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Hi @kiwiinoz welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum! For Tomix loco's, you'll have to hardwire in a DCC decoder. There is, as far as I know, no drop-in replacement, and the loco's don't have any sockets. There are a few articles on the forum about hardwiring decoders, and although not specifically for your loco, they should give you a good idea on how to go about it.

Hi. New here living in Brisbane Australia. Im looking at getting into n scale railroad mostly Japanese. I brought a tomix starter set and a few other track sets so looking to expand and see others layouts etc. I eventually want to make it dcc but am struggling to find any info on converting a tomix df66. Here's the gear I have already and I've got a tomix df200, flat cars and cargo containers on the way.. my other hobbies include model making (mostly 1/48 millitary aircraft) and photography

I did pick up some small boards with resistor and LED pre-soldered. They obviously don't come with a pot installed, but I'll see how these look. The nice thing is that the board is nice and flat on the back, so easy to install using some double sided tape, and they're only about 10 x 7 mm, so should fit in most buildings / rooms. I decided to get the pre-built ones, because I'm at a point where I feel I'm just wasting too much time trying to build these kinda things from scratch, even if that would be cheaper. Meanwhile, I've been doing some more woodworking. In my previous builds I used to have the track bed butt up against the section's edges. This time I decided to have the track bed sit on top of the section's edges. It looks a bit cleaner, and it's a bit easier lining up the track between sections. It's of course a little bit more work, since I need to cut out some slots so as not to get a weird transition between section end and track bed. I initially miscalculated things a bit, so some measurements were off, but it did work out in the end. Of course, my plywood sheet wasn't big enough to cut the track bed in 1 section, so I had to splice 2 pieces together. I figured I'd add plenty screws, since they're cheap anyway. These are currently not glued yet, but I most likely will do so before laying the track. All the track bed installed for the first section. Also got the cork glued on and painted with a bit of an earthy colour. I've started laying and wiring some track. Just waiting for new occupancy detectors to arrive now. I can also start thinking about some scenery now, for example the area between the shinkansen line (furthest in the back) and the rear of the section. The 2nd section (just visible on the right in the picture) is still used as a bit of a base for "stuff", but I do want to clean that up and also start with cutting out the contours and installing the track bed on that. I do also still need to install some servos for the turnouts on the upper loop of the helix. Once those are in place I'll likely cover up the helix with my little test / speed measurement loop, so I can continue preparing trains for use on the layout So far, motivation is still mostly there. Some days I don't feel much like doing something, but once I do get going, I normally can get a few useful things done at least 🙂

Tomix add some icons to their products for those that can handle their mini curves and super mini curves. Tomix, Microace, Greenmax and Poppondetta amongst other manufacturers don’t produce DCC ready rolling stock as it’s just not that popular for n scale in Japan. The majority of people involved with n scale have either a roundy roundy layout at home or use rental layouts which are all predominantly circuits so DCC is not hugely necessary. Kato is the only manufacturer in Japan to pioneer DCC usage in Japanese n scale due to their products in American and European markets. Kato DCC ready generally refers to the usage of their own decoders rather than plug-in chips and having a choice of decoder brands. Some loco decoders are available from 3rd party companies. Hope this info helps. If you’re looking at tight curves, you’ll need to avoid anything with long coach lengths (dependant on curve radius) and in some cases will need to hard wire (solder) decoders in yourself, unless you stick to DCC ready Kato stock.

How can I tell what N-scale trains can handle tight curves and are DCC-ready?

Several nice scenes on the Shinano Railway’s Kita Shinano Line on January 15, “115 Day” as indicated by the head mark on the red/grey set at the beginning. The mountain the background seems to be Mt. Asama, and portions of the video are between Kurohime and Furuma.

So now I have Palmerston in my fleet, which is great because I could do photos like these, now the plan is to buy the Bachmann Talyllyn and take a break, but if things aren’t going as planned. I’ll buy Welsh Pony, which I’m already planning to buy. From left to right: Palmerston, Princess, and Prince I’m also planning an event with the narrow gauge models, which I’ll announce it soon here in the forum still in the works, but I’ll announce it when I announce it.

I will be interested in seeing what you come up with, being a Canadian forester and having a fleet of over 60 west coast specific log cars in HO. I am intrigued by the number of stakes the car has, here we generally go for 2, or occasionally 4 especially if they are moving poles.

Thanks @Gunzel, fantastic photo series. I really enjoy photo travelogues like this and Alastair’s (@ED75-775). Great food pics also lol.

@miyakoji funny you posted this now as our Tokyo office manager was there this weekend and sent me a bunch of pictures, and told me I need to get there next time I am in Japan. So thanks for this link. And to @bill937ca for the original one. Will

Another tour of the museum on the Gattan Go Travel channel. Almost an hour with English subtitles selectable via the gear icon on the video’s toolbar.

I went looking around on the Japanese interwebs under the colloquial term nakadenbyo 中電病. There are some articles from major news outlets, as well as a video from yesterday on Asahi Shinbun’s YouTube channel. No English subtitles available but from what I can gather the depot (officially Nakano Tokatsu Center since November 1, 2024; tokatsu meaning unification or merging or something) has 220 drivers and in the last 3 years has had 43 incidents of this illness, as stated in Tony’s first link. 19 of those were in 2024, between April and November. Tsudanuma Depot, if I understand correctly, has about half the number of drivers, and in 2024 had only 2 such illnesses. There are a few enlightened comments on the video 😬 I actually worked in an office that had dodgy water, and took a liter of my own filtered water everyday. I thought this was clever until I remembered the episode of the Office where Dwight claims to do the same.

More videos with landscape color.

Japan has a temperate rainforest. Greens are often very lush. Hillsides are steep enough that tree stumps are often hidden. You model many hillsides strictly with clump foliage. Plus there is a rainy season in Japan from late Spring to early to mid Summer. The Japan Sea is often crystal blue and free of pollution. People around you probably have never traveled and been exposed to new ideas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_temperate_rainforest

Quick update - I added some more weathering with pigments for the flat car. I'm working on my wood loads and will drop an update once I'm happy with the results. Cheers!

Came across the new HO Super Green Shuttle Liner U48A containers at the weekend in my nearest Tam Tam. Perhaps just my perception but the printing on the large logo looks smudged. Not sure whether it’s an accurate depiction of a strange logo or just looks too uneven in comparison to the N gauge ones. The 2 packs they had at the front of the display in the cabinet certainly put me off purchasing any. Wonder whether my perception is off, a bad batch or whether others also look a bit ropey. It’s a 3D logo with a fine gap between the 2 white type layers. The rendition presented looked as if one layer of type had bled into the other. I did get a single pack of Nishio U19A as certain HO containers don’t seem to hang around for long. I did some research and it seems to be a construction equipment and/or event/exhibition rental company based in Osaka. Maybe I’ll need more for an Osaka Expo 2025 train.

Hello folks, I was in a short hiatus from trains - glad to see that there are more China Railways model trains available. I have these Kunter passenger cars and a couple of locomotives. What would be some appropriate motive power that are currently available from Changming. I admit I know very about these trains, I’m just an avid passenger trains fan especially from Asia. Thank you for any suggestions and insights.

Lol yes, true! Steam is very messy! Again why I love japanese scenes as they can have a huge range of Shabbat to crisp, residential to urban to ag in the same fairly small areas for a scene. jeff

I have a New England bias, but layouts set around here do tend to have a good variety of terrain and colour, unless they are gritty urban. Fall foliage is popular in these parts! The best proponent of New England modelling was the British designer Iain Rice whose layout books for Kalmbach Publishing are a pure joy to read; they cover a variety of regions, but he is fond of New England and captures it nicely. For Japanese modelling, we're working on specific scenes in Ibaraki with plenty of Google streetview images fo reference. The buildings there to tend to be somewhat worn and weathered. A friend who lived for some years in Kumamoto always marvels at how well the weathering captures the actual grit and shabbiness of so many buildings from their experience. It's not all Akihabara across Japan! Even for the urban modelling, the colour palette is different than what we see around here (New England urban goes much heavier on red brick). For my eye, the mot 'toonish' layouts (but still very pleasant to see) are German built ones. The multi-colour Faller/Kibri/Vollmer kits are all assembled without any weathering at all, nor are any of the trains. Large roundhouses full of steam engines, yet nothing is touched by coal dust and smoke.

Having It in front is great because you dont its not like other models that once finished they are left stored somewhere. However you will be constantly thinking how to improve and add more and more stuff.😁😁

I’ve been sorely tempted to do the same thing with z scale over the years around my computer workstation. But now that I’m retired I spend much less time there! I did pick up a series 0 z shorty and tiny loop to do some little fun loop to take to train shows. jeff

The 0 Series Shinkansen is so beautiful, it gives me impetus to keep going. (However, I don't want to make it any longer. I have 16 car N700 N gauge and track length becomes a problem.) The more I add, the more pleasure I get out of the Z desktop. I'd love to get more Z or even smaller scale structures in there. Hoping I am able to get a work trip in 2025.

Kato doesn't have enough OO-9 products to make 'usual' announcements regards OO-9. They announce when they announce.

American layouts for example to be green pine tree forests or brown/orange midwest. Not a huge colour variation/s. Japanese layouts have a mixture of cities abd forsts. You'll just find more colours naturally. But I've never really seen this as an issue. If you start building a layout worrying about what other think. You'll never be happy. Do what you want.