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Because of local resistance to spending Basel trams have always less elaborate than Zurich's. The designs at Basel, starting with the yellow BLT 4/6 Schindler trams of the 1970s focused on simple, flat shapes and surfaces. Zurich's Tram 2000 was too expensive and unusable in Basel without significant modifications. Basel trams required compressed air equipment for trailer operation and the Tram 2000 was all electric. Basel kept its cam control while Zurich used fully automatic chopper control. Pantographs in Basel were manual and in Zurich pantographs operate with an electric drive. This group of 66 trams is winding down its life on the BLT lines. At least one group is moving onto Lviv in the Ukraine and some have gone to Germany. Starting in the late 80s a large portion of the Schindler's had a third section designed for low floor entry added. These now run in trains of a 4/8 lead tram and an original 4/6 second tram. Photos 1. BLT 4/8 outside Basel SBB train station running with a 4/6. 2. Be 4/6 on a Fahrschule (driving school) assignment. 3. Centralbahnplatz outside SBB Basel.

The primary reason for my visit was to photograph and experience the Tram 2000 cars. The second series is to be retired by December 2025 as more Flexity trams arrive. Tram 2000 is a tram that was designed to appeal to passengers with their seats and dimensions, aisle width and easier steps into the car. From a raised tram stop there would only be one step into the tram. But all this is out line with today's world. The articulated Be 4/6 six axle motor trams are 21.4 meters long and 2200mm wide. The Pony Be 2/4 four axle motorized trailers are 15.4 meters long. These trams were designed to run either in double traction with two motors in a train almost 43 meters or as Pony trains with a motor and a motorized trailer. The Pony train is essentially what was once known in North America as a six-motor train. Two motorized units were deemed to required to maintain schedules as towing a true trailer over Zurich's hills would not work. The 36 meter articulated motor and Pony were assigned to lines with tight stops that don't allow longer trams. The Tram 2000 has been called the best classic high floor tram ever built. The ride is smooth, the interior is very quiet for a tram and these trams corner smoothly. The Pony rides very smooth for a trailer, probably because of the weight of the motors. Like the other trams I was seeking, the Tram 2000s have upholstered seating, something that is becoming very rare today. Photos 1. Tram 2000 with Sedan section added during the early 2000s. 2. Entry doors and fold down step. 3. Interior looking the enclosed cab. 4. Interior of a Pony without a cab. 5. Seating.

@brill27mcb, thanks mucho! I have one of those a was frustrated trying to get an old world kougi mech to fit in but not quite right sized or axle spacing. I’ll grab a tr02. What did you strip off, the side frames? jeff

I received a shipping notification from Hobby Search for my order of E style track. Yes, they are not decorated but they are like a blank canvas to create on. They can be painted, stencilled or decaled (sp?). There was a thread a while back about removing the markings, this obviates the need to remove markings. Plus they are a tad less expensive.

I'm glad I was able to get the 80M Bus Model Shop ( https://www.80mbusmodel.com/ ) 1:150 scale models of Hong Kong trams when I did: http://www.trainweb.org/n-trolleys/80m/index.htm They now seem to be no longer listed or made, and Hong Kong is a changing place. Rich K.

Well, the "E" series Unitram pieces are now released. I wonder if the "E" comes from the word "Economy." I always thought the Unitram track pieces actually had textured paving blocks, but a closer examination showed me that it's really only thick paint. The "E" pieces are just the same castings unpainted and not a different, untextured design. They can be made just by omitting the painting production step, so it makes sense that they appeared ahead of the scheduled production run of regular (painted) Unitram pieces announced at the same time. They could have called them "U" for "Undecorated" instead. 😄 If you want your street trackage to look like it is embedded in regular street paving instead of in a reserved right-of-way, then the "E" track pieces are the way to go, especially for modeling trolleys or trams running in narrow streets without additional traffic lanes. But if you want added lanes without the "left side traffic" road markings on your accompanying street pieces, the "E" street pieces also leave you without lane striping and color-differentiated curbs, sidewalks and parking areas, making everything look rather bland. 🙁 The overall effect of the "E" series, to my thinking at least, is that is takes away much of the appeal of Kato's Unitram line (the ability to create an instant decorated city block) compared with Tomix Wide Tram. It also further highlights that Unitram is less flexible in terms of layout design than Wide Tram. It adds so many separate product items for Kato to keep track of that I wonder if it is worth the effort for them, just to have a less expensive product on offer to compete with Tomix Wide Tram. 🤔 Rich K.

For sure. I ordered an extra 14 for the other tgv

Admin note: Yes please remember to only post your own images. If you have a contact with a manufacturer who is willing to allow use of their images here please contact forum admins about it before posting. Otherwise it’s just your own photos to be posted on the fourms. We have reached out to the main Japanese manufactures and suppliers in the past about posting their images here and they either didn't respond or didn't want their pictures posted here. Disturbman has gotten permission from some of the Chinese manufacturers to use their photos here on the forum so its our current exception to the forum rules. We just need to draw a hard line on this as exceptions and if its tuesday rules get so messy so fast to try to enforce. We just keep it simple to if its not your photo use a link instead. Embedding is allowed for the places that have auto embedding and right control of embedding like youtube, flickr, social medias, etc. thanks jeff

Yep if you are using the lighted platforms yes. From what i remember it should not be too hard to fuse your cut off platform to a full one and just add some little jumpers. You might even be able to wedge in the wire ends somewhere on the power rails if you dont want to solder them. you can cut with a hack saw to cut the plastic then metal. Just go flow and careful and cut a tad big. You can then sand it down clean. Easy way to get that flat and clean is to take a 10”piece of like 1x6 wood and put a small strip of wood across the piece of wood almost across the center and the end flush with one side of the larger piece of wood.. Put the platform on the wood against the strip of wood with just the bit of the bad end hanging out over the edge. You can then take a block of wood [like a small hunk of 2x4] with a piece of sandpaper over it and use the wood base to sand along its edge to squarely sand the platform edge. If you have access to a disc sander then it’s very easy to just ease the end of the platform onto the disc using the miter side to keep it perpendicular to the disc. Just go very slow. Only issue will be the pole spacing. If you could you squeeze in another 45mm piece into your platform length you could chop the platform into 2/3 and pole spacing remains the same then all the way down. Otherwise you will need to chop about 10-15mm off one end then cut it the same length longer in the middle to get that center pole out at the end of the platform as it resided dead center in the 248. jeff

@Lessigen Makes the CR200J Changing even more better though i ordered the other livery. Changming is more addictive than Tomix/Kato at some level. I got to say no to the upcoming train.

I’ve got a decent mix of Yos and Wafus in my fleet now, and I’m trying to determine when to pick which one when assembling freight trains. I’m guessing Wafus for local/branch lines, and full Yos for mainline freights?

From what the subtitles say starting at around 0:25, this was a static model that was converted into one with a motor using Kunter accessories. So very likely one made by a hobbyist.

Ok thanks. I guess if I wanted platform lighting I’d need to solder the rails together with short wires or similar- although I’m not decided on whether to do any lighting yet.

Amazing what a couple of little capacitors can do for an LED in a car! jeff

I’ve just cut the straight platforms down to the desired size. I used my mini table saw, but any razor saw would do the trick. You loose the ability of them to pop together with s joiners, but I didnt find that a problem. They could be glued together. For cutting in half the old platforms you could whack right in half as it was 4 uprights for the roof so split down the middle evenly. The newer ones are 3 poles so going to be a little trickier. You could whack evenly around 2 poles to get your 124 but the pole spacing will be off from the 248 section. No real way around this unfortunately unless you were to take out all the poles and respace them all the way down the platform. Or no roof solves the problem. jeff

My track plan includes provision for an island platform, very similar to that provided by the V1 track set, except it's 124mm shorter - i.e. the "long side" between the point straights consists of 3x248 and 1x124mm. I believe the island platform set needs 4x248mm on the long side. So my question is how easy is it to modify the island platform set to allow for this, and how would you do it? Do I need to resort to scratch building?!

Kofu, Yamanashi. https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZeKNpfWE3BqyuRmV8

Shiozaki Station. https://maps.app.goo.gl/zzhkDzDpa5avx6ys8 Not sure if that is Mount Fuji in the background, or a different mountain. Another one possibly in need of some rotation. The front of the train is slightly out of focus as well. I also finished uploading all my audio recordings to YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWGz1gLVK2zDb8WYOBMxs9uDYyKB1IJuZ Looking at cameras. The Fujifilm x100vi seems like a good option for me, but I'm just not convinced that I'll be able to get good results with it. For some reason photography is something I struggle to get my head around.

He uses about twice as many seeds and twice as much sauce as I usually do! Maybe that's the secret. Those things are the greatest invention since sliced bread. I hate cabbage, except if it is shredded like that, in which case I love it!

It's by Ron Bearden, a stalwart in the US N-Scale scene.

Awesome! I never knew YouTube has that feature! Initially I turned on CC but of course it was Japanese CC. 🤣

@disturbman Thanks. I wasn’t aware there was another model. Looks great nonetheless. I saw on same channel the dcc equipped china trains with sound. l am assuming they are changming ones because its something i might get if it as good as in that video.

I already have seen Densha de go controller modifications to be used as a power controller, but I don't remember a plug and play box. Maybe that's a gadget and use a all in one controller is a better solution, but the link between model train and video games speaks to me. 🙂 As I as understand it support PS 1 and 2 controllers and USB ones.

Saw the bit about it but I have no idea who's making it

Congrats and good job! That chugging sound may be from one of those big outside gears not being round. I have an old Rivarossi PA that was built on the old Kato drives that you have. Mine went wump wump wump. I think I played with the mesh of the gears, by playing with the motor location - put more clearance between the gears on both sides. It's been a while.