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LSM 03 TRAM Saw this on Tramfabriek's website and downloaded it from Thingiverse. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3574266 It is an HOe and is originally designed for Kato 11-105, 6, or 7 chassis'. I wanted to use the 11-109, so I shrank it a bit and grafted the 11-109 chassis template into it. I made the template red and once merged into the body, I started removing stuff that wasn't red around the opening area. I ended up having to remove some of the cab and center separating wall on the interior as the height of the 11-109 caused interferences. While at it, I also added holes in for the headlights. Used 805 warm white leds and 460 ohm resistors for both ends. Printed in my favorite fire engine red and painted the roof gray. The led bleeds through the paint, so may add another couple of layers. I'm going to have to buy stock in these 11-109 chassis'!

Confused

With some dryer, warmer weather I finally got around to completing a couple more cars. Think these have been in my “Pile of Shame” for at least 18 months, if not longer. The first was to finish the more up to date Yaris body and add it to a XV-02 rally chassis. The delay in doing so has meant that this livery is no longer in use, nor have teams continued using the side intake pods to help cooling of the hybrid battery on the real car. I have started taking a lot more care in painting, not always with the best results but that is the learning curve and there are always limitations and issues thrown up by the use of rattle cans. I’ve not yet come across a suitable alternative for painting lexan/polycarbonate bodies as the airbrush would allow greater control. Yaris body was painted in white, back in silver, then backed again in black to give a better finish. The white pops far more than my original attempt of white only but as that is a clear battered up runner, it definitely looks more rally-esque. The second completion was a TC-01 kit which came with a CLK-GTR body which is just a beautiful looking car. The era of racing in the 1990s was just something else. Tamiya blue anodized parts are very addictive and I added most options to this kit. Don’t think they add anything performance related but they look shiny. I do like the horizontal shocks like an F1 car. I added a driver kit although I had to trim this down a lot. I tried to replicate, if not a simplistic interpretation of Bernd Schneider. I cut away the entire back section as well as had to trim the drivers lap away. My version of Bernd is essentially head and arms only. This does allow some drooling over the rear shocks through the rear windscreen. Here the front windscreen without driver kit but you get the idea. As I spent a good amount of time to complete, I won’t be going wild trying to disintegrate these cars. The top shelf WRC Yaris is my main “basher” for getting dusty and powersliding.

Yes hopefully it will keep that way but we shall see with the new min tariffs and when/if de minimis exemption gets killed for all countries. Im more worried about anything going thru us customs these days from other places getting delayed due to customs processing on chinese packages. Im hoping the streams can be kept widely separated! Also just wondering how much things will get slowed from other countries if they really start looking for country of origin which was never a part of the de minimis exemption system and the vast majority of what went thru customs w/o any checks. I now wonder if maybe careful reporting country of origin might have been the issue with the Sakatsu package with fedex. Waiting to see if fedex will zap me with the full customs processing fee for having to deal with customs at all. jeff

For anyone who wants more, here are my Flickr albums Zurich trams https://www.flickr.com/photos/65881702@N00/albums/72177720326031023 Basel trams https://www.flickr.com/photos/65881702@N00/albums/72177720326035108 Swiss SBB Trains https://www.flickr.com/photos/65881702@N00/albums/72177720326017716/ Captions for Basel trams are not complete.

Seems unclear if this is a skyliner replacement or if this will be a reintroduction of airport limited express services on the Main Line. Keep in mind the previous skyliner series were built 1990–1993 and retired 2010–2016.

If declared properly, it should go through as United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) exempt.

Yes country of origin is going to be enforced at some point. I suspect the first cases will be obvious trans shipping and warehousing countries. In the end it’s going to be a mess with different tariffs for each country to calculate and also paperwork for shipper, shipping agent, and customs to deal with and way more places to go afoul. Wish if they are going to do away with all de minimis they would just put a simple uniform tariff from all countries for something like under $500 at like 10% and make it simple and just prepay it with the state tax. That would eliminate so much of the costs, time delays, and backlogs. my Sakatsu package looks like it cleared customs yesterday day finally in anchorage, they didnt end up asking for anymore paperwork that i know of but maybe contacted Sakatsu as the shipper. But its now sat a day in anchorage at fedex office and no word on when it will be moving forward. Looks like another ebay package from canada is going thru fine with usps de minimis [no fees right now for canada de minimis]. jeff

Ok sounds like some hacking and whacking to do. im going to go back and look at what i had done. It was a tgw not world kougi power mechanism. Didnt go up really high it was more the sides of the shell needed some shaving and a frame built to hold the mech in place. It is a thin tram. thanks jeff

Your most welcome. Always good to share these finds!

So here is the Kato / Noch Bernina Express Souvenir Coach. It has two numbers, one Kato and one Noch. It listed on page 29 of the Noch 2023New Items Preview. https://www.noch.com/media/c7/9c/9e/1674931747/RS22073_71630_GB_Neuheiten_Prospekt_2023_150dpi.pdf Noch # 7074061 Kato # 05250-9 It is described as Panoramic coach Api 1301, incl. straight track, Equipped with close couplers and without Arnold coupling. The price at Zuri-Tech seemed pretty good at 31.90 CHF. I've seen less and more at 28.00 to 36.00 Euros online, but online costs shipping. Still I'm happy with my souvenir purchase. One other note. Just out of curiosity I searched for this item in Japan and I have not found this item listed with a Japanese dealer. And this completes my Excellent Swiss Adventure.

Bill, THANKS!!!! I've a big fan of the Rhaetian Railway trains and I think I own all the 1:150 Kato has made. I wish they would put out more freight cars. Toc

I was recently updating my "Currently Available N Trolleys and Trams" list (http://www.trainweb.org/n-trolleys/available.htm) and discovered that Interurban Models (Volkmar of Paris, France, who makes models of U.S. prototype trolleys) is now offering a color-printed trolley shell. He once had a Shapeways shop, but when that went away he started doing his own 3D printing in-house and set up a Shopify sales outlet: https://interurban-models.myshopify.com/ If you look under "Streetcars Interurban [1:160 N]" on his sales site, the last item listed is "Interurban Wooden Coach Trailer #160-1681 - Painted." By "painted" he means that he prints them in color-calibrated resin. He can do multi-color prints, as long as the color breaks are horizontal. Apparently his 3D printer will alert him at certain points in the process and he changes the resin to the next color and proceeds from there. The pictures show the same car shell printed in a number of different color schemes. He prices them about the same as his other models, even though these have the color printing, floor, interior, trucks (without wheelsets - use Micro-Trains) and dummy radial knuckle couplers. It's really something to see this technology progressing! Rich K.

Living on the German side of the Swiss-German border highlights that monetary difference in some interesting ways, I can tell you that much 😅 Supermarkets near the border get a lot of traffic from Swiss people since not only are groceries a tad cheaper, but also because any VAT charged in Germany can be reclaimed at the border (Switzerland isn't an EU-Memberstate afterall). That has the somewhat annoying effect of clogging our streets here with shoppers on Fridays and Saturdays (both German and Swiss ofc), but oh well... Working cross-border (i.e. living in one country and working in another) is also a bit of a quirk here many people enjoy the benefits of, though it's primarily done by Germans working in Switzerland. It has the obvious benefit of getting a (higher) Swiss paycheck while still living in Germany, where the cost of living is lower. So basically you get the best of both countries...

Yes, the "E" series offers that flexibility, if that's what you want to do. If I could start all over from scratch I would use the "E" track pieces (by which I mean the ones that actually have rails in them). My ideal would be to use them with the decorated street pieces (the ones without rails: traffic lanes/sidewalks/city blocks) but without the directional lane arrow markings and the intersection "stop bar" cross-lines so that they look right for both left-side and right-side traffic flow. You're in the U.S.? If so, please let us know in the Tariffs Etc. topic what you experience with your coming shipment in terms of tariffs, duty or related fees. The regular (non "E") Unitram pieces have just been pushed back by Hobby Search Japan from "May" to "late May" so my small order will be coming after yours. Rich K.

Jeff, I actually removed the powered part from the surrounding frame that it sits in. I also had to carefully shave down the rather thick side clips and rounded ring shape on the sides of the powered part in order to fit it into the carbody without bowing the sides outward. It still sticks up pretty high into the double-deck body, interfering with leaving the top deck interior piece in. Other options now are the N Goya/Aru Model and Tsugawa/TGW tiny power units, which come in several wheelbases, but have small low-voltage motors. They and the Tomytecs are all speedsters! Rich K.

"The game is afoot, Watson!" (Sherlock Holmes) Good luck with the sleuthing. Rich K.

Small update of the diorama. The backdrop of one half of the building is nearly done. Only the curtains and lighting are missing. I looked up what manga/anime was popular around Ogaki and chose "A Silent Voice", "Adachi and Shimamura", and "Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl" for the bookstore's big advertisement posters. They all have scenes around Ogaki so I thought it was a nice touch to have something close to the region being advertised. I hope that I get the street markings done in the next days too... so I can glue down the station platform and start with adding the blast. (The original reason for the diorama 😅)

We have an entire section dedicated to suppliers, https://jnsforum.com/community/forum/51-suppliers/. I recommend checking there. All our favourites are listed there and each has its own (pinned) subject. People usually buy from Ami Ami, Hobby Search, Plaza Japan or Rail Gallery Rokko. There are a few other sources, but they are less used and/or more specialized, like Mandarake.

As I started making logs for the diorama, I wanted to redo the logs for the logging cars. I previously used chewing sticks for small pets (which is one of the methods Japanese modelers use) but it doesn't match the scene. The logs are made from balsa dowels using the same method as I did with the cedar trees. I like the look of these logs better.

You can check amazon jp. Not sure about the shipping fee though

Got the 009 Large England Welsh Pony!!! Got the current surviving England Engines in my fleet!!!

@disturbman Thanks for the tip. I probably will stick with taobao for the near future, it seems to be overall the best deal due including caniano shipping costs. Also seems fastest shipping. The HO Scale freight locomotives caught my attention too. More to keep my eye on.

Hi guys. Just designing track and looking at buying kato and tomix direct from Japan. I am looking at buying from Banzai models and Japan plaza. Exchange rate is better for me direct to Canada than buying from Kato USA. Do you have any other sources you use from Japan. Thanks.

For those who might search for a train/railway from an anime in the future, I just found these two sites with maps for anime locations: https://animenavi.org/main-map https://anime-tourism.jp/