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Having "almost finished" my first 26 x 75cm N-scale layout that is measured to fit a shelf in an IKEA Billy, I've already for some time been planing for another layout, or should I say module, as it will be built to fit together with my first one, extending the line that goes to the harbour. I thought I should let you in on the plannig process. This time I'm putting less restrictions on the layout design by not putting in a loop. I want trains to pass through the layout, not around it. It's going to be a crowded urban landscape with some street running, a station with a meeting track and a couple of abandoned freight spurs. This way I can have both a plausable contemporary scene with some light rail or trams, and I can be a bit playful when I want to and operate the layout as a switching puzzle deivering freight cars to the abandoned spurs using the meeting track as a run around. My planning process consists of drawing the size of the layout on a couple of A3 papers and then trying out possible track geometry and placement of streets and buildings. This was the first iteration that I thought worthy of taking a photo of so that I could set it up again later for further tinkering. My very first versions had a longer street running section and a straight station area. I decided that an angled station area would produce more visual interest than having the track go straight. To the left of the station area you can see where I planned to have a level crossing. Some empty plots can be seen in this photo. I was planning to add more buildings later. A view of the street running section. All the time I'm moving buildings around, trying to find visually interesting viewing angles. Sometimes just leaving a small gap between two buildings can create something interesting. Sorry about my very grainy photos taken in bad lighting. I wasn't planing to show them for anyone when I took them. On this photo from another planning session, I'm working on trying to break up the street grid by having the crossing street winding across the layout. Something else I'm experiementing with here is putting a single storey building at a strategic location to make the street intersection more visible. An aerial view of this version. Streets go parallell with both long edges of the layout "off the layout" so to say. Maybe a lane will be modelled, or just the sidewalks. This scene with the train leaving the station looked promising, but there's not much room for station platforms. Another attempt at getting a winding street. The problem is that getting buildings to fit reasonably with a winding street is tricky to say the least. I don't mind scratchbuilding a couple of houses for weirdly shaped plots, but I don't want to end up having to scratch building nearly everything. An aerial view of another version with buildings almost falling of the layout in the lower left corner. The upper right corner with trains disappearing in between buildings looked promising. The next update will feature what I think is the final track configuration.

Bought a Hanshin Commuter Train Economy Kit today at Crosspoint Shimokitazawa (GM Store). There are a few more of these rare kits around, so hurry if you can! Maybe I'll get another one :P I'm going to use this kit as a base for two projects, but I need rare Keikyū 1000 type Economy Kit for that. Eventually I'll find one, but it's going to be a difficult job... • Project 1 will be concerned with the Keisei 3200 or 3300 with a new front. The new front comes from the Keikyū kit and will be attached to the body of the Hanshin kit. The train will eventually look like this: Keisei 3200 (New Livery) • Project 2 will be concerned with the Keisei 3100 with an old front, since these never got the new front anyway. The front comes from the Hanshin kit and the body is from the Keikyū kit. I'm really looking forward to this project, since it's one of my all time favourite Keisei trains (old front, new livery, hell yeah!). The train will eventually look like this: Keisei 3100 (New Livery) The biggest issue will be the underbody stuff, but that'll come in time. ---- Another issue I have is the second MicroAce A-6090 Keisei 3298 I bought. Keisei 3298 (Fire Orange) MicroAce A-6090 This train used to be unique to Keisei so there is no point of repainting or renumbering this train... An idea I have is to rebuilt it to the Keisei 3294 that had been tested for VVVF purposes, a 3150 type, or use the underbody of one of my MicroAce trains for the Keisei 3200 project. • The Keisei 3294 type will involve cutting in the middle cars to move the pantographs to one car. The front cars will remain untouched, but the underbody of the two middle cars need to be changed. If I were to paint this train Fire Orange, the front would need to be changed to square headlight, so I don't want to do that. It's a pretty difficult one, since I wouldn't know what underbody stuff I should get. I presume this isn't the one I'd go for. Keisei 3294 (New Livery, standard front) • The option to rebuild it to a 3150 is a bit silly, since Greenmax makes these as models already in several variations (Fire Orange, new livery, Hokusō and Chiba Express). They are however ridiculously expensive (min, ¥13.000 for a 4-car set). The rebuilt will involve two cars being rebuilt: pantograph moved to the front car and underbody for the middle and front car swapped. It's a pretty straightforward option, but I don't like the idea of cutting into the MicroAce body. Keisei 3150 (New Livery) • The option to use only the underframe for the previously mentioned 3200 rebuild is the most tempting for me, since it doesn't involve cutting into the MicroAce shells. However, it leaves me with four unused MicroAce shells, which will probably not be used ever again. This reason makes the 3150 rebuilt option very tempting... Keisei 3200 (New Livery) --- I'm planning to use these trains in a setting of a fictive company (Sagamiko RR) in a slightly different livery than the original Keisei one, with some in original livery. The Sagamiko RR will be running along the Sagami-Yokohama water supply line all the way to Sagamiko station on the JR Chūō line. This is a pretty straight and narrow footpath with water pipes underneath, large enough for a single-track railway line: http://calmax.exblog.jp/16861118/ This railway line could be operated as a 3rd sector company under Keisei Group and Keikyū for the Yokohama Water Company (or something like that). Here's a rough map of the route: I'm not sure where it will connect with the Keikyū Main line, but I don't want it to pass through the centre of Yokohama, so maybe I'll let it run directly to Kanagawa-Shinmachi instead. Here the company can have a small depot, along with one or two en-route. A large part of line will be single-track, like the JR East Sagami line, since it will be running through rural/light residential areas of Sagamihara-shi (the town community where I live). Through services can go as far as Kojima-Shinden (max. 4-car length trains) and the line can allow the occasional 8-car length trains to Sagamiko for special express services from the Takasago/Shinagawa direction (non-Sagamiko RR trains). These will only be able to halt at few intersecting stations because of space restrictions. The reason being that no investments have been made on the line due to conflicting interests from operating companies and the line's owner. Hence the collection of old rolling stock. Since the line will be co-operated by Keisei and Keikyū, that allows for a mixture of rolling stock in company colours. Planned other trains will be 4-car Keikyū old 1000 type, 1500 type trains and possibly more old Keisei trains in new colours. Now, I'm planning to have some of my trains painted in Keisei livery (as a tribute/revival livery), but also one or two in a fictive/parody livery that is sort of related to Keisei Group liveries. The official liveries are as follows: - Keisei has Red with Dark Blue as a supporting colour; - Hokusō has Dark Blue with Light Blue as a supporting colour; - Chiba Express had Dark Blue with Red as a supporting colour; - Shibayama RR has Red with Dark Green as a supporting colour; - Chiba Newtown has Blue and Yellow as a supporting colour; - Shin-Keisei basically Wine Red with variable supporting colours. I'm not sure what colour combination I'd go for, but the body base will be light grey, like the New Livery from Keisei... Time to experiment! Graphics courtesy by: http://www.mercury.sannet.ne.jp/bal-jaz/index.html