All Activity

RS, no rush, no rush! That’s the fun with Ttrak you can just poke at it and a little time can get a lot done on a module. It’s not like trying to do a whole layout. cheers, jeff

RS, you are most welcome! That’s the whole point of the forum and why we all spend time and effort on it! Very enjoyable to see someone take off in the hobby like you are! We have 16 years worth of great stuff in the archives here as well. It’s a nice big group of friends here and has spun off many personal friendships for members. janoanese n scale is a real sweet spot. Some of the best quality and prices, enormous variety, tons of amazing scenes that rail can be in and small enough to pack a lot in a small place. Plus n is jsut right to do some fun details but you do pnt have to keep details high on every bit the way you do at larger scales. All this means you have fewer limits to your creativity! also great you’ve developed new friendships in your local hobby community, that’s the best! Real human and contact are sort of secondary in our social media culture now. enjoy! jeff

Sounds like a great time. While waiting for our train at Shimabarako station in March we met a Korean who was cycling around Kyushu, on a folding bike. He was having a great time, so I imagine a bike would be a good option.

Here is a map and schedule of the trip; no details yet of the Mexico portion. And the web site: https://www.cpkcr.com/en/community/final-spike-steam-train/?

Is there something I am missing? I was looking to order a Kato 20-202 and 203 and got this at Plaza Japan: Does this mean the turnout is being updated? For out of stock items, Plaza Japan shows different wording.

So a bit of an update. I am putting it here as it is very general and its seems to fit best. First, thank you so much for the warm welcome, and responses to my other posts, this seems like a great place to be. A particular shout out to @cteno4 for not only his excellent advise, but patience for what must seem both repetitive and basic questions. And the amount of information in the forum is amazing. Keeps my quite entertained browsing as I sit in a hotel room for (this week) 3 nights. Second, this whole delving into Japanese model railways and now into to T Track has been a real eye opener for an old school HO modeller. It has re-energized my interest in modelling, and opened new friendships in my local modelling community. I dabbled in N scale in the early 80's when I was trying to pick a scale to work in, and wow has it changed since then! So much to learn, and un-learn from HO.

It may be awhile before I can share anything! Summer is coming here in the north (although we had frost this morning), and I'm busy mentoring my replacement as my retirement looms, which means lots of travel. The reality is that its unlikely that I will have a module done till late this year or into next year although I may play around with something over the summer. I've made my order due to wanting to have some track on hand to experiment/become familiar with, and to take advantage of the yen/Canadian dollar exchange and I may purchase some more if I see that changing. But I will post my experiences in some way, and will ask lots of questions! On another note this topic has been a real learning experience for me, especially as I don't have any per-conceived ideas from past modules since I have never built any! Until maybe 2 weeks ago I had not heard of T Track let alone thought about it and what it can do; I figured I would have to do my own stand-alone portable layout. Great stuff!

Rich, yes I messed with a few ideas for offset, L and T shapes with Ttrak on the computer a long time back. We just need to make a couple of inside corners. But these still retain the issue of modules going down just one table lenght but you do get the addition of getting it out of a rectangle track shape! Might be best to just offset the tables just enough for the inside corners and a single module between the inside corner and end corners. More 90 degree curves are much better than a few 180s. This would put it to 2 90s and 2 180s instead of just 2 180s. another fun idea, especially if we were missing a couple modules to make a full 2 table rectangle would be to make one long side of the rectangle be modules turned around so the fat scene side faced forward instead of being in the usual back behind the track. Simple way of making less be more and mixing things up some. our other big lament with Ttrak is the loss of shinkansen lines. We have played with the idea of making some thin raided viaduct and embankment shinkansen modules with minimal scenery under them. But running this inside a Ttrak loop requires a huge Ttrak loop. Running the shinkansen outside the Ttrak loop has the raised Shinkansen tracks blocking the view of the inner Ttrak loops. I messed with doing this and two interconnected rings so both the Ttrak and Shinkansen are at the front and back for half the setup. But it required a lot of table space and some large interface modules for the loop crossover points. We did a setup twice where we did a huge T. The stalk of the T was streetcar Ttrak loop and the crossbar of the T was a long shinkansen viaduct loop set up on just piers and foam blocks, no scenery. At the interface we built a 6’ shinkansen station that was over the 180 curve at the end of the Ttrak loop. Worked well but needed a big area to setup for the full T, I think the Ttrak was like 10-12’ so long and Shinkansen loop almost 12’. But with the 2 table rectangle Ttrak layout we could put a shinkansen loop with one of 180 Shinkansen curves in the center of the Ttrak rectangle and the rest jutting out on two more tables side by side. Could create about 12’ shinkansen loop then. Overall table size would be 8’x13’. But all this means making a set of viaduct modules and another carfull of stuff to transport, schlep, setup/teardown, and store! Cheers, jeff

From Japanese Facebook. Don't know the explanation for this one. In the background a distress alarm is going off. Not recommended parking!

Here's another table arrangement option - two offset tables - although this example is not T-Trak and not so much roundy-round, but for trams and an automatic operation electric railway, with train/tram grade crossing: Rich K.

And now the Tomix SL Galaxy C58 and Kiha141 set. I need to find some Tomix rail ends at some point.

Greetings! Our community is building a website dedicated to JR Faning - for convenience, we collect schedules and materials about interesting retro trains and how to get to them, as well as fares and transfer times from other lines. I'll be glad to hear some feedback and recommendations what retro lines I should add. I will update the website weekly and will get a good domain later when it will be ready to use. https://jrfaning.framer.website/

Wonderful. It's rare to see a modification that improves both realistic appearance and operational capability.

If you had a set that’s difficult to find or only had a single run, never to be repeated, you may get a “decent amount”, probably 30% of what the shop will probably try to sell it for. Anything else, you’d get a token amount. As this is the very old 7 car set, possibly the original release, the likelihood is you’ll be offered an insulting amount for it from most shops. I do like your optimism, but the reality is it will not provide you with any money for other trains and when you suggest a meal or two, it may be more likely a single beef bowl at Yoshinoya, if you’re lucky. You often see older sets on the used market once updated models have been announced. Sorry to say but the Kato 500 sets in their various guises are often 10 a penny in a lot of used shops and are very low prices in many cases. And you may find they dictate that you need to provide an address and proof of one in Japan to avoid any issues with the possibility of receiving stolen goods. The general mentality is only non-Japanese break the law. Current trend seems to be to blame any incident of theft on Vietnamese migrant workers. So generally not worth the hassle.

Cool. Those Kiha 141 variants have an interesting history don’t they, starting as loco hauled passenger cars. JR Hokkaido once had the BBQ Car, I wish they’d do another one of those, probably the single greatest idea in excursion trains ever 🙂

I emailed both of them to ask, I'll let you know if/when they respond. My Japanese isn't perfect but I find it's usually good enough. The other option is to ask the hotel staff to call ahead and ask on your behalf. They usually seem to be helpful in matters like that, as well as making bookings as restaurants and the like.

enjoy your trip Grant. A bike sounds like a great idea! Nikko. That brings back alot of memories of our Japanese trip in 1985.

Yes the 1/64” pin tape is very thin. One of the reasons I like printing roads. inkjet printers are pretty inexpensive, it’s the ink that gets ya! yes a hallmark of much of Japan is a lot of above ground wires! jeff

RG-ROKKO'S PAYPAL PAYMENT SYSTEM FIXED NOW. Hello there from Japan, I'm one of the person concerned about RG-Rokko. RG-Rokko's payment problems via Paypal has been restored. We are sorry for your inconvenience. Please check RG-Rokko's website again. Thank you. https://rg-rokko.com/

And if you want to just model part of it: https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/japanese-company-starts-project-to-restore-nakagin-capsules-to-capsule-hotel

Another weathering procrastination project. With the almost full completion of a Nichinan formation (coaches 1 and 2 need detailing and actually still missing a Naha 10) I wanted to update my “warm region” EF58. The Kato model is a smooth runner but looks way too blue to match any of the images of these things back in JNR era. Putting off other hobby projects, 3x unfinished RC cars, painting some Marvel Crisis Protocol minis I was gifted, and still not having enough confidence/expertise to complete the EF510 roof and side dirt, I decided to try a simpler weathering project. Like with all Kato locos, the model came apart reasonably easily once you worked out what need to be removed first. The body was removed and I removed all interior parts and glazing so I could give the whole body a dull coat. Kato models usually have a semi gloss finish which is way too pristine and as the side is express blue, not that interesting. The bogies can be removed but you need to remove the light board and headlight housings before you can access the top cap of the worm gear that stops the bogies from falling out. There is a separately fitted brake rigging piece that is removed on the underside of the bogie before you can access the base keeper plate or remove the bogie sidewalls. It’s a little different to other Kato locos due to its unusual wheel arrangement. There is also a spring connecting the bogies to keep alignment which can also be removed once the brake rigging is off. The copper pickups are a single copper piece that runs to all three main wheels. Once the base keeper plate is removed, 3 lugs each side, the front bogie armature can be removed. The metal driving wheels are push fit on to standard Kato plastic gear axles so can be easily pulled apart to paint. The pony truck wheels are also push fit on to a metal axle. Wheels were sprayed with Mr Hobby Metal Primer before painting. Rims and pick up axles were masked with tape before priming and painting. With all of the parts removed it allowed for much easier painting. I rebuilt the bogies without the wheels to aid weathering so that there were no anomalies in painting once reassembled. Side air tanks were removed from the chassis weight and weathered separately. Colours -Bogies and wheels - Tamiya Nato Brown XF-68. This gives a good grime/rust look and to my eye is a good match to the general filth seen on the underside of modern trains here in Kyushu. Wheels sprayed a flat colour with bogies being sprayed from underneath. Body front and sides To simulate some of the kick up, I continued with XF-68. My airbrush has a paint flow limiter screw which is good to avoid an unexpected finger spasm and a big brown blob appearing on your loco. I started the paint flow off the model and then lightly brought it over the body where crud gets thrown up. I took this higher around the vents as well as used a thinned wash of the same colour to paint the vents by hand. Roof The roof needed a bit of artistic license. Images show quite a light sandy colour on some of these locos. I’m not clear whether that is the old photo colouration or it actually looked like that. I first started with a light covering of Tamiya Flat Black, XF-1 to give a sense of general grime. Then I mixed some Nato Brown and black together to lift the colour. I used XF-68 Nato Brown again to simulate the rust found around the pantographs and other panels. The final stage was to use Tamiya XF -52 Flat Earth to lighten the areas less rusty around the cab and loco middle and walkways leaving the pantograph areas. The eagle eyed modellers will notice the tiny chain I added to the air hose on the crewed end. I actually replaced the coupler to a Kadee No. 5 on the rear as i’ve had some coupler mishaps on rental layouts with the smaller 158s. Final step was to bring back some of the detail with some diluted enamel black pin wash.

More nice ideas, thanks! I've only got a B&W laser printer at the moment, but printing sounds like a good idea... might have to invest as I can see lots of other applications. @Cat I will take note of the purple! @cteno4 I found 1/64 tape on Amazon (and other widths) so I might add that to my ever growing list of purchases 😛 seems incredibly thin though - less than half a millimetre - I guess that's scale for those lines along the side of the road. I now also realise that Japan has so many powerlines above ground, something that really gives that Japan feel... maybe because of earthquakes or hard ground? Anyway Will try and add.

It’s a tempting Gomez Addams situation! glad your son is having fun running with 2 throttles! jeff

Yes it does depend on the venue, but I think we can in all of ours. Even our smallest setups in a 10’x10’ tent at cherry blossom and the Obon festival we can do a 8’x5’ with two tables side by side. Because both tents are best to wall/fences it does tent to make a front and back, but at cherry blossom we invited folks that wanted to to come around the back as well. Still would have been a lot better than a single narrow table display and while a big more room we would still have a front/back issue as folks can only approach the tent from the front and sides really. Our larger venues we have plenty of space to even do square spiral, we still will get a little bit of front/back issues due to visitor flow thru the larger space. I'm still convinced the rectangular 2 table beats the long and skinny 2 table on many counts. If you are backed up to a wall if you leave like 3-4’ behind the layout and encourage folks to step behind the layout as well. Worked in our cramped tent situation (we were cramped a bit due to the 2’ diameter x 18” high cement weight at each corner pole to keep the tent from sailing away. even thought the spiral table was significantly bigger with more modules (10.6’x10.5’ with 28 singles and 4 corners vs 8’x5’ with 14 straight and 4corners) it just didn’t present as nicely as the simple 2 two table rectangle. will be fun to see what your experiences are with all this! jeff

And the streets can have ninja everywhere if it's Ninja Festival in Iga: https://soranews24.com/2024/05/02/japanese-city-encouraging-visitors-and-locals-to-cosplay-as-ninja-for-annual-ninja-festa/