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Occasionally I post some observations about things that may interest some of the more deeply involved railfans, in this case those interested in the interurban/traction side of the railway scene, as opposed to the JR mainline, shinkansen, and freight scene. These are really just random things that caught my eye or fancy, while riding the private railways in Kansai. 1. Rode a 2200 series trainset* on the Keihan Line, these are veteran units that this year have been in service for 60 (!) years. They started out as 600v units, now of course run at 1500v DC. Great analog traction motor sound on these, got the prime right front seat on the driving motor car heading an express service out of Yodoyabashi terminal, loads of fun barreling down Keihan’s four track main with the motors screaming, passing all the local stations. These units make all kinds of creaking and banging sounds typical of older units (including compressor sounds), something you miss on the digital wonders that dominate the rails nowadays. 2. Transferred to the Kintetsu Kyoto Line, love the older rolling stock on Kintetsu, especially and unique to Kintetsu are the separate mounted destination rollsigns, which remind me of the rollsigns often used on Pacific Electric stock. It helps that Kintetsu also uses red in their livery. Also being rollsigns, it’s analog controlled by a rotating dial (typically made by Koito, the auto parts manufacturer and big subcontractor for Toyota), nice old style rather than the common LED signage. 3. Got off at Yamato Saidaiji. There is an observation deck here overlooking the up lines (direction Osaka and Kyoto). It’s a flat junction with relatively constant action, you can see quite a lot in just 15 or 20 minutes (which is my limit given the hot summer weather). I would say it’s superior to the observation deck at Seibu’s Tokorozawa Station, as you are closer to the action, the trackwork is more compact, and the variety of rolling stock is (just) slightly better (Kintetsu limited express stock has more variety). There is a dining area with similar views adjacent, if you want to have a meal. *when I was on the 2200 series, passed another unit that has been repainted in original Keihan colors, which is causing quite a stir among railfans here. Not my video:

hey all. I'm not so familiar with this site as I am not on here so often, but I have been working on something for the past 6 months I would like to share. I got lucky one day in fall of 2016, and found the original 12 car 0 Series Shinkansen set on eBay. I bought it, and immediately found that the original motors drew too much amperage. 6 cars out of the 12 were powered. after brainstorming for a couple weeks, instead of solving this with a different power pack/transformer, I wanted to go the hard route and came up with the idea of traction motors - if it works on the real thing, why not in HO scale? There are phone vibrator motors that I could use that would fit between the axles perfectly the result of my endeavors is shown in this youtube video: (test car in vid is type 21, I don't have the other cars ready yet) I have a long way to go to get the full train running, but longer I wait to see it on the rails, the more focused I am to get it done. the train set, when finished, will have working head/tail lights, bluetooth control, and various other devices built in to keep the train running. This is all powered with an Arduino Micro.

i recently picked up 1/2 of a TOMIX 92139 JR Electrical Inspection Cars Series 193 2-car set; the training(?) car (the one with 2 pantographs). Though it's not prototypical, I want to use it for an express locomotive for a 2 or 3 car container consist. The piece came with both the track cleaning truck and the regular truck. my 1st problem was I could not get it to move on the track as the wheels had no traction (motor works). I checked the orientation of both installed trucks and they are turning the same direction. I think I finally fixed that problem by adding traction tires. At least it moves now. But, it will only move in 1 direction, backward. even if using the direction toggle on the power pack. it only moves backward with the direction switch in either position. Is this trailing chassis only set up to move in reverse (relative to the lead chassis)? I have not taken the motor case apart yet to check the drive train.