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Hi Jeff, Yes I put oil on gears and bearings 🙂 Hi Welsh, I'll look into the brushes, didn't mess with those yet although I did on a Kato c11 which was also sold as non working some years ago. Works pretty well after cleaning! It's pretty amazing to think this design could be from around the 70's! And that it still runs despite seemingly being relegated to being a kid's toy, or at least not cleaned for a long time. The wheels may still have a bit of embedded gunk on them, I'll have to try cleaning again. If I do the brushes I'll be sure to check if anything got stuck in the gears. Thank you all for the insights and stories!

Geez, this is not looking good for the home team.

PJ is the same. I pre-ordered my Tomix KIHA 47-8000 when the pre-orders opened and as it was a few months out I wanted to add to the order as it got closer to the release date. After e-mailing PJ I ended up cancelling the pre-order and re-ordering with the added item I wanted. A bit nerve racking to make sure I still got the 47 but it all turned out fine.

Ugh oh. Just saw this message on my fedex from Sakatsu. Package is now held up in Anchorage. Ill call in to fedex to see what it is but i fear maybe not the new customs declaration info is there. Also may trigger fedex handling fees. A specialized form/statement from the shipper is required. Recommended action: Please call FedEx Customer Service. Never had this sort of hold up ever before over probably a couple of thousand international packages. jeff

So the reason I went to Switzerland was to photograph four types of high floor trams due to be replaced in the near future. These are Zurich VBZ Tram 2000 built in three series between 1976 and 1992, the Basel BLT Be 4/6 and 4/8 201-266 built since 1978, the Forchbahn Be 8/8 built from 1976 to 1986 in three series and the Basel BVB Be 4/4 built in 1986 and described by The Development of the Modern Tram by Brian Patton as "probably the last conventional bogie trams to be placed in service in Western Europe." There also are Swiss Standard trailers in Basel that are the last Swiss Standard trams anywhere in the world. Whereas the railways are standard gauge, all Swiss tram systems are meter gauge (1000mm or 39.37 inches). The Swiss FO (foreign office) has been sending retired Swiss trams to the Ukraine and in the recent past to Sofia, Bulgaria and Belgrade, Serbia. Photos 1. Zurich VBZ Tram 2000 Sedan and Pony motorized trailer at Stauffcher, May 2025. 2. Basel BLT Schindler Be 4/8 (and a 4/6 set out of sight) at Basel SBB Centralbahnplatz, May 2025 3. Forchbahn Be 8/8 train at Forch, May 2025. 4. Basel BVB Be 4/4 towing a Swiss Standard trailer in the landscaped loop at Birsfelden Hard, May 2025. I told I took 700 photos in just 5 days.

SITREP I have discovered that one of the eight of my D51s driving wheels is indeed chamfered. After reading @Yavaris Forge post I was keen to check out the wheels on mine properly. I was not convinced and a little concerned about one of the wheels and after a lot of reviewing, I took it to Stage One to give a good run, I can confirm that one of my wheels is also chamfered. The owner at Stage One also said he had a number of locomotives come back and he will hopefully get his point across at a sellers meeting coming up. On mine its the 2nd driving wheel on the left. It is less pronounced than the picture Yavaris Forge posted but is indeed there. Really irritating. I have contacted both the stockist and Kato to hopefully get a satisfactory resolution. I shall update the forum on how/if the problem is resolved. If anyone else has ordered or already has one really check it over with a fine tooth comb. The chamfering was not as clear on mine at first glance as it is not as severe nor covers as much as the circumference as the post above. The wheel doesn't affect the running of the product as there is still just enough surface to keep to the rail, but is an unacceptable failing in both machining and QC at Kato.

Hi there. I am in Nanaimo as well but had to miss the show as my wife and I were in the UK on holiday. Our T-Track group is pretty informal at the moment, and has members from Parksville to Victoria as well as the Gulf Islands. You probably met Colin at the Nanaimo show, he is the one who set up the group. Looking forward to chatting with you at Railway Day!

You can pop the brushes out of this style of motors relatively easily, the covers unclip (don't let the spring escape). I find a good dousing of WD40 contact cleaner (plastic safe) and running a piece of rolled up paper towel through the brush tubes can do wonders, along with rolling the brushes in another piece of towel. I think my oldest Kato is a 153 Series from circa 1979. I serviced it, replaced a couple of missing traction tyres with slices of heatshrink sleeving, and acquired a few more coaches to make a realistic train (it was sold as a six car set, which needs at least a dummy MoHa 152/153 pair adding for a formation which would work in real life). I've had it circulating as a twelve coach train on level-ish track for over an hour with no signs of stress. Edit, your chugging noise might be a tiny bit of something in the gears. See if it sounds louder at one end than the other, then check the gearing on that end. Could also be a bit of gunge on a wheel, I've had that before now.

Cosmic is releasing a 1/150 Hong Kong Tramways double deck kit. Power unit KATO 11-108. This item was posted May 16th. https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/11204700

Tomytec is announcing a new railway collection of pocket trains, basically btrain shorty concept. Post on it just moved from here over to a new topic. cheers jeff

Ahh I see tomytec is moving into the bandai btrain vacuum! Will be interesting to see if the collection system works well with these or not. Hard to see them getting the btrain spread this way, especially at the very slow rate collections of any kind come out these days. But really nice newbies can get into the shorty hobby with Bandai not doing much anymore there. Funny bandai also started the vehicle collections that tomytec stepped into big time like 20 years back. But at that time tomytec was rolling out collections monthly almost! jeff

Ive seen a bunch of relief modeling on layouts when up against a wall, but only a few split open buildings like this on layouts. It’s interesting, but just a bit odd. But odd is not always bad as it can get folks to look close to scenes and thus then the rest of the layout. Easy to just cover over to begin with and then experiment with the detailing later. I do love doing interior stuff, but with n scale you rarely get to see any of it thru windows unless you put it right at your eyeball or are using a camera. With mini onetrak there is more freedom to choose the module size and aspect ration and move the track to fit your scene, but i can still see where it might not work out and an inch needed so splitting some buildings like this might be fun. Also point of mini onetrak is also focusing on little details more so just would be another kind of thing to draw folks closer. thanks, Jeff

Everything is pricey in Switzerland. I have to buy breakfast at the hotel. My breakfast the first day before I was in the hotel was $36 Canadian for two eggs, bacon, bread and coffee. Wow! But, OH what trams and trains.

Thanks to Tomytec. Bandai B-trains can finally Rest In Peace. Might need a new topic for it soon. https://diocolle.tomytec.co.jp/pocket-tetsudou/ https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gq8c7CNaAAIQny4?format=jpg&name=large https://x.com/tomytecdiocolle/status/1922811667814989827/photo/1 https://ameblo.jp/waters0079/image-12903075549-15594424819.html https://ameblo.jp/waters0079/entry-12903075549.html

I've been running that C62 without the traction tires and it seems to be fine. The 3 sets of driving wheels are sprung so they all make contact. I just hope that the slot doesn't wear out prematurely. The wheel that had the traction tire is wonky and the traction tire exacerbated it. I was going to send it back to Kato for repair, but that seems to be a hassle. Yeah agree that traction tire locos cannot be consisted if not exactly the same speed. I was doing that with my big boy and 844 with the 844 pulling the pilot truck of the big boy off the rails all the time. THanks!

The first thing I do when I get a bookcase set (of anything) is I take a picture of the set as soon as I open the cover. Later on, when I need to "put it back to factory" for whatever reason, I can. Do I have OCD or what? 🤪

The main snags are likely to be that the de-tyred wheels are now very slightly smaller (some models do three legged donkey impressions if they lose a tyre on one side) and that there is a possibility of the edge of the tyre slot catching on the rail (possibility of it derailing). I have seen the former problem a few times, if I can't get proper replacement tyres easily I find a slice of heatshrink sleeve will level things out. It can be difficult cutting it squarely, but it's cheap enough that a few attempts won't cost you unduly. Kato tend to leave the tyres off power units intended to run with another power car. I can see the risk of stress on motors and tyres or derailments if the two aren't perfectly speed matched.

Here's a Little 60 Sec Video showing 1605 train from upper line to lower Brett

Yes, those relief buildings give more space on smaller modules, but I do them on bigger ones too. In our club, I currently work on three relief buildings as well. All three were made from one kit with some 3D printed parts. I like doing the interior of buildings when the windows are big enough to guess what is inside. Will need to look into bento stores now and see what can be done for the inside of the second store. The third store is still undecided and something were I could block the view through the windows would be nice since there is no space left after adding the windows and a sheet of paper for the interior.

Thanks. British citizens don't need a visa yet. We will supposedly need something come October, but I think our government is trying to negotiate their way out of it. Since Brexit it has been on the cards. It's my wife, who is Chinese, who needs one. I also renewed my passport this year and had to have one of the embarrassing post-Brexit black ones. You can buy a nice burgundy cover that says "I voted remain" in multiple European languages.

I wonder if it's like buying a car and they charge €500 extra for the nice pearlescent paint.

Not an announcement, so I moved the conversation about TinyHK here, though obviously we could discuss the validity of merging HK with the Mainland.

Either of you get a chance to peek inside that DD16 yet?

Hi everybody, For those of you wondering, yes indeed the project is alive and well, and I'm moving along dilligently. My new full time job has kept me busy. After much struggling with figuring out a way to carve the solid styrofoam efficiently to make tunnels and the elevations I finally bought and learned how to use a hot wire foam cutter. Bought one at Handsman. It works a treat as it cuts straight through the foam like butter and leaves no mess. Now I feel like building this layout is fun again! I have to be careful though not to move the cutter too fast as it melts through, otherwise I'll bend and ruin it. If I'm lucky I'll get all of the major work done before I lay the ground cover and trees by the time I move to my new countryside house.

I really don't think I imagined die cut labels for passenger cars on my trips through the internet but cant for the life of me find them anywhere. Oh the humanity of having your Green car the wrong direction lol. In the past I haven't worried about the order that trains were arranged, but now with the E231-500 I've put a little more effort into the arrangement. Now I want to get fancy and do it the right way and make it easier for me to identify the cars also. ive been thinking about getting a bigger bookcase to put a 10-unit train set in as well to make things easier. Now I'm thinking about getting a label maker so I can easily identify the correct order and direction my cars should be, lol.