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Yup 😳 Update: Just after I posted my bit of a rant, the following happened: I asked Plaza Japan to cancel my second order I got a notice that my first order was shipped as I had ordered it, with no deletions Plaza Japan did a full refund on the second order with no fee So my positive impressions of Plaza Japan are renewed and I look forward to receiving my order towards the end of May. Will update when I have the order in hand.

Front on view of the progress. Couple more bits of track ordered to finish off the top spiral. Have started on the isolation joints and track inputs, Finish them, then onto set-up tracks then the scenery.

They're definitely quirky, that's for sure. Probably the last such hopper cars in service to have a brakeman's compartment anywhere in Japan, though my knowledge as such is pretty negligible so take that at face value. Having seen the real things, and the matching WoKi 100 hoppers on my Chichibu Railway daytrip in June 2023, they were a major factor in buying the N-scale versions from Micro Ace the same day (plus a matching DeKi 300 locomotive); that, and the fantastic little videos produced by yukikazeful and Susukuma on YouTube. May as well join the vibe and throw in some of my prototype shots from June last year. They were only quick grab shots, I'll have to see if I can do better next month when I go back! Alastair

Sounds like a great trip so far! One of the things I want to do when I'm in Japan myself is to take a look at some guitar gear. So just curious: What guitar did you buy and where did you buy it from? Also are you planning to ship it back or take it with you on the plane?

Thanks great info. Hoping the kids there will enjoy the trains and can have fun setting up new layouts all the time. jeff

I met a rat snake yesterday. Coming from NZ it was a bit of a surprise. I went out to Haneda on the monorail to watch the planes land and the dude slithered in front of me.

Thanks I was looking at them, seemed to have the highest ratings and panisonic produced. But expensive, but that’s worth it if they are good to their rating and low failure rate, both of which are issues with getting no name stuff! jeff

I like Enerloop AA's a lot.

Some of the older chassis use a C or D battery. I’m sure a couple of my kids freight locos, EF66 and EH500 use a C sized battery. All other chassis use a single AA. Also some of the sound cars use 2xAAA iirc. We generally used rechargeables as things tended to get left running when kids found something else to do. Also I “upgraded” our shinkansen with Tamiya Mini 4wd motors so they fly around the track but burn through batteries. The only other issue with that is the stop tracks no longer can stop the trains. 😂

We've run a mega Plarail layout (whole day affair) around the house for my nephew. All the trains ran using NiMH batteries, though at various speeds as many trains were second hand. No issues in them running. Some trains used AA, some AAA and some even used C (we put AA into a C sized adaptor and that ran fine). Always 1 battery per locomotive. (No experience with the remote control unit.)

You mentioned you are visiting the Kato Hobby Center in Tokyo. I believe they do decoder installations. You might have to visit them twice, though, and I don't know if you would have the time. (From memory, they have an order form on their website.)

Currently we're waiting for PCBs for the final version. Hope everything will be available from June on our website

May have found a general answer to using the 1.2v ni-nh batteries. Apparently they stay at 1.2v for most all their discharge and alkaline batteries end up at 1.2v pretty fast after some discharge and go below 1.2v for a good chunk of their discharge. Now to find some decent ni-mh batteries. jeff

Anyone have a good source of reliable Ni-MH batteries in AA and AAA? Need to buy a pile for some plarail. i havnt bought any for awhile and realize there are tons of secondary sellers now and everyone seems to misrepresent the MaH and some seem to have high failure rates. Thanks, jeff

There has been a lot of discussion of Kato DCC installs on www.therailwire.net. One participant there, Kelley, used to do them for Kato in the U.S. - hundreds of them - until 3 years ago. For example, read through this thread (hope you can see the photos if just a "guest"): https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=57567.0 You may find scanning through his posts over time to be informative about Kato and DCC installation: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3231;area=showposts;start=0 Rich K.

you can also try spraying contact cleaner (plastic compatible product) on armature and brush area. I have also taken brushes and springs out to clean manually and then sprayed the cleaner on motor. gunk builds up and can stop springs pressuring brushes properly. Its very easy to lose parts when disassembling as the brush holder can be tight fit.

So I’m getting a few Japanese plarailmsets to donate to a local kids center at a homeless shelter. I’m wondering if folks have run their plarail with rechargable Ni-MH batteries. I’m guessing the 1.2v may just reduce the speed of the train or do they use a buckup transformer? Also it’s one AA battery per train, not two, correct? It’s been a long time since I last played with plarail. One of the sets I got was the E5 that has the remote control throttle that looks like it take AAA batteries so will need to see if the electronics will run on 1.2v Ni-MH batteries. thanks, jeff

@cteno4 - it's not as bad as it might sound - though having any cats is bad enough .... We have four indoor cats, one outdoor cat and there is the 1/2 cat - a neighbor's outdoor cat that spends all his time at our place and we feed him as his owners don't really take care of him and he is afraid of their dogs. I made the mistake of feeding him when he was hanging out on our front porch during an extreme cold spell and now he rarely leaves and follows me us when I take our dog walks - much to the amusement of passers by as I lead a parade of two dogs and two cats .... Dignity! Always Dignity! Tony

Great to know, have bought two of them just in case!!

Imon also state this on their website so should be a direct replacement.

Thanks for all the pictures of the decoder installation.

Patience always pays off. jeff

Just got a reply to say there was a delay and items will be shipped in a day or two.

I’m afraid to ask how you get 5 1/2 cats… jeff

perhaps they have not filled the position yet. I don’t remember anyone on the n scale lists here in the us talking about katousa having decoder install options. jeff