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As some of you will recall I started an ill-fated new layout a while back called Arkaengel. This was going to be a Russian Naval base railway in Z with a large Russian destroyer and submarine sat in the dock, Anyway, the invasion of Ukraine soon put a stop to that as neither the Exhibition organisers or the model rail magazines were comfortable with it. So it was abandoned and put in the loft and I carried on completing the rear area of Hakuho (Soon to feature in Continental modeller again) A couple of show organiser asked me "What have got new for this autumns show?" Now Tapton Junction, my new,mega British Z gauge layout is a long way off so I had a rethink about the pariah in the loft. We started to see what would get round the tight curve onto the lift bridge and soon realised that anything sat on a standard Rokuhan Shorty chassis or a modified one went around without any problem One of the streetcars and the Ford boxcab shunter under test. Both sat on unmodified Rokuhan short chassis The other decision I made was that the layout would not be tied to any specific location or Era, Basically we would run anything we liked, when we liked, so long as it goes round without derailing sat in the home office with lots of Z under test lots more soon Kev

It happend that a friend pointed out to me the small printable Buildings by Brother quite at the same time as Rokuhan's Z Shorties started to become real. Using both together on a layout was the natural conclusion, so I started this project, which I'm confident I can 'finish' this year. This is the 1/300 scale mock up that I did while I was waiting for my KiHa to arrive: Nothing fancy, you see, but there's not that much space on an A5 sheet after all! And, of course, you'll have to imagine a few trees, and people, and cats, and road signs, and, and, and... I was, however, surprised how useful the mock up turned out to be, because it showed me how careful I have to place the elements to provide all the necessary clearances. A particularily tight area will be the warehouse in the upper right corner. Thak god, the KiHa hasn't really so much overhang in the outer curves as it seemed from photograps- 12mm clearance from the track centreline will suffice: So much for the moment! Michi (More food for the crawlers: Zショーティー ロクハン )

At last, I've finished the 103 series z-shorty kit by Japanese producer Aozoradensya, and I'm very pleased with it! I didn't build it out of the "box", though, those little add-ons are too much fun! And this is what I did: After a fisrt coat with red oxide primer, I've added new recessed front windows (makes the cars even more 103ish), head lights made from paper rings, and tail lights made from plastic rod.

This is an easy one (at least if you can get hold of a PRMLoco WaMu 80000 or 380000), a WaKi 8000 z-shorty. If you compare the PRMLoco chassis with a KoKi z-shorty, it's obvious that the KoKi fits almost perfectly with regards to its height. Therefore, what you have to do with the KoKi is: - cut of 1.5mm from each waggon end - cut 5mm from the middle of the waggon - cut of all locators for the containers The KoKi is almost narrow enough to fir inside the WaMu body. Cutting or sanding of all embossed detail from the sides should do the trick. A quick test, whether the combination runs on the 45mm radius - it does! The body still sits a bit low, but that will change immedeately: I first glued the two chassis parts on a piece of card (instead of butt joinig them), and that lifts the body some 0.2mm up. To take possible bending stress I've also glued a strip of wood on top.

Following on from the 3D printed GE 70 tonners I completed last year the next designs to fit the Rokuhan Shorty chassis were two different boxcab diesel shunters both designed by Stonysmith on Shapeways. The first one was an American loco very similar to the Central New Jersey GE-Ingersol Rand loco now preserved at the Baltimore and Ohio museum and like the 70 tonners is designed to drop straight onto the Shorty chassis There is no detail below solebar level and the windors are not open The other contender is the rare British Thompson Houston Boxcab that was built for the huge Ford car plant at Dagenham in the U.K. Amazingly one survives to this day on the Kent and East Sussex railway. This has the windows open which looks a ;lot better In the video I show how to finish these locos and also include some photos of the prototypes including a really rare bit of footage of the Ford one working at the plant in 1952. I decided not to do the actual Ford livery, choosing instead a mid green as it will mainly be working the Republic steel layout. Seen here just needing the flush glazing The CNJ was also left anonymous but was painted in the Pullman green used in its early days on the railroad The trucks need another coat of black as the grey is showing through

Hi all The Rokuhan Shorty chassis has caused a lot of interest recently amongst the Z gauge community, as well as the Nm and H0f guys. but one of the easiest conversions can be done with stonysmiths 'open window' switcher on Shapeways 3d printing site I needed a couple of generic industrial diesel locos to run on Republic Steel which would not look out of place if I was running it in American or British guise. I decided to stick with the ABS printed shell rather than the 3d printed Brass one. They are never going to be pulling more than 2 or 3 ladle cars or torpedo on the layout so haulage weight shouldn't be an issue. The basic chassis straight out of the package The basic shell as delivered and fresh out of the Ultrasonic cleaning bath of warm soapy water The shell is very close to a GE 70 tonner and is a perfect fir on the Shorty. The first thin coat of primer was used to reveal the areas needed the layer lines cleaning up, not much, just some round the nose end and the cab This was one was per the print with the addition of handrails from a Marklin caboose. Exhaust stack was brass tube Now in my efforts to add detail I decided to drill out the headlamp on the other one, pushing a sharp scriber into the centre of it to give the drill bit a centre to work with I managed to punch a hole in it as the material is so thin. Some choice Anglo-Saxon swearing followed and once I calmed down I decided to add a radiator grill from Scalelink etched mesh to hide the hole. Yo be honest I actually preferred the look in this shot you can see the original couplers get in the way and can push the truck down. They are the usual Rokuhan push fit and are easily removed more in a mo Kev

This week I received three Rokuhan KoKi shorties, withoud payload, of course. I do have a set of 19Bs on the way, but that's still stuck at the customs, and I want a bit of diversity, anyway. But that's no problem at all: Containers can easily be made from card. I've chosen the free C20 containers from Vayashis' ペーパークラフト (I have also some 12ft containers from Paperstructure, but I like Vayashis' graphics better). They are TT scale, so I had to print them at (1/220)/(1/120) = 54.54...% of their original size. I've also designed an additional cube in Corel Draw, which serves two purposes: - its bottom has fitting holes to take the locks of the KoKi - it serves as the internal structure, which I'll stick the container sides to (this will result in better defined edges than "conventional" scoring and folding) C20_Kern_1zu220.pdf The internal cube gets scored and folded (it won't be visible, anyway) in a conventional manner. However, it is most advisable to score and fold the part first, and cut out the holes in the bottom only afterwards! In my experience the easiest way to avoid distortion is to fold the part at one edge (2) and to glue the ends together on a flt surface (3). When glueing the front and end in place I usually use Lego bricks to keep everything at a correct angle. Finally I paint the lower edges black to avoid the white flashing between the container and the car. C20_Kern_1zu220.pdf

Hi guys, i am traveling to Japan in August. While being there i will also check for some trains and stuff. Since i was in both Tokyo and Kyoto before, i know some places where to go (the obvious bic camera, yodobashi, and laos (if i remember correctly, can't find it in google maps though)). If you know some new good places, please let me know. But with my recent move to concentrate on b-trains, i am courious if you have tips for good places to buy b-trains. Both new and used. I remember that i saw 2nd hand shortys in some places in Akihabara. Any info is appreciated. Thanks a lot.

Saw this on hobby search. Takes 6x AAA batteries and has direction and throttle control.