Pennsylvania N-Scale Weekend · 2026

Altoona N-Scale Weekend 2026
T-TRAK Layout Report

By Dave Ferrari

Mike Phillips Pennsylvania N-Scale Weekend 2026 was the 20th Anniversary of this show. It was run by The Altoona Association of Model Railroaders (AAMR) at the Blair County Convention Center. The convention center was open for setup Friday morning, September 11, starting at 9 AM with access until about 5 PM. Saturday, September 12, the show ran from 9 AM to 5 PM and Sunday the 13th it ran from 9 AM until 3 PM. Both days participant access started at 8 AM. This was the 5th annual show hosted by The AAMR. The show took up 30,000 square feet of the Convention Center. There were 1,300+ attendees including participants and vendors, not including children.

20thAnniversary

15Layouts at the event

1,300+Attendees and participants

There were many layouts from lots of different clubs set up at the show, including a large Free-moN layout, several N-Trak layouts and multiple T-TRAK layouts. In total there were 15 layouts at the event. One of the T-TRAK layouts was organized by the Iron City N-Scale Modelers as a fundraiser for Mike Phillips’ favorite charity, the Pennsylvania SPCA. They raised $416 this year. I had a Single in that layout in addition to modules in the Combined T-TRAK Layout, which I coordinated.

Iron City Monopoly single T-TRAK module — Iron City Monopoly Single Module

Dave's contest single T-TRAK module — Dave’s Contest Single Module

Attendees voted on the Mike Phillips’ Best in Show Module. This year it was won by Fran Resch, an Iron City member, for his new stone quarry T-TRAK 2-Triple set. This was his second Best in Show win!

Fran Resch's prizewinning stone quarry T-TRAK modules — Fran Resch’s Best in Show winning Triple T-TRAK modules

The Combined T-TRAK Layout

The Combined T-TRAK Layout again had an area of 40’ by 27’ but was in a different configuration. The layout almost looked like an “S” shape with the top stretched out and an extra tail. There were in effect 3 peninsulas, one along the top, one snaking from the center in an inverted “J” and another just 8 feet long. Most of the peninsulas had Wide Corners with one having Standard Corners but with a by-pass available for trains with long cars or engines. There was an inner Analog/DC loop on the Yellow Line of the snaking peninsula which was created with 2 Jackson Junctions. There were 128 separate modules making up the layout, the equivalent of 215 and a half – there were 3 half-singles – Single Equivalent Units (SEU) plus 14 Corner Equivalent Units. There were 232 feet of Double-track Main Line which was 7 scale miles compared to only 6 last year. There were 30 participants in the Combined T-TRAK Layout representing 14 clubs from 11 different states as far away as Tennessee.

232 ftDouble-track main line

128Separate modules

30Participants