Blast from the Past
While doing some research I happened upon this creative topic. So, whatever happened to Team Track Tuesdays?
Jay
Jay - thanks for your interest in Team Track Tuesday! To answer your question .... I began Team Track Tuesday back in August of 2016 because as both a kid and adult I found team tracks to be an intriguing component of real railroading. The B&O team track in my hometown always seemed to have something different each time I visited it ... sometimes a single boxcar, other times a string of covered hoppers ... a couple of flat cars at another time, and another time a huge MOW crane & tender, and yet other times nothing at all. I was always kept wondering as to what railroad equipment would show up on the team track next. Over the year my hometown team track hosted tank cars, stored hopper cars during a national coal miners strike, boxcars of Christmas trees, used as RIP track on occasion for bad order cars, and for seasonal special passenger trains bringing tourists to view a Christmas ornament manufacturer. Also called a "public delivery track", the team track has unlimited uses.
The purpose of the TTT thread was to inspire others to keep their layouts looking fresh by creating new and changing team track scenes on their layouts. The thread encouraged OGR Forum members to participate by creating team track scenes on their layouts and perhaps changing those scenes out every so often and posting photos of their team track scenes. TTT also could inspire ideas for anyone casually viewing the thread who were looking for ideas for scenes.
TTT had a 2.5 year run. During those 2.5 years I created a new team track scene on my layout each week and accompanied it with a narrative to enhance interpretation of the scene. Each week I prepared the thread by devoted two to six hours ( sometimes more ) creating and photographing scenes. At its' height TTT had many regular participants who created some extraordinary scenes and the thread drew several hundred page views each week.
Eventually my creative well ran dry of ideas, and by that point there were only 1 or 2 regular weekly participants plus the number of weekly page views had dwindled, so as the only permanence in life is impermanence, I felt that TTT had run it's course and served its' purpose ... inspiring others to have fun with their layouts by creating their team track scenes and planting the idea that one can freshen up their layout by just simply changing out their team track scene on a regular basis ... just as the real railroads do, albeit the real railroads have a different motivation LOL! Additionally, there were many folks, over the thread's run, who enjoyed stopping by just to view the visual manifestations of the creative imaginations of the regular and casual participants. At the conclusion of the thread I invited anyone who wished to continue to carry the thread forward to do so, however there were no takers at that time. A couple years ago someone did resurrect the TTT thread idea and hosted it for a short time. It was nice to see that!
Speaking for myself during the 2.5 year run of Team Track Tuesday ... I built two new team tracks which increased my layout's team tracks by 200 percent. Having to come up with a new scene each week really challenged my imagination which I really loved! I think I came up with scenes depicting every possible use of a team track LOL! And I'm sure there are many folks out there who could create scenes way beyond my imagination too!
IT's TEAM TRACK TUESDAY!!! Share your team track photos here! 
