Module Monday: Orange Tree Company

The completed Orange Tree Company BranchTRAK module.

That brightly colored module above is the first, of what I am expecting to be a couple dozen BranchTRAK modules which will be built for my club over the next couple of years.  During the last week, I finished adding trees and details to the module which is the second edition of the Orange Tree Company module theme.

Starting as an inside joke that has taken on a life of it's own, the Orange Tree Company features an industry which harvests orange leaves to send them to other modules.  Basically, one of my friends in my club gave me a hard time about my early fall tree color selection on past module projects - in particular the orange trees.  To have a little fun, about two years ago I built a 2' spacer module for our standard HO modular layout featuring the Orange Tree Company.  The other members liked it so much, it has become a running joke (it even has its own t-shirt line).  I decided to save myself some money and recycle all of the details from that old two foot module and place it on this demo BranchTRAK module.  Happily, finishing this module clears my schedule (and shop) to get back to work on the Tribute to Springfield layout.

In the meantime, as I mentioned a few weeks back, there is a presentation planned for my club's April 24 Clinic Night about the BranchTRAK concept.  These Clinic Nights are open to the public if you'd like to stop by and learn more about these modules and see the Orange Tree Company in person.  Details are available at our club website: www.mprr.org