I finally talked a friend of mine here in town into building a oNeTrak layout, instead of a dinky little loop on a sheet of plywood. I would like to build several connected oNeTrak modules, which could then be removed from my room to use with his modules. Now, I am stuck trying to come up with a basic design. I have a 11.5 foot by 10.5 foot room in which to work for my own modules. Does anyone here have any experience in building oNeTrak layouts? I would like a reasonably prototypical arrangement. Two sides of it can be used for visible staging. Any creative design element ideas? I thought about perhaps a X shaped crossing, with the oNeTrak mainline crossing one way, and the inside of the loop leading to the staging, and the outside leading to an interchange with a standard Ntrak layout. Suggestions? Comments? Ideas? Am I crazy?
If it's design parameters you need, the Northern Virginia N TRAK club started oNeTRAK as far as I know. You'll find a ton of information on their website at http://www.nvntrak.org/ Check the site map and scroll down to oNeTRAK. From there you'll also find a list at Yahoo Groups at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/onetrak/ I was also interested in oNeTRAK because of a linear walk around design I wanted to build but I eventually went with an offspring: a series of 2' X 4' dominos with a skyboard down the middle which created the equivalent of back-to-back oNeTRAK modules. Good luck. Mike Cannone San Diego
It's not so much the design parameters, but does anyone have track plans of oNeTrak layouts they've done, that I could use as inspiration for my layout design?
MR has run oNetrack articles recently - I think in March this year and one about a year ago. There arn't many rules to the design - it is intentionally open to allow you to design what you want. As for the crossing module - the only difficulty I can see with this idea is that because the size and shape of the oNetrack modules are open, it might be hard to get the mainline to cross itself - you could end up with two mainlines that cross - but you would need big room - or two long hallways.
What I had in mind for the crossing was a level, at grade crossing, with interchanges between the different segments. It would be built like a pair of corner modules set corner to corner in an X configuration. It would not have steady traffic across the crossing in both directions, only possibly when a train was coming out of the staging areas. I'll see if I can find my March issue to see what's there. [ 09 June 2002, 23:34: Message edited by: RidgeRunner ]
Oops - it was in Model Railroad Planning 2002 - the older article was March 1999 Regarding the crossing idea - the only problem with this idea is getting the main line to curve around itself and line up correctly with the other side of the crossing. Having worked with modules that have rigid designs I speak from experience that getting them to make a loop can be a challenge (good thing wood bends, if you know what I mean) Anyway - the crossing idea would work well for setups with two mainlines - I could see it work well in setups with two hallways with a crossing in the middle. But a figure 8 setup would be challenging, particularly with free flowing module standards like oNetrack.
Actually, I did find an article in the April '02 issue, by Bernard Kempinski about a paper mill integrated into a oNeTrak design. I'll check out the MRP to see what's there. I think it wouldn't be too hard using standard module sizes. Just design the crossing module to be like a regular 30", 36", or 48" corner on each side. What I had in mind was 3 tracks (regular Ntrak) approaching the junction, one diverging off, and two others going across to become double track (siding) on a oNeTrak module, then just a single track main going the other way. I'll post some working drawings I've come up with later.
OK - I'm looking at them now: Modeling a modern paper mill: April 2002 Page 85 Here comes oNetrak: March 1999 (this is what you are looking for) Page 80 The MRP issue is 2000, not 2002 (clumsy fingers) and the article isn't really about oNetrack but about using oNetrack modules in a bedroom layout. http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?opt=S&cmdtext=onetrak&MAG=ANY
Ah, wonderful. I'll look those up. Thanks! I'll show y'all my design if I do decide to stick with the crossing idea.
