...in the Press
Being different presents challenges - but innovation can capture the imagination and challenge the status quo. Pass along any news you might run across too.
March 2022
A portable wooden railway donated to the Edwardsville Children's Museum was featured ahead of its grand opening:
September 2021
WRRM's modular wooden railway grand opening was one of the 5 things to do on 9/11 in Wilmington:
October 2019
A portable wooden railway dontated to the Western Maine Play Museum first traveled to Atlantic Canada in the Fall of 2019 with stops in Quebec City and Truro. An article ahead of the Quebec City event follows.
March 2016 to August 2019
The Western Maine Train Museum is featured in Franklin County's Daily Bulldog highlighting - among other attractions - their 'Train Room' that features a modular wooden railway based on the wTrak railway standard. The tables were constructed by Maine Made Furniture
"Western Maine Play Museum has received a $2,000 grant from the Farmington Rotary Club, which will be used to purchase furniture for the Train Room. Naming rights to the Train Room itself were purchased by the Shibles-Colley family."
April 2015
Local coverage in Skagit County ahead of Sedro-Wooley's Woodfest:
December 2013
Featured in Volume 5, Issue 12, of Pacific Northwest Rail News on our 5th Anniversary. Contact Bill Virgin to subscribe: Pacific Northwest Rail News, 15642 129th Court SE, Renton, WA 98058
February 2013
A story about wTrak at a train show at Seattle's Pacific Science Center as well as the Mini Maker's Faire can be found at the Play-Trains blog.
February 2012
Gary Wells, attending a show in Monroe with Portland Car & Foundry, a maker of custom HO scale cars and structures, wrote, "The worst part of taking any child to any train show are the many 'Don't touch' signs...frustrating for children, and a constant bother for the parents trying to enforce the request. The best part of wTrak is that it is set [at] the perfect height for eager operators. And eager operators there were in plenty! So, I think I am about to engage in modeling in a new 'scale'. I must confess a personal penchant for wooden track trains. I like the ‘hands on’ aspect. My favorite part of modeling trains is making up the layouts, and wooden track certainly makes that quick and easy. And, from experience, I can tell you that it is possible to ‘specialize’ your wooden track layout. Mine is ‘logging’. It will never be photo realistic, but in my mind, it is beautiful. I can let kids and grand kids play with it, too! ...Which is going to be the most difficult part of WTrak to standardize. The adults involved are going to have to understand that they are playing by ‘kid rules’.
February 2012
Bob Hayes at Bakatronics designed a custom circuit for our Mountain Village module that cycles individual lights to flicker out and then gradually fade back on like a tunnel with wiring issues. He also recommended a solution for subway lighting for the City & Subway module. A separate circuit adds blinking corner lights on the tallest building with a helicopter landing pad. The application is highlighted in a customer projects page.
Content
February 2011
ContentOn the TrainBoard.com website, a dad who attended the 2011 Monroe Train Show with his sons wrote, "My favorite and my kids favorite layout was the wTrak wooden modular layout by Tom Stephenson"
Original wTrak website [~2009 through 2018]
Link to original website files circa 2009 with incremental updates through 2018.
