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I'd started to put bits of this on the 'What did you do on your layout today' thread but thought I'd split it off as I'm going to run a shadow thread on trainboard and modelrailforum as well as the layout develops. So the back story is that my current most popular Z layout is 'Republic Steel', Uniquely because Steelworks and blast furnaces look very similar the world over can be run either as USA 1950's, USA late 90's, Railblue era British or Showa steam era Japanese! Now I have had to ration the show appearances of this layout otherwise I would be out every weekend. Although it look very good running in Japanese format with D51s pulling long trains of coal and limestone hoppers and C62s and C11s on passenger services I have always wanted to model a layout more typical of rural japan, set in the mountain regions. it is going to be small, just 1220 mm x 760 mm and the plan will be for it to be split into four scenes. First will be the small wayside station of 'Hakuho' itself. The two lines running through it are two different railways. The outer track will have OHL to allow me to run Electric locos and the inner one will be steam and diesel only. Both lines will be Bi-Directional. There are crossovers at either end of the platform to allow trains to cross over. This will be the nominal front of the layout at shows. The rear of the layout will be the hidden sidings except that, as I did with Shasta, they will be fully scenically finished as a large marshalling yard. At one end the scene will be a more urban setting with a row of shops flanking the railway and it is here that the main lines will start to diverge into the roads of the sidings. I'm still pondering about the other end but there is no rush yet. to the horror of some of my fellow Southern Pacific Z modellers I took the decision to scrap the extension board on Shasta. The board featured the Dunsmuir depot at the front and a full extra four foot of sidings at the back so I could run four metre long freight trains in Z but to be honest it wasn't really working out. Transportation with the extra board meant borrowing one of the call-out vans from work and there are no show bookings for Shasta in its long form. All of the scenery was removed (you will see these trees again!) and the track recovered using copious amount of warm soapy water to loosen the ballast. The board has the advantage that it already has a wheeled flight case and I have taken off the hinged legs used when it was inserted into Shasta. So for now it is sat on my usual steel trestles ready for its transformation. Early days So here is the initial layout for 'Hakuho' with just one siding and a small shed. Buildings are by Sankei except the overbridge that came with a resin cast C57 as some sort of collectable. Marklin points and a mix of Peco and Marklin track. At either end of this section will be overbridges to act as a scenic break. rising up from the back of the station will be dense woodland with just a few other buildings. The former turntable pit will morph into some sort of lake with a waterfall going into it and a stream coming out. So the plan will be to fully finish the station scene first. One of the U.K model magazines are already asking for an article so I'll press on this summer more in a mo' Kev

Recently i took some pictures of my Rokuhan Z trains to send to Rokuhan to show their products running on a U.K style fully scenic exhibition layout (Hakuho) But I then got carried away ad decided to photograph them running on Republic Steel as well Republic has a few show booikings this year so was set up in the workshop for some routine maintenace At shows Republic nearly always goes out with the 1990s British stock on these days so giving the Japanese stuff a blast was fun The C11 again, this time on a local passenger I started to get an idea about following and photographing Z Japanese trains from layout to layout so got Cuyahoga out of the layout shed and carried on Rokuhan DD51s, DE10, Kiha 52s, EF 66 and a PRM Loco EF 64 make the Roundhouse a busy place More soon Kev

Hey, can anyone here share some photos of their Tenshodo HO 1:87 JR500 shinkansen that'd be great! I don't own one my self and I can't find a whole lot on it. I would like to know if its possible to insert a DCC decoder or at least wire one in. Please post a photo of the motor compartment if their is one and I would like to see some more pictures of it in general, or just take a video of it running.

Hi all. Just posted the review i have done on the available freight stock in Z by the three major players in the field. Starting with the Showa era 4 wheel wagons before moving on to the modern image container wagons and tank cars In a future video I'm going to look at some light weathering of some of the stock and also take a look at coaching stock when I have a few more to review (I only have Tenshodo one at present) So far then I have done C62s, D51s, DE10s and DD51s. Must get a C57! video at cheers Kev

I hope this is a good way to get the word out. Stout Auctions (stoutauctions.com) has an online auction coming up on Nov 7 that has a bunch of HO JNR Brass included. Tenshodo, etc. I sold my Tenshodo HO stuff last year after having it sit in boxes for 40 years. Anyhow, I have bought O gauge stuff at Stout Auctions. Unlike Ebay, this is a live auction, with unlimited bidding. Slick interface shows bids real time. If you're interested, pre-register. The bidding goes fast. Watch some bidding before your lot comes up. This is not an advertisement. I'm only posting this because much of what I sold went to JNSforum members and I know how difficult it can be to find this stuff.

The standard rule of thumb for working with Japanese model trains from what I read in the forums is to never exceed 12 volts, does this only apply for N scale J-trains or does this also apply for HO scale J-trains as well? If so, then I might have some trouble finding a DCC system that is compatible with North American models and J-models.

For fans of JNR era express dmus (count me as one), Tenshodo is releasing a new production of kiha 58 railcars (and associated types), fitted with quantum sound. Release this summer, prices TBD. http://www.tenshodo.co.jp/models/product/release/kiha58_p/tabid/879/Default.aspx Also, Kato is doing a reissue of their kiha 58 series, I'll certainly pick up a couple, especially the kiro 28, I don't have that one yet. (also this summer) http://www.katomodels.com/ho/kiha28_58/ quantum sound on a Tenshodo kiha 52: *I like the idling sound, not so crazy about the sound when running though, too tractorlike, not the sound of the dmh17h under load.

Tenshodo will be doing another run of their plastic ef57 passsenger locomotive due "sometime" this autumn. pre-production sample (retail price TBD): http://www.tenshodo.co.jp/models/product/release/ef57_p/tabid/849/Default.aspx previous run: http://www.tenshodo.co.jp/models/museum/el/ef56_812_tohoku/tabid/598/Default.aspx *35000 yen in 2008, which is reasonable. I really wish Tenshodo (or Tramway) would do an EF15 freight type, much more versatile loco for smaller layouts, but I suppose not glamourous enough for the deep-pocketed collectors. Must be the same reason Kato never re-releases their D51.