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Well a long time, not much posting! Not really surprising, given the we’ve had... Let me summarise: Builders, Redecorating, Daughter Boomerang, Builders, Redecorating.... ‘Nuff said? So now I have a piece of MDF 4x3 metric feet. (1 foot = 30cm) It’s a single board that will fit in the boot of the car with space to spare, with easily adjustable and detachable legs. The plan has remained the same pretty much: 2 or 3 stations with Gora as a top station and Tonosawa at the bottom. In between will be a reversing point, either Ohiradai or one of the others. It depends on how it looks! As the Japanese N gauge stuff ranges from DCC agnostic to outright hostile, drive will be analogue. Please Tomix, Kato, Modemo, et al. give DCC a chance! Trackwork will be PECO settrack as I have a whole pile lying around... The settrack points are nice and short too! The points will be driven by servo (purely because it’s something I want to learn), controlled by a MERG CBUS system. Finally, it is intended to automate the whole thing with an Arduino and CBUS interface. As a backup USB and push button panel will be available. What do you think?

Today, Hakone Tozan Railway announced their new 3100 type EMU. This train will feature the same design as the 3000 type 'Allegra', but without the second cab per car the 3000 type had. Hakone Tozan will take delivery of two 2-car sets during April 2017, after which the 3100 type will go into service from May 2017. Source: http://www.hakone-tozan.co.jp/dat/pdf/3100%BF%B7%C2%A4%A5%EA%A5%EA%A1%BC%A5%B9%BD%A4%C0%B5%C8%C7.pdf

A few months ago I "discovered" the Hakone Tozan. This railway fascinates me - modern EMUs climbing ridiculous grades on tight curves through gorgeous scenery. The switchbacks in particular are very appealing. So, as a sideline to all my other projects (w-a-y too many projects, I might add) I've been ginning up an idea for a small, self contained N scale Hakone Tozan switchback layout: Hakone Tozan Switchback 1.bmp This is a representation of the Kami-Ohiradai switchback. The tracks to the right lead into simple staging (two tracks on each line); the top track represents the upgrade line, and the bottom the downgrade. The layout will be about five feet long in total with four of those being sceniced. Up to four three car trains can be accommodated; setting is more or less modern day since I want to be able to run the new Type 3000s. I'm planning on using Unitrack for the majority of this, but it will be bedded down with vegetation to break things up. The scenery will be simple - you're looking up the side of a steep hill with the track on a ledge cut into the hill. I picked up Kato 20-230 and 20-231 crossovers to see if they can be modified to make the spring switch configuration I need. I'm trying to disconnect the pairs of points so they can be set differently - three of the switches are spring, and the fourth (upper right) is powered. If I can pull this off only that fourth switch will need to be controlled for operations.