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@cteno4 thanks Jeff. I'll try again.

Thanks Bill, I like the engines lined up at the physical end of the tracks. Was there a cafe there? I always thought such an arrangement should include a cafe, like a scene from a European movie. I love those switchers too. Wikipedia says they can do 62 mph. Hmm…

Jeff, de minimis is still in place for shipments from Japan to the U.S.? Until when? (I can't keep up...) 🤪 Rich K.

Here's an article from Tagesscahu, a news and public affairs program shared by three Swiss and German tv networks that compares the Swiss SBB to Germany's Deutsche Bahn. Key points: While Switzerland spent €450 per capita in 2022, Germany spent just €114. The federal debt brake also contains loopholes to ensure SBB's financial resources. "Parliamentary sessions are aligned with the timetable, because a large proportion of members of parliament travel by train. Almost 93 percent of all SBB trains are on time. That means they're less than three minutes late. This works even in winter, when it snows. https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/bahn-schweiz-winter-schnee-sbb-100.html

Continued freight modelling with a few cheap products. Some 5mm diameter balsa wood dowels, Tamiya 3mm H beams and some ship modelling chain. Makes some simple log loads. I intially tried this with some actual twigs but the variation in natural shape was very pronounced at 1/80 scale. The dowels are a little too smooth but at this scale you wouldn’t really focus in on the undulations of the bark IMO. I had already painted the deck of the Kato ToRa 45000s but it has been quite difficult to find suitable reference material on what they often carried. I added some extra dirt with the weathering master sets. Mud, Soot and Rust are pretty good in the A and B sets whereas the other colours I don’t use. The included brushes I find a bit useless but some cheap ¥100 eyeshadow brushes allow you to clad on the dust. Obviously a clear coat locks it in and dull end the effect. Support beams were added with Tamiya 1mm square beams and painted. I’ll finish the wagon off with some tie-downs, either with elastic line or some ship rigging cord.

Its called the “wish list” and its up in the top right corner of the page just to the left of the cart icon. to put something on your wish list you have to click heart outline icon just to the right of the Preorder/Add to cart button and once clicked on it turns red indicating the item is on your wish list. you're not going blind, the new site’s organization really is not easy on the brain. Change for change’s sake innovation. jeff

Time to check out some trains. This is the Stadler Ee 922 shunter. They date from 2009-2015 and there are 25 of them. Twelve are assigned to Zurich and another 6 to Basel. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SBB_Ee_922

I must be going blind. Can someone tell me where the watch list is these days on the new sites?

Hmm wonder if the 0.1mm was too thick. @MrLinderman what thickness did you use? Maybe the 0.03mm? jeff

Beware as i just got a spat of spam emails pretending to be usps and DHL with links to pay some small duty fees! Perfect time for scammers to come in with chaos and no info on how things are going to work with us customs… I put in two orders from japan [damn sankatsu is like eating popcorn, one small bit at a time but you cant stop!] thru japan post so we shall see how much they get delayed in us customs coming in even with de minimis exemption still in effect for japan. Also curious to see how the paperwork now will look and if they will be requiring showing country of origin for all goods jeff

Jeff Thank you so much, i will play a little and come back

@disturbman It looks like the HXD1C train is now only available through Changming Taobao. Hopefully it becomes available international again. Some of the model numbers are already sold out. They got pretty strong sales for this.

Thanks i appreciate the offer but have way more than enough japanese trains to keep me very happy! I have been very good at not getting tempted by other countries or scales as I have plenty to play with right now! I’ve tried to even cut my japanese train spending way back as again more than i can play with! jeff

@cteno4 If you want to try them out, just let me know. I will be able to spare some for periods of time as i still got lot of stuff coming (and on my watch list). With the rate new trains pop up in China, there are going to be lot of trains for me to collect.

Thanks @disturbman, i was mainly curious on the current prices for that level of quality and details. Im not going to let myself get into another country collecting trains! I have way more than I should have japanese trains and i enjoy sticking there as i enjoy the scenery/scenes that can be done and what I enjoy. It’s going to be interesting to watch the growth of the hobby in china both on the manufacturing side as well as the hobby side. Thanks jeff

Hey tony, sorry one thing i realized is maybe screwing you up is i screwed up above and said track in stead of rail in a couple of places. with standard block wiring you insulate both rails of a hunk of track on both ends and then supply the power to both of the rail from either of the power packs via the DPDT switch [or total off in the center with no power going to that block of track] Block control like this gives you a bit more control over any block of track as it can be powered from either throttle or off as opposite to the old point routing where you have one throttle wired to the outer loop of track and one throttle wired to the inner loop of track. here is how i should have said the previous wiring using the term rails in the right way. each block of track will have an outside rail that goes around the outside of you big loops and an inside rail that goes around the inside of your big loops. You can trace the rails on sidings back to the mainline loops to figure out what is an inside or outside rail on the siding blocks. Main thing to remember is just always keep like the outside rail on the left side of the center terminals and the inside rail on the right center termial [or vise versa if you prefer] for each block of track. Then the same polarity from the power packs on all the outside terminals ie top terminals to cab A and bottom thermals to cab B. You can always reverse the polarity of the throttles at the throttles to make the direction switches make sense on the throttles as you like it. here is a very fast and crude diagram of how the wiring goes from your two throttles to a block of track thru the DPDT switch. Sorry I did it with the pencil on the ipad really quick so not pretty but gets the idea across. jeff

I would say it is really good pricing and is instock. Though it’s on par with me buying kato/tomix eh and ef series freight locomotives. I still need to pickup a modern era red china rail freight locomotive but that will wait till they re-release ones. That and the Shen24 Train.

Thanks, Section, but I wasn't wondering 😅 But that's still interesting. I thought the upgrade would bring their price on par with the newer electrics, which hoover more around 550, but CM is still selling the HXD1C at its historical price.

SBB has an excellent app that will show up coming departures and their departure time, track and load factor in first class (1) or second class (2) along with the travel time and arrival time. The examples below are for Zurich HB to Basel. Red indicates a full carriage. There are no reservations in Switzerland apart from trains like TGV or ICE trains. IR is Inter Regio IC is Inter City EC is Euro City...international, cross-border day trains connecting major European cities run by SBB

THanks! I wonder where that was. Looks more like a stand than a museum. I'll ask my buddy who moved there in 1996 and never left. I helped drive down there with him from Yokosuka. I found it on google map. Pic states 2024/5, so fairly recent. Dang, wish I knew about it. Not far from the base. I guess I am overdue to go back.

@cteno4 pricing is between 478-488rmb if your wondering. I just picked up two of them.

I found the Sasebo D51 photos!

@disturbman Those look nice. Its literally an whole new rabbit hole in the hobby. The CR400-BFZ sold 3000plus units, the breakdown of what was bought will be interesting to know. I think Hong Kong post still is not delivering to USA so that means Tekkon/J-Scale are only options. Not easy to get into USA.

Jeff Cheers yes its making a little more sense, the center terminals make sense, i think whats confusing me is connecting to both controllers, when i thought i was using one controller for the outer track and the other for the inside track. I will have another look tomorrow as its getting late, but i think im in need of a diagram, i know this is probably very simple and im not panicking lol its just not sinking in, i will probably feel pretty dumb when i have this sorted. Do i need more controllers, two for each track ?? to control the block sections and sidings I can see that once ive put the insulators between the track i then need to get power across those breaks thats throwing me with the wiring, which is why i think i need a diagram. Sorry Jeff Cheers and thank you for persisting with me Tony