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I'd like to have one of these sets. The age of these coaches match perfectly the era I want to model

While my trip to Meiji-Mura was ostensibly for the steam trains, there's actually one other reason I ended up going. Graeme has already provided a spoiler as to what that is: it's the lobby of the former Imperial Hotel, designed by the great American architect and Japanese art aficionado, Frank Lloyd Wright. Built between 1919 and 1923 in Wright's 'Mayan Revival' style, the hotel was designed to be as earthquake-proof as possible, which it demonstrated - albeit with some small damages - during the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1 September 1923. Unfortunately for the hotel, it was one of those very earthquake-proof features which led to it being condemned. The shallow floating foundation was supposed to spread the building's weight out but instead failed to provide enough support and stop the building from sinking into the alluvial mud present on site. While there was talk of demolition and renewal as early as 1936, it would hang on until 1967. Following public outcry over the loss of Wright's iconic building, plans were set in motion to rebuild the hotel's lobby at Meiji-Mura, utilizing the finishing elements from the original structure which itself as a brick and concrete structure would not be able to make the journey. All of the pieces had arrived in Inuyama by March 1968; reconstruction of the exterior formally took place between 1970 and 1976, followed by reconstruction of the interior between 1983 and 1985. It's a wonderfully contemplative space to wander through or maybe have a cup of tea at the tearoom on the second floor. Now, I'm going to have to come clean: I'm not an architect. I am however a fan of architecture, which may have been helped by the fact that my maternal grandfather was a professional architect before he retired in the late 1990s or early 2000s. He very kindly gifted me a few books from his collection some years ago, including his copies of Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method and Nikolaus Pevsner's An Outline of European Architecture, to name just two. Knowing his interest in Wright's work (he's said at least once that Wright is an excellent example of an architect to study), I ended up video-calling him on holiday in Auckland while there, just to show him where I was, which he deeply appreciated. Alastair

KATO C30-7 REMOTOR Third attempt proved successful. The motor mount fits like a glove. Motor is friction fit. Tomorrow will solder leads to the motor. Then the daunting task of removing the flywheels. Have the mini gear remover and have done it before. Hope the pin is still good...

Did you mean these plastic wood finishes? Truthfully I havent considered it, yet it seems like an interesting choice to use these plastic wood veneers. Is it necessary to lacquer the veneers tho?

Apart from the trams, Meiji-Mura does have a few railway exhibits on site, including three steam locomotives. This is the largest and easiest of the trio to find, Bisai Railway No. 1, displayed in front of the former Rokugo River railway bridge section. Built by the Brooks Locomotive Works of Dunkirk, New York in 1897, this 4-4-2T locomotive was used on what is now the Meitetsu Bisai Line during its service career. Coincidentally, it would also work alongside one of the museum's other locomotives during this time as well. Retired in 1935, it was sold into industry and worked at a factory in Niigata Prefecture before entering preservation. Brooks products weren't particularly common in Japan with just ninety-one locomotives purchased from that manufacturer between 1896 and its incorporation into ALCo in 1901, mostly one-offs for private railways although the Japanese Government Railways and its predecessors did purchase a few as well. So far as I'm aware, this is the only survivor of those ninety-one. It's too big for the Meiji-Mura railway, and given that it's been stored outside for decades, I wouldn't be prepared to bet that it's in all that good a condition. But it exists, the cab is open to visit, and perhaps that's more than enough for this old-timer. Fun fact for the uninterested: Doing a little research for this photo travelogue, I came across a website featuring both a photo of Bisai No. 1 in its original condition, as well as photos of a few of the company's other Japanese products. Check it out here. Alastair

Heading slightly further into the museum grounds, we find the first of the rail exhibits at Meiji-Mura: the tramway. Commencing operation in 1967, the Meiji-Mura tramway features two 3'6" (1067mm) ex-Kyoto City Transportation Bureau trams, N58 (No. 1) and N115 (No. 2), operating over what I'd estimate to be about three kilometres of track. On the day of my visit, N115/No. 2 was in service, seen here at the middle tram stop. While at least eight of these narrow-gauge trams have survived into preservation, Meiji-Mura's examples are the only ones still running in Japan. Fun fact for the California-based members of this forum: trams N17 and N19 were sold to the Orange Empire Railway Museum (now the Southern California Railway Museum); SCRM still lists N19 on its fleet roster but there's no mention of N17. Also on site at the time, but not part of the Meiji-Mura collection, was former Sapporo City Transportation Bureau tram 22. This tram began its working life in 1901 in Nagoya, but was later sold to Sapporo in 1907 and ran there until the 1930s. Held for preservation, it was returned to working order in 1960 but last ran in 1977 and was then retired to the Sapporo City Transportation Museum. Its visit to Meiji-Mura was originally arranged in 2013 as part of the museum's fiftieth anniversary celebrations, in which it was planned to restore it to working order once more and operate it on the museum's tramway. That plan fell through when it was found that certain parts had become seriously deteriorated, resulting in 22 being placed on static display in a shed close to the former Sapporo Telephone Exchange building. The original loan called for 22 to head home in 2020 but that was extended out twice, with the tram finally heading back to Hokkaido in September 2023, just a few months after I saw it. Note also the wacky lifeguards fitted to these trams, which are jarringly large but very necessary during the rapid modernization of the Meiji era when people would have been considerably less concerned about being hit by vehicles - until they were! Alastair

Yes, you just walk through.

This reminded me of a question I have. If you have a pass that is just a ticket, like the JR East ones for example, what do you do at unmanned stations that only have IC card stands? I mean the ones without gates, where they just have a pedestal with an IC card touch pad on it, and no staff. I don't think they have anywhere to put the ticket in. Presumably you just walk through.

KATO C30-7 REMOTOR Restarting this project to remotor to coreless. The current motor does require quite a bit of power to start moving. I added a capacitor to assist. This loco is the one that I use to push the Tomix vacuum car around. It actually may be better to leave this one alone as the higher voltage is actually good for the Tomix vac, but I had put a coreless in that one already and it spins very high anyway. Motor is a 816 that I got from ebay. Shaft is 1mm while the Kato motor is 1.5. I got the shaft adapters from Tramfabriek a while ago and they fit perfectly. I just need to remember not to push too hard on the shaft or I will kill the motor like I did back then. Designed a 3D motor mount to fit inside the plastic cradle. The power leads will run on the outside of the mount and will touch the frame halves.

Thanks, I’ve stayed at Hirafu Station Guesthouse a couple of times, will have to see if we can get to Futamata-Honmachi on a future trip.

Ok, I guess the museum is long gone since I cannot find it. That's a bummer I never heard of it. Had been going to Sasebo from '94 to '21.

Changming will be releasing a new and updated model of their HXD1C (which explains why they were on display at Beijing): some details have been refined, made smaller. The big update seems to be the pantograph which is now made of metal-etched parts.

Kusojiji, It was at the "Transportation Museum Park"....which was a little bigger than the Loco itself, tucked away in a corner in Sasebo City, apparently only until 2019. I do have some photos ..I'll post em when I find where I put them. 😁

Planted all the trees into the diorama, no more toothpick placeholders. Added some mini trees/bushes made out of seafoam trees and Noch leaves, a technique that was derived from Modellwagen. The scenic elements are at a good stopping point so I'll start building up the scene on the dirt ground.

@disturbman Thanks. I was looking for those, i will pick them up from you closer to when the CR400AF-Z delivers.

Yep, definitely!

IMON just put a big load of second hand HO up in its new releases list, no photos yet but the prices seem reasonable https://www.imon.co.jp/webshop/new-item

I also took some pictures of some steps of the conversion

That's more or less the assumption we had all reached. Which really put in question what happened with this model for so many issues to have surfaced. The fact that Masaharu also took the step to remedy issues on models, or sent them back to Kato, says a lot. I think he is a great source to introduce people to servicing, he always was very clear on the stepped to take and what to do. And his 3D modeling projects were very interesting/entertaining as well. I wish he would make more of these and resume his "salvage or scrap" series.

@Section31 by "standard NEM coupler" do you mean Rapido couplers? Kato andTomix don't do anything NEM, but they use Rapido couplers. If that's the case, Changming has them, but we are the only one to retail them. They use to pack a pair inside the box of their early locomotives, but they stopped doing so a while back. When they more or less released what I call their 3.0 locs.

On the P70 wagon it's not so difficult. I have to: Remove the bogies and the frame Unscrew and remove the original Changming coupling File down 0.5 mm on each side where the original coupling was screewed (the NEM pocket width is 1 mm larger than the Changming "box") Put a small amount of cyanoacrylate glue to glue the Dapol NEM pocket Wait a bit to let the glue set Insert the Dapol coupling in the NEM pocket Make some test Screw the bogies and refit the frame on the chassis That's all. It seems a lot of work, but it's not really such an hard job

That does look like a production error. jeff

@jingpeng Appreciate the update. i am interested in doing the same should it be not too hard. I would love to use the standard Nem coupler on N-Scale Kato/Tomix/European feright transport on the Changming Freight Locomotives.

Yeah the lamp wire is best for smaller trees that have skinny trunks and limbs. Ive seen folks do hybrids with wood or floral wire for the trunks and main branches and using lamp wire for the finer end branches, but these are folks into doing larger and super detailed trees. Might check around any used shops for an old simple bladed coffee grinder to chop foam. I got caught using our coffee grinder the first time i experimented chopping down some premade foam by my wife, hence why i got a used one for hobby use… I tried making the sponge/foam ground foam once and the grinder worked well on it. I had used a tad too much paint on mine so it came out a bit too hard to use, but figured if i ever needed some custom colors it’s a useful technique. I have used the grinder to chop stuff finer a bit to give some more variety of sizes of foam. Last year i picked up a very inexpensive mini usb travel grinder that ive not used yet, but looks great for just whacking up a small amount or blending some colors together. I think it was $4. Keep posting pictures always great to see folks variations on scenery techniques. Cheers, jeff

Well now it looks like back to 10% for the next 90 days [we shall see on that] for china. Guess the kids not getting xmas toys But still no news on how you will pay for customs duty with USPS shipments coming in from japan post or the fees involved. Heard a couple of folks get hit with $40 ups customs fees but due to the fact they were shipments that apparently did the expedited customs form and not the when we get to it form that is sposta be cheaper, but we shall see. Anyone get any duty charges in the US from china? Outland just started shipping to the US again and the way they talk it sounds like the price has increased a title to cover the tariffs and they make no mention of paying duty so im wondering if their shipper is prepaying the customs duty. It looks like the shipping went down [I think it was $8 and now $6}. I sent them an email asking about duty payment. From Outland: As our shipping carrier has provided a clear way of practice and updated pricing for shipping service to the United States, we have resumed the shipping service to US on all sales channels, including this official store, eBay, Amazon...... Please note that the shipping time could be longer than usual as the processing capability of customs department is still unknown. In regard to the latest agreement between China and the US, we have lowered the shipping cost accordingly, however, the product price is maintained at a level slightly higher than the past as the tariff is not removed completely. Jeff