For 2007, we started a three year project to

improve our downtown Tulsa diorama.  How? 

Well, let’s first look back to our 1999 project,

which was to update and authenticate a 4-module

 diorama depicting the north side of downtown

Tulsa circa 1957.  Included on the modules are:

 the art deco Tulsa Union Depot, the Frisco

Freight building, REA facilities and other

landmarks plus the Tulsa interlocker where

 tracks from five railroads all crossed and

inter-connected.  A 5^th module was built

and much of the track was reworked. 

Old photographs from the archives of the

Tulsa World and Tulsa Tribune were utilized

along with numerous photos from private files.

 These were of great assistance in determining

how the north side of downtown Tulsa appeared

during that time frame.  Parts of this diorama

were featured in the May/June 2003 issue of

N-Scale Railroading Magazine.

The 2007 re-work transferred the five modules

 to three 8' modules and included a 4’ portion

 that was omitted before.  New features are the

 Denver Street underpass and the de-compression

 of some tracks into the formerly missing 4’

stretch.  By modifying these modules from 4’ers

to 8’ers, we eliminated a large number of

connector tracks which has resulted in easier setup

and smoother running.  This 3-year project has been completed in stages, with the track work, wiring and ballasting completed in 2007, some scenery completed in 2008 and the remaining work completed in 2009

Although we were very proud of our bolt-on end cap module stacking system, we found that it was inherently unstable when riding in a truck to and from shows.  Therefore, our 2008 project was to build cabinets that would safely house our modules.  These cabinets, which are like a chest of drawers, use the modules as drawers, with the skyboards of the modules functioning as the drawer fronts.  Each cabinet stands 80” tall on heavy duty castors (so it will fit through a standard height door), and holds four modules.  Each drawer slot has a Masonite base to insure that if wires or folding legs accidentally break loose, they cannot fall and damage the module below.

So far we have built seven cabinets of varying widths to accommodate 4’, 6’ and 8’ modules.  Two of the 4’ cabinets have special bins in the bottom bay to hold C-clamps and stanchions.  We also built a 2’ x 4’ companion cabinet to house all of our supplies, including shelves for skirting, a bin for extension cords, power strips, LocoNet cables, power pole adapters etc., an alcove for our Digitrax and AristoCraft power equipment, and two sliding drawers for joiner tracks, shims, levels, zip ties, the mandatory rolls of duct tape, and other miscellaneous items.

A second 2008 project was completed in preparation for the Derby City Express National N-Trak / N-Scale Collector convention and train show in Louisville.  The red line bus on each of our modules was upgraded to 12 gauge wire with Anderson Power Pole connectors.

The club has four standard 4’ corners, all of them 20 to 30 years old.  They’re nice looking, but their structural integrity is beginning to deteriorate.  Like all standard 4’ corners, these modules are 34” deep, which requires us to tip them on their back to get them through an normal width door.  Also, all of them have bolt-on legs.  For 2009, we designed a 4’ corner frame that cuts 10” off the front and has integral legs.  This design requires tighter-than-normal 45° turns, 25” on the red line, 23½” on the yellow line and 22” on the blue line.  The yellow line turn radius is ½” below N-Trak specs, but it has generated no problems.  With this design our corner modules can be housed in one of our cabinets and will fit through a standard door without special handling.  We planned to begin re-building our corners in 2009, but our Tank Farm module was in such a state of disrepair that we had to replace it prior to the 2008 OKC Train Show.  The new module displays the world’s largest crude oil pipeline hub located in Cushing, Oklahoma.  A dilapidated, three-track siding has abandoned tanker loading facilities with one track passing through the skyboard where it can connect with a set-up track on the adjoining module.

Our experiences at several shows using the Red Line Route™ DCC format was both satisfying and sometimes frustrating.  Many times, the RLR was not up and operational until the show was half over.  In those cases, the host organization provided all the DCC equipment.  In order to minimize the delays in bringing the RLR up, our second 2009 project was to purchase and prepare the necessary DCC equipment to operate our layout.  Using a modified form of the North Raleigh Model Railroad Club’s design, we built three Digitrax DCC power boxes, each with a 5 amp command station or booster, power supply, PM42 and UP5 so we could power our loop in three blocks.  UP5s were installed on corner and other key modules and an assortment of loconet cables were built in varying lengths.  With the PM42s, we have the ability to feed DCC to the red, yellow and blue lines of each block or use our Aristo-Craft system for yellow and/or blue, depending on what the engineers running on those lines prefer.