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Higashi-Matsuyama Station. One of the best but also most awkward Hard Offs to get to. The wide angle lens is definitely a bit softer than than the primary one, but the composition is better from this location. This is the processed RAW. The JPEG out of the phone was a little under-exposed I think, but very contrasty.

"Summer Beer Train" A test ride on the summer tradition "Summer Beer Train" will be operated by reservation from June 16 in Toyohashi City, Aichi Prefecture The "Summer Beer Train" is a summer tradition that runs through Toyohashi City, Aichi Prefecture. Before it starts running on the 16th, a test ride was held by related parties on the 14th. Toyohashi Railway has been popular by turning the streetcars that run through the city into "Odensha" in winter and "Beer Train" in summer. Before the "Summer Beer Train" starts running on the 16th, a test ride was held on the 14th. The "Summer Beer Train" runs by reservation from the 16th to September 17th. For those interested this is the 2024 brochure. (PDF) https://www.toyotetsu.com/news/000461.html

I visited Kato Hobby Center in Tokyo a few days ago and while the service staff are very friendly and helpful, they do not do DCC installs, and knowledge of DCC decoder installs are limited. They will direct you to their drop-in decoders if your unit happens to be paired with a Kato decoder, but older locomotives and passenger cars do not have Kato decoders to drop in. Converting their steam locos would be challenging at best according to them. They do have an array of Digitrax decoders on the shelf but they do not have a database to match decoders to Kato units, or knowledge of what it takes to install / modify.

Thanks for your advice. I visited Kato Hobby Center in Tokyo a few days ago and what the service tech echos exactly as you stated. I bought the Kato decoders for the 485 and the Yamaguchi passenger cars. Only clarification was on the Digitrax decoder install on EF58. The slight modification will likely be on the base of the unit not on there body shell.

Some LED strings arrived yesterday 🙂 Subway station not plugged in, so dark, but each level can be a different colour. No back on yet, so you can see the sideboard behind. (Yes.. this is being built in the Dining Room) 🥴

Well I can see why. Great setting for a dystopian battle and lots of fun gang characteristics to play into. Awesome stuff!! Could be a nice kickstarter if Paramount aren’t too greedy about the intellectual property.

We loved that movie when I was kid. My friend had HBO at his house which was pretty rare at that time, and we watched it over and over late at night. "Warriors... come out to play-ay..."

I think we started doing those setups on the fly at about the same time! jeff

True. I have installed DCC decoders in my three Kato Portram. Unfortunately, they are not available anymore. https://shin-yukari.weebly.com/blog/september-15th-2018 Marc

I'm sure we all know about the Railway Park and its opening this year, the link of the site, https://www.kato-oo9.com/en/sekisuiml, I'm excited about this, I could see this being very popular for regular tourists and railfans, and maybe we'll get a Japan Railway Journal segment on this. Though, I'm a huge fan of two-foot gauge and a big follower of RASS(羅須地人鉄道協会), their little tiny workshop has built Oscar(https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=849972353797277&set=pcb.849983143796198), an British influence 0-4-0t saddle tank engine for this new railway in 2023. This is exciting.

Hi @Rovan welcome to the forum!

Off to a great start there with the Marvels! I'll go back later and add some more splash and more colours on the 'livery' later, but I got the basic fill done just in time for the game. That was really fun laying out and creating! It's the 'J' Train on the El. You can see the signboards here in this WIP picture, painting and listening to the soundtrack Friday morning at the hotel. I put in blank destination boards, as happens sometimes; this way the train can be going in either direction. The car numbers I printed out are ones that were used in the movie. Some whiskey and late night research rabbit holes on the internets and I'm a happy Cat. =^,^= Finished the graffiti and gluing on the signs at 1am Thursday night, Dullcote spray before breakfast, and then gloss paint on the windows done by 12:20pm Friday. Con started at 2pm. Just had to finish up some playsheets for the game Friday night. The train didn't even factor into the scenario I was running this time, but it really helps set the mood for the game and catches eyes across the room. Won the prize for Best game in Session Saturday morning, and 1st runner up for Best in Show, whee!

Nothing is impossible with the right tools, and time enough to do the work necessary. (Which may make the endeavor not worth it). I plan on eventually doing it with my motley assortment which includes some Tomytec, some older KATO portatram, and some newer KATO stuff. But it will be awhile before I get around to figuring any of it out. I enjoy a challenge. But it may be hard enough for some of these to not be worth it for most people.

Amazing work @Cat That “L” train looks incredible. Hats off to miniature painters. I was gifted a Marvel Crisis Protocol starter box and have been slowly trying to paint each element. Definitely a different animal to try and accentuate light and shadows on something so small. Haven’t been hugely successful so far, only really able to represent each coloured area but enjoying the learning curve. Need more confidence to try and represent ambient light etc.. My attempts thus far. Need to have a few more colour options in various hues.

Finally got to run the first games of The Warriors this past weekend at Huzzah Con up in Portland Maine, and everyone had a grand time! After several false starts with various complications, a friend was able to start rolling the buildings and trains off the printer last fall. The production delay meant I had to crank through getting ready for show time. There's still plenty of work to do detailing and dirtying up the streets, but I got the concrete areas spray painted on the borads the day before we left. Finished the last graffiti and window on the cars at the hotel. Everything was ready enough by 11:30pm Friday, dice began rolling at 9am Saturday. Plenty of time to spare. : 3 Except for the Texaco Station that I had posted earlier, all the other buildings, tracks, and trains are 3D prints at ~1/64 scale, and I scratch built the control house under the elevated with Evergreen plastic (whipped that together the prior weekend). The fences on the train platform are HO Model Power on a styrene riser, and safety railing along the curved track is O scale Plastruct. For additional time stamps setting the game in June 1979 is the double-feature at the local grindhouse: Dawn of the Dead, and Master Killer (no known as the 36th Chamber of Shaolin). And flavour of the month at Baskin Robbins is Sunflower Power — the worst flavour they ever made, they couldn't give that stuff away (candy coated sunflower seeds in a lemon ice cream and wicked salty). The 1/64 diecast cars have all been weathered and a bit of detail painting on the innards, plus 1979 style license plates and inspection stickers added, mostly New York with a scattering of others.

You probably gave me the idea, Jeff! Rich K.

OK, that helps a lot. You will then probably have to go with full DCC with a custom-programmed computer control overlay. Others who are knowledgeable about doing this will have to help you with that. With Bachmann no longer selling its Peter Witt streetcars, the only trams that can now be bought DCC-equipped from the manufacturer are the Hornby/Arnold Duewag GT6 European models. You can rule out the wonderful Kato Hiroshima Greenmover Lex / "My Tram" LRT model, since it would be extremely difficult to isolate the motor from the split-frame chassis on its paIr of ultra-compact drives. The Tomytec trams using conventional TM-xx power units can be hard-wire modified for DCC operation. Here's an example - start at this photo and then go backwards to see the subsequent steps: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jim_easterbrook/50945496498/in/photostream/ I think that converting the Tomytec tram TM-TRxx chassis and the LRT TM-LRTxx chassis designs would be harder, in terms of isolating the motor leads and finding room for the decoder and possibly also a "keep-alive" unit. Hope this helps! Rich K.

Outstanding! Love the lighting.

Another small building project. This time a Green Max kit. Thought it would be an easy break from some of the more complex Sankei kits I have and it was pretty much except for the window inserts. They need to be cut to fit into tight spaces so the first one took several tries though the last few were pretty easy. Also kept the painting simple with minimal weathering. The stove pipe was a poor fit and took a couple of tries to get right - it looks angled in the picture but actually is straight (at least for now)! Ciao, Tony

Too much cool stuff 😄 Since I've sort of picked up the N project again, I may need to order some things at some point ...

My Plaza Japan order arrived, once it was shipped took less than 2 weeks via registered Japan Post to get to me in Australia. I'll never get used to how small N gauge stuff looks when you first get it! I also ordered some of that fine tape to see what it was like. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but again, absolutely tiny 😝

Beautiful Marc! Kudos, jeff

Finally, this is what it looks like on the layout

First 3D printed building This is my first 3D printed building. I printed it in two parts, the front (facade) and the back. It is inspired by the Megane Ichiba building in Shibuya Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/puFJona8UX6jutiG9 I took this opportunity to refine the signboards. They are also 3D printed, and I used new 2.7mm Super Slim COB LED Strip Lights to build them. Available here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003193200776.html I have spent a lot of time designing the staircase, but it was not difficult to print. It looks good after being fitted with LED lights. The facade is a bit intricate. I paid attention to the 3D logo, which has its own (also 3D printed) spotlights. Each floor has been lighted individually using short LED strips. And finally this is the first-floor shop

Rich, we used the identical sheets for the first 5 years of JRM layouts as well! jeff