Operating T-Gauge Layouts

General:

T-Gauge is a finely designed system using the minimal number of components to achieve the designed results. However as in any system, some precautions are necessary. Notes and observations below hopefully will assist the enthusiast to enhance their enjoyment. Contributions are invited.

• Please make sure that the power is "off" when placing the cars on the track.


• Please use the rerailer as far as possible. The wheels should be placed carefully on the rails. If the car is pushed by hand to check, the car may sound as if it is on track, but it may not be. Sometimes, only one axle may not be accurately placed on the rail and the train may move, but it may create derailment or strain the motor and cause other problems.


• Please do not assume that the couplers have coupled smoothly. A visual check is a good step. If the cars do not couple with contact, you may have to pick up the end of the car and let the couplers catch and then place the car on the track, checking the wheel alignment again.


• An improperly coupled car would raise the wheels just a little to allow them to spin without any traction on the rails and cause strain on the motor.


• T-Gauge recommends using the "T-gauge Stabilizer Pen" to improve the traction and conductivity. If you notice jerky or irregular operation, use the pen on just the metallic wheels carefully.

Series 103 Train/Car Arrangement:

The Japan Rail Series 103 EMU's are designed to be operated at their best as a train comprizing of 4 cars. The arrangement being as follows:
1st car Unmotorized.
2nd & 3rd car, Motorized.
4th car Unmotorized.
In case of "unmotorized" cars at either end, the destination display face should be outwards.

Hankyu 9000 Train/Car Arrangement (Consist): Click on the image to open/download the Hankyu 9000 formation information. Mc1 or Mc2 is a motor chassis, with motor & LED. M1, T1 or T2 is a coach, without motor or LED. Mc1 & M1 contain pantograph.

Designing T-Gauge Layouts

XTrkCAD

T-gauge parameter file for XTrkCAD.

Click to Download File

To install the parameter file, extract the eishindou-t.xtp file from the downloadable zip file (above) into

share/xtrkcad/params

folder in your main XTrkCAD directory. To use the pieces, you need to choose File | Parameter Files... from the menu and load this file.
 
You may see a warning because XTrkCAD doesn't know about T scale. To add T scale to the program, you need to use a text editor (such as Notepad on Windows) to add the following lines to the xtrkcad.xtq file (in the share/xtrkcad folder in your main XTrkCAD directory):
 
SCALE T, 450.0, 0.118110236
    1560,40,1120
    2200,50,1500
    2640,60,1880
 
XTrkCAD can be downloaded for free from http://www.xtrkcad.org/ . It has versions for Windows, Linux and Mac.