Advice seeked - T-track module benchwork

I'm becoming so frustrated seing you all flashing nice picturess of your layouts that I've decided to stop watching and start acting. So at the end, inspired by a bunch of discussions about T-Track Modules that I decided to go further down this road. A year ago or so I had allready thought about doing some small modular layout base on 150x150mm squares but I stop after some fiddling around.

At the time I didn't know really what to use as material. I tried several but the results never really convinced me. And now, I come to you to ask you what you will suggest for such modules. I'm trying to find something cheap enough, light and quite sturdy. I was considering little Foamcore sheets (5mm thick) since it's seems thick and sturdy enough. But, should I choose wood instead? A mix of both, something else?

If you have any advice, ideas or tips I will read them with pleasure.

Thanks a lot.  :)

I guess it depends on what you want to do with those modules and how big they are.

If they're fairly big, you'll need some sort of wooden base/support structure. Also, if you plan to take it apart and put it back up a lot, I'd go for a wooden base. And also, if at some point down the road you want to go to exhibitions, go for wood.

Otherwise, any material you like working with will do just fine ;)

I really like tempered HDF (high-density fibreboard) for a working surface. It's durable, not prone to warping, and cheap. As for what to use for an under-board framework, I'll leave that to someone else :D

Disturbman,

I would shy away from foam core for modules unless you really want to make sure you brace it well underneath as it is prone to warping with moisture. if you end up scenicing the top of you module it usually involves applying a lot of moisture! might work if you do a good grid under it like every couple of inches, all glued up well. other problem with foam core is it dings pretty easily and ttrak modules tend to banged around a lot if you take them around to shows and meets.

another option is the tougher foam core called gator board. its basically the same styrene foam core (usually a bit harder/crosslinked styrene though) and a plastisized paper on each side that is resistant to moisture and thus warping. this stuff is very flat and stable, but very expensive and can be hard to get your hands on locally sometimes. they also make it with styrene sheets instead of the plastisized paper, but even more expensive. gator board works pretty much the same as foam core, tad harder to cut with a knife and cuts a bit better than foam core with a plywood blade in the table saw

nother option down this route might be sintra. its basically foam core made totally out of pvc plastic (instead of styrene). the foam center is pvc and the sides are also pvc. good thing is its totally impervious to water! i used the stuff years ago and totally forgot about it till just recently when another post mentioned it here. i found the 3mm thickness for a 4'x8' sheet is only $24, about the same as ok 0.25 plywood! nice thing is you can get it thin 3mm or 6mm thicknesses. also it will thermoform. you can heat it in boiling water and warp it around and hit hardens up well when cooled. cant wait to get over to the local shop that has it and get a sheet to experiment with. check your local plastics and sign shops (its used a lot in sign making). you can glue it with plain old ca glue well. lots of good info on it here

http://tri-dee.com/Sintra%20sheets%20information.htm

i have been making a lot of ttrak modules. first batch for club members were standard 0.25 plywood models like lee (ttrak.org) does. did some modifications to make them look better like not having the butt ends showing on the visible side (dump wood working there) and creating a simpler cross piece to hold the anchor bolts than the 4 blocks. i personally really dont like the look of these modules at all. the 2.75" sides are just too big for the boxes and i think tend to take away from the display area and are a total waste of space when you try to transport a bunch of modules. so when i started making my own i opted for a more japanese looking design. mine are just 1"x1" stock that i routed a 0.25" rabit joint in. this holds the plywood top. then underneight on each end i have a 0.75" piece of stock running crosswise that is about 1.5" thick. this is what i mount the bolt inserts into and these are the 'ends' of the module. this design gives you a module only 1" tall.

now comes the fun. folks will grumble that only 1" tall modules will be hard to run with other modules at 4" high, but no worries there, got a great solution for that problem. im using 2 sections of 4' long 1x2 material that are separated by 2 sections of dowel. these make a long base that 4 modules in a row can rest on. the base is only 9" wide so they are inset from the modules edge and make it look like its sort of floating. on the base i have a bolt insert in each corner so i can level 4 modules at once with only these 4 bolts. the base also creates a nice trough for the wires to lay in from the modules. the cross dowels are just pressure fit so the base breaks down into the 4' long 1x2s and the dowels for transport. in a pinch these (or longer ones) base strips can be set up on saw horses if there are no tables to use.

the other nice thing about this design is once you have a bunch of the edge pieces made up you can very quickly make any depth modules you want. also you can make these in 8' long strips really easy and then just slice off the lengths of modules you want. very rapid assembly with just glue or even faster with glue and a small nail gun! because of the hefty 1x1 edge piece with the rabit joint and the stocky end pieces they come out very flat and should be very resistant to warping (i hope). other bennie is that they stack well in a box. im making some transport boxes that will have one end that opens up and adjustable rails along the sides  to slide in modules on. having thje modules only an inch high definitely saves room in this!

ill post some pictures of these when i get home next week.

cheers

jeff

Thank you all for your answers, it's very helpfull. I know now that I will go with somekind of wooden base. Foamcore doesn't seems to correspond to what I had in mind.

@Martijn: My modules are not going to be fairly big (I'm emviosing something looking like normal T-Track modules) but might see lot of actions. On another topic I don't have any history with building benchwork or using materiel to model. So I don't know really what I like or not to work. I'm some kind of blankpages. In fact that's not totally true I did some modelling but only with cardboard and paper.

@Captain: In fact I have some MDF at home (I found them in the freebox of some house material shop) and I do like the look of it but I also know it's could be a catalyst for some cancers. Maybe I'm a bit too paranoid on the subject and should go with it anyway. I'm still thinking about it, anyway I will have to see with my girlfriend she allready survive one and I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to take chances.

@Jeff: ouch... that some advices. Very interesting and... complete. :) You got me thinking a lot and I think I will post some design later.

Unfortunatelly my technical english is not so up to date and I'm not totally sure I understand every thing. I'll read it again but pictures, as offered, and maybre drawings will be a nice addition.

Last thing, I'm not familiar with the Imperial system, I was born and raised with the metric one.

So I have to check: 1" = 1 inch ~2,50cm ?

and 4' = 4 feet ~ x cms (I don't remember the conversion rate) ?

Again, thanks a lot guys.

Actually, I'm not using MDF (medium-density fibreboard). I am using tempered HDF (high-density fibreboard that has been plasticized). It's the same thing as MDF, but compressed even more, to make it really strong. I don't know if the plastics they add help or hurt the carcinogenic properties of MDF. (I didn't know that, by the way!)

Also, 4 feet = 121.92cm

You can always ask Google: Search for "4feet in cm" or the like.

The thing with LDH, MDF and HDF is that Formaldehyde is being used and those wood pruducts keep emiting this molecule during their life at a high level. It said that usually vernishing the panel helps reducing the emissions so, I guess, the one you use, being plasticized, should even be more inert. Anyway, like everytime, the real problem is one you start working the panel and inhale the dust produced.

Hello,

I built T-trak Modules with plywood, insulation foam and a combination of Plywood and insulationfoam. For a normal flat Module plywood only will do the job if you want to cut out some landscape the mixed plwood insulation foam is very practical. Insulationfoam only is to sof and can easy be damages on the edges.

You can get 6mm Plywood anywhere and its price is also quite low. I used poplar plywood which is the cheapest here and had good results. If you concerned about any ammiting gases i suggest gue for wod. I took normal white glue to glue the module togethear as well as glue the tracks to the module. Also be carefull in which kind of paint you use.

Most of my Modules are double length T-Trak modules with 620mm length and 300mm width.

You can get lots of tipps her http://t-trak.cincy.home.insightbb.com/.

Currently i and others are working on a German TTrak Handbook which is based on the Australian TTrak Handbook. The nice thing about it,  is that all meassurements are metric. Track spacing is Kato Unitrack spacing so oyu can use the double tracks, double crossovers out of the box. So maybe you can have a look at it since there are not yet many ttrakers in europe it will be a good thing to settle for a common standard.

  http://users.picknowl.com.au/~austnscale/austtrak.htm

Disturbman,

no worries, they are tough things to describe in words, pictures will do better. ill post some later in the week when im home.

cheers,

jeff

ok heres some picts of a 9" deep module with the thin style! i actually wired most of my modules by using the dremel to cut a slot below the track in the 248 piece and soldered the wire leads directly onto the bottom side of the track.

cheers,

jeff

@railzilla: thanks for the links and the advices

@jeff: looks nice indeed, I quite like the "lowrider" style of it. Do you have by any chance pictures of one sceniced module?

thanks. these slim modules actually sit on two long pieces of 1x2 that are inset about 1.5" so they sort of float. this raises them up to the standard module top height for lee sytle box module and also allows a strip of 4 modules (on 4'long 1x2 strips) to be leveled with just 4 leveling legs instead of 16 if you use legs on each module! ill pull out one of the supports and set it up and take picts when i get a sec here.

Mine are all in progress right now, working on my street patters. have the buildings all ready and keep fiddling with the arrangement on about 16 modules to start off with for the city strip. work has stalled out a lot of progress the last year! a lot of my train time has gone into the club layout and some of the members layouts unfortunately. need to start getting more selfish with my time.

few seceniced modules from jrm here to look at:

http://japanrailmodelers.org/pages/photos.html#ttrak

cheers

jeff

few seceniced modules from jrm here to look at:

 

http://japanrailmodelers.org/pages/photos.html#ttrak

I allready knew this page (from another subject) and I really find the "street fair" modul inspiring. It's quite good work.

As for myself, I'm deep in renovations. I just receive the keys of my appartment last week. For the moment any benchwork is pospone untill the place is ready. On the bright side I decided to have another little side project. I'm starting building trains (cf the greenmax thread) and buildings.