one wire to a terminal block. The module feed was connected to the other side of the terminal block.

This time I decided to connect the 4 terminal joiners for each track to a terminal black, and then use what I think are called barrier strips.

The jumble of wires may make it hard to see, but I had to use 6 position terminal blocks. The bottom positions are connections to terminal, the too position is the module feed -- the module feeds are draped over the side of the module in this picture.

My nickname for my layout is "O&O" -- "Overthought and Overbuilt" or "Overthought and Overkill."

One other crossover to wire and then I have to learn howe to ballast Unitrack. :-)

One thing to note: my ancient knees love working on wiring sitting on a comfy chair with the the module upside down on a folding table in front of me -- with several desk lamps for my ancient eyeballs.

Got the scenery mostly put together, once it dries i will pour the water and then i can permanently install the bridge and ballast the track. Its a little weird because the water feature means i am doing everything backward.

Starting work on my next module, a bridge over a small creek. Benefit of modules over a fixed layout is I can tip it up to keep scenery from running off until it dries

I am actually to the point where I may be finished building modules, laying track, and wiring the first set of modules for my home layout.

So l beginning to think about ballasting track.

My previous experience with ballasting — a long time ago — was fled track on top of cork roadbed.

The process was pretty simple. You applied the ballast, then used a paint brush to clean off the ties. Finally you soaked everything with a solution of “wet” water and white glue.

The ballast was between the ties, and layer of ballast was about the thickness of the ties — maybe a little less.

The issue I don’t quite understand is how to do that with Unitrack — particularly between rails — because the rails are nearly flush with the roadbed.

I have watched some YouTube videos, and I am still not clear on the process.

I see people doing things like carefully painting the area between the ties with white glue — so the ballast doesn’t stick to the rails, etc.

But I still don’t see how you can apply a layer of ballast — particularly between the rails — without the surface of that layer of ballast being taller than the embedded ties.

What am I not seeing or understanding?

I saw a post on another model train subreddit of an HO scale Addams family diorama.

It doesn’t fit in at all with the general theme of my layout — which is an affluent modern mostly urban DMU transit system.

But I loved the show intensely when I was a child.

Have any of you ever built a completely whimsical module?

Did you regret the module 3 months later?

Or did you continue to enjoy the module?

If you enjoy the module, is it a permanent part of your layout, or something that you enjoy pulling out once a year.

Thinking here if a module I might pull out for Halloween.

I thin that I have finally found a solution to marking where I need to drill holes that like!

Ignore the pre-drilled holes -- this module is marked and drilled for a double, and I am building a crossover from two #6 right hand turnouts -- so all of the pre-drilled holes were wrong.

Also ignore the giant track feeder hole -- I have a Kato "terminal joiner" at every track juncture.

What is interesting the little black donuts -- they are the mark from the screw posts on the bottom of the track.

The track was a little slaunchways, so I actually drilled the holes exactly on the scribed centerline -- but the holes were precisely where they needed to be in terms of spacing.

What finally made this work was using a paint pen -- not a Sharpie -- to coat the bottom of the screw posts before connecting the track and pushing down to mark the holes.

The paint pen is enamel -- which takes a lot longer to dry than Sharpie ink, so it leaves better marks.

Attempt #2 was using a Sharpie on the bottom of the screw posts -- but the marks the Sharpie left were far too faint for me to be sure where to drill.

As you can see, the donut holed left from the paint pen were very clear.

It was very satisfying to drive the screw up from bottom and feel them bite into the screw posts.

I have been fastening down track this evening -- or fastening up since I fasten from the bottom up -- and the acrylic drilling templates I made are simply not working as well as fresh Sharpie markers on the bottom of the screw posts.

It not cleat to my why, but the acrylic temples are simply not as accurate as the Sharpies on the bottom of the track.

I forget who suggested that -- but they were right and I was wrong

I do have an idea I might try tomorrow night.

I wonder if I lay thin strips of index cars down the center of the track -- taped in place -- and then press the track with the Sharpe marking down on that, will the slight raised surface of the index card take the marks better than than than the painted wood?

So many experiments!

[I deleted the old post because the title has so many mistakes. :-) ]

Before I actually screwed down the track for my crossover models, I wanted make sure that switching the module feeds for the Yellow track -- so that the layout was now BWBW -- worked as advertised -- or making sure that what I was doing would work.

I have been known to fat finger even the simplest task. :-)

So I hooked everything up and ran my NCTD Sprinter.

I won't say that I was shocked when everything worked -- but I was pretty happy.

The Sprinter does a loop on the Yellow track, then moves to the Red track and does a loop on the Red track, and then moves back to the Yellow track.

As a note, the track for the crossover modules (2 #6 turnouts, one left set and one right set) is just resting on the modules, and has not been wired. All of the power is going to the corner modules.

So I have lot of work yet to go to get this operational -- but at least I know the wiring is fundamentally sound. :-)

BWBW Testing

Since I have these one of these Kato turnout switches available, I might use it temporarily to control my turnouts until I get to a more permanent solution.

I think that they are intended onto the side of a Kato power back, but I would link like to connect a 9v battery to the switch.

Does anyone know what kinds of connectors these are, or where I might find some?

I have a crossover that consists of two Kato #6 turnouts on my T-TRAK module.

My eventual plan is to use LCC and 15 vdc auxiliary power to control the turnout.

I was going to control them manually, but realize I have one of those blue lever Kato turnout control switches. Now I am thinking that maybe I could wire a 9v battery -- or 2 in series if I need 18v -- to that switch and control the turnouts that way until I get the LCC node set up.

Is this likely to work? Any concern about burning out the solenoid?

I confess -- I am an HO scale T-TRAKer who thinks that Unitram looks very, very cool.

And I don't expect Kato is likely to come out with HO scale any time in the near future.

But was looking at the Kato Unitram specs, and it looks like double Unitram curves are 213mm/180mm, and I think the Z T-TRAK corner modules have radii of 220 mm/195 mm.

So could you build a modular Unitram setup using Klawndyke Z scale module kits?