The purpose of NRail is to promote N Scale model railroading in all forms, all standards wherever N Scale is present. NRail has been the voice of N Scale model railroading for over 45 years. Starting as NTRAK, it created the first national modular standard, provided the vehicle for N Scale to grow to the second most popular scale in North America, was the birthplace of T-TRAK and today is the home of N Scale model railroading. We welcome all N scalers
Detailed information about NTRAK and T-TRAK modules, as well as publications of interest to all N scalers, is available throughout https://nrail.org/ and for download and at https://nrail.org/Store
Standards
Over the years the organization has created a number of documents covering most of the N Scale standards for modular railroading. While the organization promotes all of the standards, involvement by NRail in each standard varies, based on a number of factors. More information including an introduction to each standard is available on our N Scale Modular Standards page.
Publications
The organization has been publishing documents for N scalers for well over 40 years. This includes the original NTRAK standards, the T-TRAK standards and more. With the rise of electronic publishing, many documents are now being offered through Amazon in Kindle format. A complete list of the documents is available at NRail.org Publications.
In September of 2020, NRail started ZoomTRAK meetings with the membership. These monthly hour-long get-togethers include short how-to’s, vendor announcements and more in-depth clinics. Meeting links are sent out to members only, before the meeting, including the morning of the meeting. Past episodes are available online in the ZoomTRAK Libarary.
- Meeting link with agenda are sent out the beginning of the month and the morning of the meeting.
- Past episodes are available online in the ZoomTRAK Library
Upcoming dates:
February 11,2023
March 11, 2023
April 15, 2023
May 13, 2023Since our membership is global, we list times for major time zones:
- 4 pm Eastern
- 3 pm Central
- 2 pm Mountain
- 1 pm Pacific
- 11 am Hawaii-Aleutian
- 8 am Sydney (Sunday)
- 9 pm UK
- 10 pm Western Europe
Slides and other material related to our presentations can be found in the Publications section.
We welcome vendors, hobbyists, YouTubers, and anyone else who wants to do a presentation on model railroading that can be applied to N Scale. To schedule your presentation or just ask a question, send your email to ZoomTRAK@nrail.org.
NTRAK is a modular standard which was developed in 1973, bringing model railroading out of the basement and into the public eye through train shows, shopping malls, buiding lobbies, holiday events and other venues. Over the years, NTRAK has attracted a much wider audience and introduced model railroading to many people of all ages. NTRAK was a major factor in the renaissance of model railroading in the 1980s and resulted in N scale becoming the second-most popular model railroading scale. At the same time, modelers in other scales adopted the concept and brought attention to their modeling efforts at public and events and hobby functions. The NRail (formerly NTRAK) Newsletter has been published for over 40 years and continues to be a communications vehicle for the N-scale community. The newsletter is published every other month to promote module clubs’ shows and standards. Membership in NRail is open to everyone, regardless of module interest, and includes a subscription to the NRail Newsletter, plus access to a library of publications, many of them available digitally, on N-scale model railroading. Becoming a member of NRail also supports the ongoing efforts of the organization to maintain NTRAK and T-TRAK websites, support national layouts and support all Nscale clubs. More information can be found at http://nrail.org .
In 1974, Jim FitzGerald started publishing a newsletter with the intent of establishing communications with the N scale community about new ideas and about N scale. That newsletter became the NTRAK Newsletter and in 1994, NTRAK became a formal organization with incorporation. In 2000, T-TRAK was born and introduced through The NTRAK Newsletter which continued to be a communications channel for the N scale community.
Today, N scale is the second most popular scale in the North America and the Newsletter continues to be a communications channel for N scale. The purpose of NRail is to promote N scale in all forms, all standards in many different environments at many different displays.
Membership in NRail supports N Scale and provides the communications channel on which N Scalers have come to rely over the years.
Join us now!
Membership in NRail includes:
- One year of the Newsletter (6 issues).
- Monthly ZoomTRAK live broadcasts.
- Support of the National N Scale layouts at major shows.
- Access to the Members Only section of NRail.org (including over 270 issues of the Newsletter).
- Discount on merchandise in the NRail store.