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You might be thinking of the Meitetsu 5000 series, yes. They're remarkably similar in terms of physical shape but the Meitetsu was painted red whereas Tokyu was painted green. I am not aware of something similar for the Tokyu 5200 series though https://stat.ameba.jp/user_images/20210808/09/mohane5812002/79/72/j/o1727116914983794854.jpg?caw=1125 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/Meitetsu5000_TokonameKosoku_JinguMae_19810726.jpg/800px-Meitetsu5000_TokonameKosoku_JinguMae_19810726.jpg

I can see that. Their price for some Kokis was way higher than the new ones I purchased at Tam Tam a few months ago. I was lucky I found a bunch of items - figures, road signs, buildings - for under $10 apiece. The trucks had strange pricing - some were about $12 but some ran up to $30 or more for essentially the same model. Can't quite figure out their pricing strategy to be honest. It also took more time than I liked to wade through the items. If I had not found a couple I really wanted right off, I would probably not have bothered. But once I found several items I had been looking for, I decided to keep at it. Tony

@Tony Galiani I have been comparing their prices to other places as you made me aware of. For example, looking at a Kato DD51 (which is on my wish list), their used prices is more than new prices at Plaza ($64 used vs. $59 new). It's even $52 new at HS. Granted they do have free shipping and potentially 20% off if you run up your order so that has to be factored in too. The search continues... 🙂

ARRRRGGGG! @Tony Galiani you outed my 17 year run of putting subliminal advertising on the forums and collecting enough kickbacks to keep my model train habit going! You never felt the blipverts getting to you did you?! I learned everything from Max Headroom. Once you join the forum you are tracked relentlessly! Ha ha ha ha ha [maniacal laughter and hand wringing] Well you got me back Tony, as i had looked at that Shikoku Kiha and little sightseeing car a while back and thought hmmm that looks good for small Ttrak setups or mini onetrak I should get it and promptly forgot to get it. So i just picked one up along with a small pile of other stuff I had waiting… The forum is really very enabling… maybe we need to set up a separate forum for some group theray or 12 step program… jeff

They’ve slowly been inflating the prices versus their Japanese site (you can browse that to see the differential) and I think the formula they use to do that adds to the variation. The minimum price of an item (probably more relevant to magazines) has also jumped from Y300 in February last year to Y650 today, and the commission on the order from Y500 to Y900. That said there’s still bargains when you look at the overall landed cost.

Suruga-Ya's prices are all over the place - or at least that is how it seems to me. I open the HS web site as a means to compare prices and sometimes check other sites as well when shopping at Suruga-Ya. Some of the items I purchased were real bargains though some were not. The Shikoku DMU I purchased was only slightly lower than the original retail even though it was used. But I could not find it anywhere else. @Kingmeow - I am worried - are you feeling okay? If so, all I can say is that it is hard when the great ones lose it! Though even Otani doesn't hit a homer everyday! I had no trouble running up an order several times that amount - though I pared it down significantly to focus on the items I really thought were important for my projects. Tony

Every month, MicroAce continues to solicit my wallet for pre-order money. This month, their Rapi:t release is the one that will spirit away a few hundred CAD from it 🤣

Quickly tried a few trains for some length testing. Looks about what I was expecting. The urban platforms are maybe a bit long, they can hold around 7-8 coaches. Local line can hold 3 car trains / loco + 2 cars, and if I do decide to add a platform to the shortest track, that could hold 2 car trains. Might be a good place for the fox / squid / crab Kihas. Will do more experimenting once all the track is lined up between the 2 sections and the sub roadbed is screwed in place. Need to fine tune the position a little bit.

At first glance, I didn't see any savings as I thought the prices were quite high for used, but I could be wrong.

Is somebody has tried to install microtrain couplers on chinese rolling stock? I've only stock with less than 1 year, but I find quite difficult to couple or uncouple wagons with the standard Changming coupling. I'd like to do some shunting and with the standard coupling it looks impossible

Changming Wechat, always worth following. I am ready to go if its worthwhile item.

this photo is a little better. The major learning from this run out is that AIA should have printed the railhead a little high so I could grind it back and get a decent surface. 1.2mm instead of 1mm should do the trick

Kind of want to pick that up actually

The 7th annual Parksville Railway day is on for August 24, 10 - 3, at the Parksville museum. Should be another successful one like last year https://jnsforum.com/community/topic/20590-6th-annual-parksville-railway-day-august-11-2024/ We are arranging for the local T Track group to be there this year.

My wife did that this last trip, and its great advice. She even tossed a pair of shoes when the sole started to de-laminate. Also leaves more room for trains stuff to come home! @Tony Galiani good to know about Tokyo Stay hotels. In the past we have generally been able to find places with coin laundry so no need to use the in-house service which as you note can get pretty expensive. Cheaper to go to Family Mart and buy new socks/undies/shirts! In London we uses a service where they charge by the bag of cloths, but still cost £15 / $28 CDN per bag vs ¥600 per load in Japan. If we stay multiple nights then the quick dry cloths are not really needed as they can get a couple of days drying in the room. And cotton is much more comfortable to me than full synthetic.

Every time I see messages on this post it triggers my B-Train obsession, makes me want to start taking out my unbuilt sets to work on. Not sure if this has been mentioned before but I saw these foam inserts from MiniunitStrage Nshell, they sell the foam insert and you buy the container from Daiso. This is their Yahoo Auctions page. It might be difficult to acquire from overseas but perhaps this idea can be repurposed using any flat storage container and adding foam/foamcore? I may try making one of these myself since I have the luxury of a Daiso just 2 mins away. I bought a Casco case two years ago and didn't end up using it. I don't travel with the trains and I like to see my collection so all my B-Trains are displayed in an Ikea glass cabinet.

Were you able to get the order up to the point where you can take advantage of the 20% off? I'm looking through and struggle to find things that add up to ¥10,000 for the 20% off. Though the Free Shipping is always available for this promo. I'll have to keep looking...and fast... 🤣

Tokyo Stay hotels have - or did when we used them a couple of years ago - in room washing machines which is quite convenient. And no extra cost to use the machine IIRC. Personally, I go with a mix of some easy to wash items which I can just do in the hotel room, or using the hotel's laundry service. That can be expensive in Tokyo or major cities but can be a good deal in small places like Kochi. On our last trip, I figured out what we were likely to need for the last part of our stay in Tokyo and had some laundry done at our hotel in Kochi and that worked out well for us. Of course, we have not been able to manage very long trips so far. If we ever do, I may have to rethink that strategy. And, as RIck Steves recommends, taking a vacation from your vacation is a good idea. We try it but it often doesn't work for us as we seem to keep finding things to do! Ciao, Tony

Wow two Nankai Railways releases in one week I can't take all this stress.

Under the influence of the group and this thread - for better or worse! - I took advantage of the free shipping to place an order from Suruga-Ya yesterday afternoon (US East Coast time). I received an e-mail this morning that it had been shipped. Probably will take a week or two I am thinking as that seems normal for Japan Post. My order was relatively small - only one discontinued Tomytec train item and some Tomytec trucks and other scenic items. Didn't go through my want list - just focused on some Shikoku related items that I had wanted for some time and had not been able to find on my travels. Ciao, Tony

The WaMu case works great for Shorties, as does the Casco case for 21m, 16 cars. 2 Shorties fit in each slot, 32 per case.

Full release poster here: https://ngauge.jp/poster/ma202511/ Some might be interested in the return of the Rapi:t or the Oigawa Railway ED31-4 in JNR revival livery.

They announced another 70 Series Baggage Car. A6986 - MAYUNI78-21 A6985 - SUYUNI72-28 I wonder, if there will be third following...

Some great advice there. My trick with clothes is to bring old stuff that I am going to throw out anyway. Some of it gets replaced (clothing is cheap in Japan at the moment, as long as you can find your size) and some just discarded.

HI, Little more info about the magnet uncouplers. Each wagon has a small magnet attached to one of the couplers. It was a bit of a hassle to use the large magnet uncoupler for the wagons. The couplers on most of the wagons are not so easy to lift up as the ones on the locomotives with one magnet under the track. To make everything work properly i had to stack 2 magnets and now the wagon couplers work better. Downside is that all the wheels are pulled in the direction of the uncouple magnets so timing is important. The pulling force of the magnets is huge now so funny things can happen when one of the bogies get caught by the magnet It is doable but it doesn't work every time 100% like it should.