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Gotcha, thanks Well rip

I just found out today that Lionel Trains will be at New York Comic Con, which was something new to me, and this is their second time at the Comic Con since then did this in 2023. For anyone who isn't American, Lionel Trains has been the most recognizable model railroad company for decades. It has been a popular product of the O Gauge world, though, I don't know if O Gauge is popular in Japan. This is nice really, and it's also nice that Lionel is doing something like this to bring the hobby to new people. I could see KATO doing at big anime conventions in America.

Tomix and Greenmax do most of the Anime theme stuff. Kato and MicroAce rarely go there.

Odd but short question, since I like anime and plan to operate my layout at my local convention, did KATO make some anime theme passenger cars? I know they did the EVA Shinkansen a while back, and I was wondering if they made any other anime theme products since it would be good for operating my layout at the convention. Thanks for reading. -Dillon Trinh, The Little Nevada

I came across this webpage showing how to disassemble the recent, greatly improved Kato 11-109 and 11-110 2-axle power chassis, plus how to add DCC and a "Keep Alive" to them. Seems like it should work for the sister 11-108 chassis, too, and maybe the similar new "My Tram" chassis. https://tramfabriek.co.uk/kato-take-a-part.html Rich K.

The Kato power unit in the Hiroden Greenmove Lex / "My Tram" model is far different from the one in their Portram model: Rich K.

Here you go... 35 pines done 😉

Thank you, @Martijn Meerts

Those are some good looking trees!

I've installed many decoders for other people in the past. I could probably still be bothered to do so if someone really has no other option, but there are just risks involved. The majority of installs are customer and need to be hard wired. In the past, it also often involved milling parts of the frame to make space, or having the decoder being visible in the cab. With the newest decoder generation though, some brands have managed to shrink them down to the point where milling is almost never required anymore. There's also always the potential of destroying a decoder, or worse, the train it's installed in. Luckily I've never had a train get busted, but I have destroyed a couple of decoders. I never asked many for the installs I did, and if I destroyed a decoder, I paid for a new one myself, so financially it wasn't great 🙂 I have converted several of their steamers. They can be tricky, especially the newer ones with all the details and the motor in the boiler. The motor leads are usually tiny, and in some cases the motor doesn't have tabs to solder new wires to. Often you also have power pickup in the tender and/or lights in the tender. At that point you need to make a decision whether you want to have wires from the locomotive to the tender, or install some mini-socket in case you want to be able to remove the tender. My most recent steam decoder install was Kato's C50, I probably spent about 4-5 hours on that, but I do have to say, I went with installing a mini socket from the locomotive to the tender which took up quite a lot of extra time. The ones you list are all bigger though, and should be easier.

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.