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Those are good suggestions that I'll use for the next set of labels. Do you know if you can serialize 1-10 with the frame. Hopefully I won't need to shrink the font anymore than what they currently are. I'm 99% sure that they'll fit even with the limited space underneath the E321 hopefully lol.

Very promising!

@Kingmeow - Yes .... and no. I'm not sure our sesame grinding skills were up to the task! If you watch STJ's video, you will see an excellent sesame grinding job while ours was a bit rough. We got better on our second visit - hopefully we will improve our skills in the Fall! I did enjoy our sesame seed grinding lesson in Fukuoka however. Our server did not speak English but he pantomimed the proper steps. Including adding the sauce. That's when the pressure was on! Tony.

Have to remember this for the fall!!!! I would think grinding your own sesame seeds would be wonderful, the ultimate in freshness. Like grinding coffee beans just before brewing. No?

Oh dear! Please keep us posted. I'm assuming it's not a very big package to grab attention?

I was thinking the same. But hey, you do get some balsa too! 🤣

Next time, do all 10 at once, each separated by a few spaces. Then cut them apart after printing. You will save a lot of wasted leader tape. (Unless that's your desired intention above.) Also, another hint. You can pick smaller fonts or even narrow fonts to make them more narrow in case they are too big for N-scale.

Here are some labels that I made on the P-Touch for the passenger cars.

Yep, hope they do the right thing. Recall, that'll be a first for me if they do that. It was a suck a$$ effort in the first place. But for everyone who bought one, they should put some hours in and let the issues develop as soon as possible. Return period lapses and they are stuck. Jungle site was telling me I was beyond the return date, which was based on the order date and not delivery. I had to go on the chat and get some kind of representative to get the return going. It was a pain.

It was quite nice seeing the trains run on the overhead wire, knowing that it was fully functional. Another advantage is that you could run 2 trains on 2 separate controllers on the same track. 1 powered the overhead wires and the other the track itself. Anyway, looking forward to seeing pictures of the actual etches and some assembled masts. A layout always looks so much different with catenary, and it always draws a lot of attention, so having some good looking masts would be great. The plastic Kato / Tomix ones are okay, but nothing too special.

I would say the 2 week issue applies with regular models. For models riddled with numerous manufacturing issues, I hope they see fit to rectify the complaints. I was only just over the 2 weeks to contact them. 2 forum members had chamfered wheels so who knows how many others were affected. A machining issue is definitely an initial defect. They have the chassis sitting in their online store so things can be done. I still have the contact details for the CEO should the warranty department decide not to rectify the obvious manufacturing issues. We cant be the only ones to have issues. At this rate, they should probably issue a recall. Very worst case the loco is usable but I am now aware of the wheel issue. The retailer may decide to deal with it on my behalf but who knows. I will certainly do my upmost to get a resolution and should they try to fob me off, I will definitely make my disapproval felt, especially as I have purchased so much Kato product over the years.

Thanks, that's a really interesting blog. There is another post on there about the prices going up by 7.1% next year, and the end of return tickets. To be honest I never bothered with returns as the savings are small and I prefer not being locked in to a schedule. I managed to be doubly confused about the two tickets thing. I bought a ticket at Sakudaira but couldn't get through the barrier. Turns out I was putting both the ticket and the receipt, which looked like a ticket, into the machine. I can't remember if I had 3 ticket shaped bits of paper or not now. I should learn the kanji for "receipt". I do like both Wako and Saboten. Something about the tonkatsu in Japan that can't seem to be replicated elsewhere. The branch of Wako at Kumagaya is pretty good.

You are not the only one who finds ticket purchasing confusing. From the Red List of Trains in Japan blog: https://tokyomegaloops.blogspot.com/ - "Shinkansen, the confusing fare schemes". And for a complete changed of pace - when you need a nice meal to recover from your ticket purchasing experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAu-oTxsZZo We like Tonkatsu Wako but discovered Saboten in Fukuoka and really like it, even if we have to grind our own sesame seeds. When we got to Tokyo, we ate at the Saboten in Shinjuku, conveniently located in the same building as the Popondetta model shop. Cheers, Tony

Refers to (Project) The layout was brought to the Finnish Railway Museum and was a success. A lot of people love the modular style of the layout as well as the themes it introduces. Meanwhile, the current sakura shelf layout had an issue with the turntable and I fear it would not be a positive addition. Instead, I have decided to repurpose the cherry turntable into a spring module extension, but it presented another problem with balance. Sure, you can argue that Finnish summer and fall are barely what one would call long, but I have decided to create two extra 60cm modules to the layout, making the entire thing about 2,3 metres in length. Moreover, the industry and passing station will be merged into one for the winter layout and instead of being a dead end, would rather create half of a station/depot. The idea that trains will be switched based on how long it has been run by the visitors. Since the idea of the layout is to have both controllers runnable by visitors of the table. But I am wondering if this is too ambitious, that maybe there is another thing I could possibly do. What are your thoughts? These are the rough plans.

I went to Joshin, but before that I ordered on their website. The order arrived. I ordered some popondetta lights to remove the flicker I have and also the duck train! You can choose the eyes fyi

Don't wait too long. From Kato: This is the mail order department of Hobby Center KATO. Thank you for using our store. Regarding your inquiry, there is no warranty for railway models. We accept initial defects or repairs. Initial defects are products that are reported within two weeks of receiving the product. You will have to go through your retailer. I'd start running the model soonest to see if it develops any issues. Rapido has a funny way of saying things. From their J70 manual: However, we can only replace your model while we have additional ones in stock. We promise to help you if you contact us within two years of us making it. After two years, all bets are off. If models get sent to one of our old addresses, they might as well have been beamed into the mouth of a wormhole as we’ll never see them.

Took another picture of some test trains in a possible position they could be in during running. It's all a bit tight, but going from some pictures and videos I've since watched, the clearance between the trains isn't unrealistic. I still need to test with some additional coaches. Meanwhile, I've also temporarily put down the track for the shinkansen line, and started working on the express line. I've also measured everything up, and sketched out everything for the segment end, Haven't gotten around to actually cutting it yet, but that's basically the next step. I'll try to do that next weekend. The next segment will be the last one on this side of the layout, so the cross sections there will be a bit more complex with all the curved tracks. I have started looking into it, but I first need to finalise the track plan for that corner, which I can really only do once the segment I'm working on now is (mostly) done. I've noticed that the track plan isn't 100% the same as the actual track, the urban line for example gets a bit closer to the express track than I thought it would based on the Anyrail track plan. That's not really an issue, but definitely something to keep in mind. I also need to determine the depth of the next segment after the corner segment, since that partially also determines the track plan. I will probably try to set up some temporary things with some spare plywood / foam / timber to see what works and what doesn't.

Hopefully it's ok then. Mine runs without issue after some tinkering with the lightboard connectors and the questionable drawbar design. I was sort of aware of something with the wheels and couldn't identify the issue as it ran Ok. When running around the track proper, you can see the metal rim of the chamfered wheel growing and reducing in size slightly. I daren't try to fix it myself unless its a case of swapping out the chassis. Kato sell a replacement chassis for ¥39,600 which is more than I paid for loco and detail set so I hope Kato do right by their customers.

How exciting to see something new in the Shorty universe. Interesting would be if they will or could be compatible to Bandai in some sort.

Guess I got lucky for once. Mine hasn't shown any issues as of yet, although I've also not really ran it other than some quick testing. Some of the detail parts weren't seated correctly, but that's an easy fix anyway.

Yes requires painting. Not all that expensive for a kit. Not just the paper but the design and lasercutting. Jeff

Costs and possibly a shop system that doesn't allow for it. These can be very inflexible. If you want the possibility to add to a pre-order when it releases, I recommend that you start shopping at Ami or RGR.

a bit expensive for just "some paper" no? Also i do believe it comes unpainted Correct me if i'm wrong

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.