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Hi all, One of my other pass times besides my JP trains is volunteering at my local tramway preservation group. We are based in Whiteman Park in Perth, Western Australia. Over the last 12 months, myself and a small group of volunteers have been working on restoring a 1929 Adelaide H-Type Tram - number 372. It was gifted to us nearly 18 years ago and, for the most part, has been sitting in storage. Unfortunately not many of the volunteers were too interested in doing anything with her, or her sister tram - 371. As I grew up in Adelaide, I took the task on with one other member to get 372 back to operating condition. As we made progress, some more of the younger volunteers began to take an interest and have been helping. Our biggest issue was that during refurbishment by their operator at the time, many of the systems were upgraded. As a part of that, a (Very poorly designed) inverter was installed. This was our biggest hurdle as we could not work out why we could get it to work. Without it, none of the control systems would operate and hence, no traction power. Thankfully we were able to reach out to other preservation groups in Australia for assistance, which was invaluable. Happily for myself and the others, after I rebuilt the inverter and replaced some components (with no real previous electrical experience mind you), we got it working. And on September 25th, 372 moved under her own power for the first time in 18 years! This has been a great milestone for us, as coming up on December 8th, the new Transperth railway line which will serve the park where we are based will be officially opened. The government has, as part of the project, partially rebuilt and extended our tram line to connect with public transport at the new station. This will let people transfer onto our historic trams to travel into the park. Currently there is no transport from outside the park to the attractions within without a car. 372 will hopefully join our operative fleet soon and be able to be a part of the celebrations. This tram also has some significance, as it carried the Olympic Torch on its run through South Australia for the Sydney 2000 Games Here is a link to our website with some more images: https://www.petswa.org.au/news/adelaide-tram-372-moves-under-its-own-power-for-the-first-time-in-18-years (I am the dorky looking fat bloke in the Motorman's Cap!)

Just acquired a Red Kato Portram Trolley yesterday and at first glance noticed the sagging mid section. Even though I got to test drive it at the LHS I just wasn't happy with the middle looking like it drags. Other than that this little guy rocks! Bought it anyway and employing it for the vertically challenged counter top Christmas tree arrangement this season. Need to wire up the reversing module and get a few buildings to hide the module and store the trolley. The roof is where the two trolleys articulate. Anyone find a shim for the Center Black Strut or a manual to show how disassemble this and to add dolls?

Very interesting videos about the Soviet KTM-5 tram. Most look fairly rough but they're still running. Some in Latvia, shown around 8:30 in the first video, appear to be in excellent condition. Maybe @BalticRailways has ridden this model? Also at 2:30 in the second video, Perm's idea of a joyful train (tram)!

Hiroshima Dentetsu will introduce the 5200 Type 'Green Mover APEX' on the Miyajima Line (Line 2) from March 2019.

An interesting Kato tram layout with an inner Unitram loop and dual outer stock track lines and a four track tram depot. Video by Jeremy de Korte.

Hi, I'm new to this forum (live in the UK). I use Tomix wide tram track on a town layout I'm building and have just invested in a pair of Tomix controllers & two TCS units to automate the double track tram looped circuits to include a couple of tram stops on each circuit. I also have 4 of the short sensor track pieces. However, the instructions are all in Japanese and I'm having a devil of a job sorting out how to do the wiring to achieve this. Anyone got any tips or links that might help me?

YouTube member nagomi view recently posted two excellent front view (though from the upper floor) 4K videos of two trips on the Hong King Tramway system: Kennedy Town (western end) to Happy Valley: Happy Valley to Shau Kei Wan: It's a very fascinating view of the buildings and Hong Kong street life along the way.

Here are some photos online of the new 7700 series Arakawa trams in Tokyo. Note: they are rebuilds of the 7000 series (which were themselves rebuilds) ... they retained the car bodies, and HVAC systems ... everything else (trucks, electrics, etc) is new ... they also enlarged the passenger doors so they are now a meter in width they cost ¥130M each to rebuild as opposed to the ¥180M for each 8900 series tram they are planning to have 8 ... 2 green, 3 maroon, and 3 blue and the other color variants official press release: http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/INET/OSHIRASE/2016/03/20q3h200.htm (Japanese)

20160701 Ontsporing 1022 Schedeldoekshaven by Haags Tramnieuws, on Flickr 20160701 Ontsporing 1022 Schedeldoekshaven by Haags Tramnieuws, on Flickr Okay, it's not really multi-track drifting. It's just derailed. Some more pics over here: http://www.regio15.nl/nieuws/lijst-weergave/32-ongevallen/25486-oude-knar-gaat-dwarsliggen-op-de-ammunitiehaven

As of this month, the Fukui and Echizen railways have through running operations on the Echizen Mikuni Arawa line from Tawaramachi to Wakazuka Haribara. This is done with modern low-floor trams. Our JNS member Ayakoi has made a front view video already! The whole ride is a wonderful mixture of inner city street running to an interurban experience through the rice fields. There is about one run per hour in each direction, but these are express services all the way from Echizen Takefu to Wakazuka Haribara: http://www.echizen-tetudo.co.jp/railway/transfer_fukutetsu.html It's quite an impressive and lengthy service for low-floor train operations, with mixed high-floor operations. IIRC, the whole Fukui Railway network has been transformed to low-floor operations, starting in 2006, while still having high-floor rolling stock in operation. Here a promotional flyer with timetable and statistical explanation for the through operations: http://www.echizen-tetudo.co.jp/railway/image/timetable_160327.pdf

From profit of the way on jtrains yahoo group. From the article: "HIROSHIMA--An inspirational symbol, one of the few remaining streetcars that survived the August 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima has been repainted its original gray and blue colors to mark the 70th anniversary of the world’s first use of a nuclear weapon..." http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201506140018 Jeff

Any advice?

This guy is awesome, and his videos are great. Here he visits the Comfort Hotel Okayama, some rooms of which have an excellent view of the Okaden turning the corner at Shiroshita Station, at the intersection of Momotaro-odori and Shiroshita-suji. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L42Ia9qOjDI google map centered on hotel: http://maps.google.co.jp/?ll=34.665233,133.93136&spn=0.0018,0.003079&t=m&z=19&brcurrent=3,0x35540639f8683ba9:0x388f39c46b4d2e08,1 Japanese wikipedia page on Shiroshita Station: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9F%8E%E4%B8%8B%E9%A7%85_%28%E5%B2%A1%E5%B1%B1%E7%9C%8C%29

As I was looking for videos of the Fukai Fukuram F1000, I came across the details of a N gauge version of this 3 section LRV. A modified Tomytec TM-LRT01 was used for the model. There is also some photos of a small layout that was made of the Fukai Railway. It would be great if either Kato or Tomix decide to create a version of the tram for commercial release. http://blog.livedoor.jp/hirokazuasa/archives/52093874.html http://blog.livedoor.jp/hirokazuasa/archives/52110829.html http://blog.livedoor.jp/hirokazuasa/archives/52110836.html

Some recent views of the low floor tram recently acquired by Sapporo Transport Bureau for their streetcar line in Chuo Ward. It appears most of the locations are on the portion of the loop closest to Susukino. This unit will begin revenue service in May. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZu_RtDLX48