COMPACT TRAIN TRAVEL CASE

There are three primary visual stimuli that provide the look of harmony and continuity, and all of them relate to the modules’ tracks. The first, and most obvious stimulus, is the three-track format running from module to module that is at the heart of N-Trak. The second visual stimulus, a little more subtle, is to have a consistent color of ballast on corresponding tracks of all modules. This trick helps the eye follow the flow from module to module. The third technique is to expand the consistent ballast premise by ballasting the joiner tracks between modules. This further fools the eye by making it seem like all the modules are one continuous layout (Figs 1, 2 & 3).

Ballasting joiner tracks is a very simple project. First, paint the rails of the joiner tracks. (Be sure to scrape the paint off the rail tips so the rail joiners will make good electrical contact.). Then take a strip of clear box tape and place rows of three joiner tracks on it (fig 4). Trim the tape flush with the ties on both sides and trim the tape on the ends back to the last regular tie so the ends of the rails where the rail joiners go are not taped (fig 5). Place the joiner tracks on a sheet of cardboard and ballast them as you would regular track, using the same color ballast as you selected in stimulus 2 (Fig 6). Note: the red color in figures 4 and 5 is red paint on the back of the clear box tape. It is there so the tape can be seen in the picture.

Tip #2 – Insulated Joiners. Larger N-Trak layouts are often broken into several blocks which require electrical isolation between those blocks. Historically, block breaks have been accomplished by using plastic insulated rail joiners on one side of a joiner track. The problem with this method is that plastic insulated rail joiners have a thick bottom which is hard to insert under the module track ends, and they have a stub that takes up space between the rail joiner and the module track, making for a tight fit, or sometimes an impossibly tight fit. On top of that, many of these plastic rail joiners are yellow, white or some other color that sticks out like a sore thumb (Figs 7, & 8).

This problem can be easily solved by modifying some of the rail joiner tracks. Take a Dremmel tool and cut both rails of the joiner track, staggering the cuts of the two rails about one inch. Be sure to cut through only the rails. Do not cut through the plastic base. Insert clear styrene in the cuts and glue in place with AC (Fig 9). The styrene should be the same thickness as the Dremmel cutting disc. After the glue has dried, cut and file the styrene to the rail profile (Fig 10). Turn the joiner track over and mark the bottom to identify that it is “INSULATED”. Our club also paints one tie near the center of the insulated jointer track white, making it clearly noticed that it is not a regular joiner track.

These insulated joiner tracks can be dropped in where ever there is a block break. They will fit perfectly and it will be almost impossible to notice any difference between them and a regular joiner track (Fig 11).

Tip #3 – Color Coded Joiners. Anyone who has installed joiner tracks on a layout at a show knows it can be frustrating. Since not all modules are trimmed perfectly and not all joiner tracks are the same length, it’s a trial-and-error effort to find a joiner track that fits correctly. When I was at the NSC convention in San Diego a few years ago, I ran across a club that had the clever idea of color coding each joiner track based on its length. The 5” Atlas track sections officially recommended by N-Trak are theoretically 4.91” long. My N-Trak club measured all of our joiner tracks and found that there is some variance. Plus, we’ve artificially made some shorter by nipping them back to fit and have had to make some that are extra long to fit large gaps.

If you have ballasted all your joiner tracks and have the box tape on the back of them, its easy to measure all of them and paint a circle on the back with a color code that identifies their length as follows (Figs 12 & 13):

	Minimum Length	Maximum Length	Color Code	Percentage of Total
X-Short	4.75	4.8125”	Red	5
Short	4.8125”	4.875”	Orange	12
Medium	4.875”	4.9375”	Yellow	64
Long	4.9375”	5.000”	Green	14
X-Long	5.000”		Blue	5

We sort ours by color after each show and keep them in a storage box (Fig 14). My experience shows that the distribution of different lengths should approximate the percentages in the right hand column and you should have about 10% excess. This may be an indication that my club members don’t do a very good job of accurately trimming the track ends on our module, or it may be do to their age and the differing coefficients of expansion between track and wood. The distribution of different sizes of joiner tracks will probably be unique to your club’s modules. One warning…. Even though the rails on joiner tracks are supposed to be fixed, they sometimes do slide. Be sure the rails are squared up before measuring. If you can’t find enough Longs and X-Longs, do not make them out of flex track unless you glue the sliding rail down firmly against the ties with AC.

The club at the San Diego show had manufactured a jig about 5” long with a series of 1/16” notches on one end that made measuring the gaps easy (Fig 15). They slide the jig in the gap between the modules until it won’t go, then read the color. Before we made a jig, my club we always started with a medium and, if it didn’t fit, we grabbed a longer or shorter one as needed. This system has significantly reduced the time required to install joiner tracks and, as a side benefit, it has made the task easier for novice members to handle.

When we made our gap measuring tools (we made 3 of them) we also made a joiner track measuring tool so we could accurately measure and color code all of our joiner tracks (Fig 16).

Picture captions:

Fig 1 - Unballasted Joiner Tracks

Fig 2a - Ballasted Joiner Tracks

Fig 2b - Ballasted Joiner Tracks

Fig 3 - Regular unballasted joiner track on bottom track, ballasted joiner tracks on middle and top tracks

Fig 4 - Joiner Tracks on Box Tape (Tape painted red for camera)

Fig 5 - Joiner Tracks on Box Tape (Tape painted red for camera) - Zoom

Fig 6 - Ballasted Joiner Tracks

Fig 7 – Regular joiner track w insulated joiner on bottom track, insulated joiner track on middle track, regular joiner track on top track.

Fig 8 – Unballasted regular joiner track w insulated joiner on bottom track, insulated joiner track on middle track, regular joiner track on top track

Fig 9a - Insulated Joiner Track - Open and Filled Cuts

Fig 9b - Insulated Joiner Track - Open and Filled Cuts

Fig 10 - Insulated & Ballasted Joiner Track

Fig 11 - Insulated & Ballasted Joiner Tracks installed on all tracks

Fig 12 - Joiner Tracks Color Coded for Length (short and long)

Fig 13 - Joiner Tracks Color Coded for Length (short, medium and long)

Fig 14 - Joiner Track Storage Box

Fig 15 – Gap Measuring Tool

Fig 16 - Joiner Track Measuring Tool