T-TRAK modules do not lived charmed lives. They get beat up traveling around. When you try something new, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. This is one of those.

My two module set depicting the Route 216 underpass on the real Northern Central was a COVID era project. While I had started a bit beforehand I really went full speed on it during the pandemic. You can follow along on its build thread on The Railwire. I employed an experimental “Very Low Profile T-TRAK Frame” made from horizontal 1x3s. This allowed me to use foam to build up to the proper track level.

That approach worked great for providing plenty of room for scenery but only having a sheet of styrene (a For Sale sign) as a bottom layer meant it was all a bit flexible. That flexibility ended up causing some problems.

While I could’ve fixed those problems, I realized that the module was also starting to show plenty of wear in other areas and would require a lot of work to really bring up to my modern standards. Given that module storage space is one of my bigger limitations I decided it was time for these to give up their space and make room for something new.

I started by removing the leg bolts and 1/4-20 threaded inserts since they’re absolutely reusable.

Some of the other hardware, however, well…

I started by plucking off all of the trees. They will eventually be used on what will likely be their third or fourth project. 

Then I pulled up the track and feeders. Those will have future lives too.

Because I used screws for most of the construction I was able to remove the backdrops as single pieces. One of them immediately found a new use: fixing an ugly hole on my return loop.

I saved the one structure from the module as well.

You can see some of the reasons it all failed here.

With the track, trees and bridge removed it was time for the bases to head to the curb.

It might seem strange so gleefully trashing a project I put so much effort into but I don’t think it is. The fun is in the journey and now, with these things no longer taking up space in the basement, I have room to go on another one.

In a bit of a funny postscript that I think my friend Lee will find amusing, the last train to cross the modules was “Chessie the Knife”.