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Why Kam Konnect©?
Three members of Southeast Texas Model Railroad Club built a six module 4’ x 12’ N-Scale layout. Tommy Drake designed the plan, laid roadbed, ballast, track, built and weathered structures, modeled scenery, and fussed over every detail. Ben Meadows added redesign to tables and substructures. David Conway wired the modules, crafted the wiring buss, and provided realistic sound effects.
The layout theme rolled from Mid-West farming communities through great Southwest deserts, to California’s rich San Joaquin agricultural valley. In the middle of the desert you’ll find “The Thing.”
photo credit: C. G. P. Grey via WikiCommons
The Thing is a Roadside Attraction in Arizona off I-10 at mile marker 322. I first saw The Thing when I was eight years old in 1965. In 2009 I stopped in to see The Thing. I’d been taking photographs of “The Thing” billboards (there’s 247 of them) as I traveled through New Mexico and Arizona. After my visit to The Thing Tommy and I decided to model a portion of the new train layout in the desert and add a tourist trap. We added “Thing” billboards leading you to “The Thing”. All “Thing” signs on the layout are Photoshop reduction/enhancements from my trip.
The layout by default was named The Thing. There’s an inner and outer loop that can be run together or independently. We tend to run DCC on the outside loop and DC on the inner loop.
The layout by default was named The Thing. There’s an inner and outer loop that can be run together or independently. We tend to run DCC on the outside loop and DC on the inner loop.
The Thing tables are three feet tall with no obstructions to crowds. Our philosophy for train shows is guests come to see and experience Model Railroading. Building tall layouts with stanchions keeps people away from the layout and is more of a negative than a positive. We’ve had children and some adults “break things” on The Thing; and then we fix ‘em. It’s just part of passing along the joy of Model Railroading!
Kam Konnect© was developed out of frustration. Fellow modelers have had similar experiences setting joiner tracks between modules and sliding rail joiners onto joiner tracks. As train club members we spent a significant amount of money and time on beautiful modular railroads. These modules worked very well the first few shows, and as time went on each show became more frustrating as the joiner tracks would be “lost” and new tracks had to be custom fit onsite. Rail joiners would be left behind. Our old eyes failed us as we couldn’t see small rail joiners any more.
Thus Kam Konnect tables were developed to remove this frustration from the hobby. Now we can model our railroads and enjoy setup and take down at shows. Setups are incredibly fast… and take downs are too!
David Conway
Kam Konnections
Kam Konnect© was developed out of frustration. Fellow modelers have had similar experiences setting joiner tracks between modules and sliding rail joiners onto joiner tracks. As train club members we spent a significant amount of money and time on beautiful modular railroads. These modules worked very well the first few shows, and as time went on each show became more frustrating as the joiner tracks would be “lost” and new tracks had to be custom fit onsite. Rail joiners would be left behind. Our old eyes failed us as we couldn’t see small rail joiners any more.
Thus Kam Konnect tables were developed to remove this frustration from the hobby. Now we can model our railroads and enjoy setup and take down at shows. Setups are incredibly fast… and take downs are too!
David Conway
Kam Konnections
