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This thumbnail or short video of 225 and 223 joined together may better illustrate.

I just found a Book Off in Paris - large selection of Japanese language books - couldn't help but feel there might have been some train books there but searching through there would have been a big effort. Now they just need to open a Hard Off and you could Chunnel over to see what they have! I was quite surprised to find it but for all I know it could have been there for years. Cheers, Tony

Yes, that's it. Between cars in the same set there is a vertical metal mount with a rubber strip, but the gap to cover is smaller.

I have several, all relatively cheapo ones. I can never find them when needed and recently bought one at Home Depot from "Commercial Electric" to use while figuring out stuff in the house, but will then use it on the work bench. In the last couple years I bought a couple from Ali Express or Banggood, including one I can't figure out where everything is auto sensed -- like I said, I can never find them when needed. None of my are nmr brand or expensive and all work fine for testing continuity, resistors and stuff, low voltage DC, and simple 120V/240V wiring.

Get a public transport card, we ended up with a Namane cards because you could customise the design, but T-Money is a bit cheaper. I think Namane has to be topped up at Namane machines which aren't that common but there were enough around. These are for subways and buses, vending machines and convenience stores (but convenience stores we never had an issue with international cards/Apple Pay). Google and Apple Maps are useless, get Kakao or Naver. Taxis are cheap, use the Kakao Taxi app to book, easy to do with no Korean. They can be busy, it was a struggle to get one at 5.30am on a Monday to get from our hotel to the airport, we should have booked ahead. If you're heading out of a big city at the start of a weekend or back in at the end of the weekend trains will be super busy. Book ahead, you can do that before you arrive using the Korail website. Train fares are pretty cheap, we couldn't see any advantage in buying a Korail Pass. The Korail website isn't great, but it does work. The vast majority of ticket machines and some smaller country stations can't take international cards, booking online is easier. Country trains are all booked seats (and I think some standing can be booked if all the seats are taken), and there are no ticket barriers at stations. Tickets were hardly ever checked, unless we were in the wrong seat, ie. they assume if there is a ticket sold for the seat and you are in it that all is OK. My favourite was travelling on the line from Gimcheon to Yeongju, the Mugunghwa trains that run on the line are hauled by Korail GT26CW-2's whereas pretty much everywhere else we went was electrified, or using a DMU. There's a nice cafe at Yonggung station in the old goods shed. We were also able to visit Samcheok Haebyeon on the Seatrain which was fun, we had some lovely seafood in a restaurant behind the beach. On the same line at Jeongdongjin there is a railbike along the beach that looked good, and a museum of time in a string of old passenger cars. And this is where the hotel up on the hill is built as if it is an ocean liner, looks pretty spectacular. While staying in Busan we caught the subway out to Haeundae and then went on the Haeundae Beach Train, the noodles and shellfish at the 31cm restaurant at the terminal, old Seongjong station were great. There's a nice walkway along the line and we walked back about halfway and then caught a bus to the subway. I found Seoul too busy, and the tourist spots were heaving, still fun to have been though. There are less escalators and lifts in the subway than in Japan, at the station near our hotel the lift was out of service and so we had to haul our suitcases up about six flights of stairs. I wrote a bit about accessing Korail timetables, the Korail site makes it a bit difficult to see a full view on what trains are available when. We also caught JR ferry across from Fukuoka to Busan which I enjoyed, but if you get motion sickness I wouldn't recommend it, I wrote up the issues I had when booking tickets on the Queen Beetle. We were there for ten days and spent less than KRW250000 in cash, you can get almost everything on an international card, except street vendors. Food was great, and cheap, in fact everything was fairly cheap, except the flight back to Japan, but we wanted to use a full service airline. Make sure you eat in a convenience store at least once, they have microwaves and boiling water and seating, I enjoyed it. We found booking accomodation to be difficult, it seems a lot of hotels don't open up booking until 30 days in advance, or we were looking in the wrong places. We ended up using a hotel chain we stay at often in Japan (Toyoko Inn) in Seoul, using booking.com to book a hotel in Busan near the station, and using AirBnb in Gangneung, all were fine and pretty cheap. I was hoping there would be the equivalent of HARD OFF in Japan, but I never found it. If anyone has any tips it would be much appreciated. There's a thread on here about model railway shops and I was able to visit one of the ones in Seoul, mostly Japanese stuff, and their GT26CW-2 model was unfortunately not for sale. In the 1980's and 1990's South Korea was where a lot of the brass models of Australian rolling stock were made so it's interesting that it seems to be a very small hobby there. Anyway that was a bit of a brain dump, hope it's useful, happy to answer any questions. I'm sure you will have a great time.

Are you looking for advice for Korea or Japan?

Ah OK, so when two entire sets are joined? That would make sense as they aren't present where the cars within the sets are joined, and there isnt the same size gap.

When two sets are coupled together they prevent you falling between the cars.

Hi all, something that I can't figure out is the purpose of these 'anti-fall plates' that are on the front of the Hiroshima Red Wings, from which they get their nickname: https://gethiroshima.com/news/red-wings-hiroshimas-first-new-trains-in-over-30-years/ What do they prevent from falling? I just can't find an answer and its driving me nuts 😅 especially as I have a Kato set. It would make sense if they were in the gap between joined cars but from what I can see they are only on the very front and rear of the trains. ?

I'm a big fan of Japanese culture and modeling, and I've been considering expanding my travels to South Korea. It's my first time planning a trip there, and I could really use some advice. I'm looking for must-see destinations, tips on navigating the public transportation system, and recommendations for accommodation. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

Today was a nice haul day with the stuff I received.

Has anyone here converted Kato 4-wheel freight wagons such as the WaMu (picture one assembled and two disassembled) with Micro Trains magnetic couplers?. It looks as if a MT-10 might fit in there . . . or perhaps I could just ignore the pocket and glue a 1015 / 1023 / 2004 into place.

Some more images from the ChangMing CRH400AF: https://www.facebook.com/100064165236162/posts/818501216965379/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

New video from yukikazeful.

Go west along the chuo line or east into Chibu. Easy to get away from the city for a day. Even a little further north to Gumna.

Thanks for the suggestion. I love that part of Japan, but as Katoftw says, it's a bit touristy. I've actually done a 180 on this and will be staying in Tokyo for the month and doing some day trips. Given the topic of my research at the moment (games, toys and miniatures) this makes a lot more sense. And I think I will find the environment stimulating.

Nice write up, and well done. I see these split gears on other brass models, and with Bachmann ones like their Shay. My understanding is they use a 'plastic' style not only for cost, but noise. Brass on brass can be noisy which is more noticeable on newer engines with quiet motors.

So here are some of the variations you can do with 2-4 8’x30” banquet tables and the number of single straight modules (or the equivalent) needed in addition to the 4 corner modules. The Ttrak loop can grow and shrink a bit on each of the table layouts. 1 table 8’x30” rectangle 4, 6, 8, or 10 2 table 5’x8’ rectangle: 12 or 14 30”x16’ long rectangle: 18, 20, 22, 24, or 26 3 table 8’x8.5’ square: 16, 18, or 20 4 table 10.5’x10.5’ Square spiral: 24, 26, 28, 30, or 32 straight 8’x13’ Rectangle center open: 22, 24, 26, 28, or 30 straight 5’x16’ rectangle closed center: 26, 28, or 30 straight jeff

Our club had our Ttrak setup last weekend at the big Sakura Matsuri event and tried did a rectangular layout and really discovered it to be a lot easier to setup and a better presentation of a car full of modules so I thought I would start a discussion in the Ttrak forum about it. We set up the Ttrak as rectangular layout with two 8’x30” tables side by side to create a 8’x5’ ttrak loop. This left a couple of inches of table border all the way around for small hands to grab onto or lean into instead of Ttrak modules right at the edge when you do loops with single table width. We find this presentation really beneficial for a whole host of reasons that I’ll take the time to outline here as it gobsmacked me when I stepped back and really looked at it. Creates Nice Table Boarder/Frame - The rectangular layout creates a nice small 2-3” table border all the way around which is nice visually as well as place for small hands to grab and rest on instead of the modules. This strip is also nice visually with the black table cloths, it frames the layout nicely and mutes module base front differences. Fixes Deeper Module Issues - Eliminates having to lay out deeper modules strategically so as not to butt into deeper modules on the other side of the layout as well as trying to snake buss wires between deeper modules zig zagging. Set up is much faster as we just arrange modules more by scene with no thoughts to depth and this most importantly lets us layout modules so they make nice scenes together and nice transitions across the layout. Allows Ultra Deep Modules - Allows for deeper than 14” modules (some are dreaming of deeper scenes and then they don’t have to creat corresponding shallow scene modules for behind the deep scenes and also power buss routing around module backs on either side). Easier Last Minute Changes -If at the last minute or during a show you have to move some modules or replace a module it’s a lot easier to do than with the long format. Greater Visitor Retention - We are finding the visitor retention much higher for shorter layout and not with the rectangle like this as opposed to a long 16’x30” or more loop. While the longer loop uses up every bit of table space and gets and you can squeeze in an extra 12 single straight modules, folks tend to get on the run around two longer tables and rarely circumnavigate it completely and stop and look at details less. Layout All in Field of Vision - The rectangle allows a nice over view of the whole layout within your field of vision, where as the long thin layout does not. The long strip does a strange visual thing of just screaming more of the same as well. The 4 corners seem to set more of different places on the layout and draw folks over to check each out. It helps also that our club corners are rather unique being built by one of our best modelers and are great scenes of Sake brewery, beach scene (Enoshima inspired), rice farm, and 100 yen store with bit of lake and swan boats. Less Loop Like - The rectangle layout plays down the really long straightaways that long layout accentuates. The long straightaways makes the layout feel like so much more of a loop, one of the big downsides of Ttrak. Fewer Modules Needed - The rectangular rectangle layout only requires 4 corners and 14 single straight modules, which is right at the amount of stuff to fit into one small station wagon or suv. The long layout requires 4 corners and 22-26 single straights which definitely requires 2 cars to transport. Trains Stay in View More - The rectangular layout’s shorter loop length and more of the trains (or at least their movement) usually being more in general field of view. This means trains don’t disappear for long times and more fun watching them off in the distance. Also you get 4 curves ro mix up running on the rectangle and only 2 on the long layout Less Dramatic Front and Back issues - In many of our venue spaces visitors tend to end up to orienting themselves to the layout like there is a front and a back to the layout. We try to not have this, but space constraints, visitor flow and such sometimes just force a bit of orientation to the layout. With the rectangular layout of there is a front then the ends/sides end up being maximized, where as with the long layout half of the layout ends up being in the back where few venture to look at it if space is tighter. Smooths Rough Module Back Edge Lines - The rough back edge of a line of modules is much less jarring in the rectangular layout as it’s not back to back with the rough back edge of the modules behind. With the black table cloth covering the large center hole in the rectangle the two back sides are not grabbing the eye aggressively as it is with the long layout. Avoids Back to Back Scene issues - The rectangular layout avoids the eye wanting to connect back to back modules on a long layout. Even when there is a good 6-8” gap in the middle on the long layout we have had a lot of people ask if the two scenes are connected between back to back modules or why there is a gap there or why it’s different down the layout (most folks don’t see our Ttrak is a bunch of individual modules). We did not get those question with the rectangle format. New Center Display Area - Center area of about 2’x5’ becomes a nice space to do other presentations, displays, and/or signage. Easier to Find a Trottle Home - The rectangle layout center area also makes it easy to find a convenient space to put the throttle, long layouts is a noted puzzle to where to put the throttle and where buss reaches power drops. Better Sign Placement - Rectangle layout allows 4 nice skirt faces to put our club sign on and they center nicely whereas the sign in the center of long layout sides looks odd and also strange on the 30” wide ends. Being in exhibit design 30+ years all these things supporting the rectangular layout are super solid design elements that are very tried and true. I’m kicking myself for not exploring rectangular Ttrak setups earlier and just slipped into the old long table format of out and back that is such the norm. I think that is driven by the desire by many to cram in as many modules and miles of rail as possible in a setup, but it does not take into consideration how visitors interact and react to the layout. This is a real lesson of less is more! This comes up all the time in design. In a couple of weeks we will be trying a spiral of 4 8’x30” tables for a 10.5” square layout or a 4 table rectangle at 8’x11’ with a few more straights at the local triannual train show to see how those work. I would love to hear other’s thoughts and experiences with this topic! cheers, jeff

Lovely cases! Not the crammed to the gills shops I’m use to! jeff

Thanks Dillion! It was very fun and a good show to recharge my batteries on doing shows. After 20+ years of doing shows at times my energy flags on doing them. sorry I didn’t do better pictures as I was busy much of the time talking to folks and keeping an eye on the layout. Also hard to shoot nice module picts with the crowds (don’t like muscling in for shots) and the lighting was half shade half bright sunlight! jeff

Visited this fantastic shop in Subang just outside of Kuala Lumpur last week. Spent a whole afternoon in here, with great customer service from Darren who was very enthusiastic about the products. Here's a few photos of the shop. There was also a testing layout, but I accidentally deleted the photo before uploading it. An absolute treasure trove of older Marklin, Trix and MiniTrix trains.

Nice SW1200 — diesel switchers are the best!

The whole thing looks nice!!!

last weekends Model railway show in Te Awamutu which is in the Waikato district about 1 and 1/2 hrs drive from my home. Our crew took the TT layout along for a display with a couple of new modules added to the layout to make it 8m long. Some running footage here . Also managed to film the 9 Mil New Zealand Railway Layout which is very impressive , but way out of my budget.